The South Bound Railroad was a Southeastern railroad that operated in South Carolina and Georgia in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

History

The South Bound Railroad was chartered by the

South Carolina General Assembly The South Carolina General Assembly, also called the South Carolina Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of South Carolina. The legislature is bicameral and consists of the lower South Carolina House of Representatives and t ...

in 1882 and by the Georgia Legislature in 1888. The 136-mile line from

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...

, to

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 census, it is the second-largest city in South Carolina. The city serves as the county seat of Richland County, and a portion of the city ...

, opened in 1891. The following year it was leased to the

Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad The Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad was the final name of a system of railroads throughout Florida, becoming part of the Seaboard Air Line Railway in 1900. The system, including some of the first railroads in Florida, stretched from Jacks ...

. By the end of the decade, the South Bound Railroad had reached

Camden, South Carolina Camden is the largest city and county seat of Kershaw County, South Carolina. The population was 7,764 in the 2020 census. It is part of the Columbia, South Carolina, Metropolitan Statistical Area. Camden is the oldest inland city in South Caro ...

, to meet the

Chesterfield and Kershaw Railroad The Chesterfield and Kershaw Railroad was a railroad that operated in South Carolina in the late 19th and early 20th century. History The company was chartered by South Carolina General Assembly in 1889. WikiProject Trains, ICC valuations, Seaboar ...

. In late 1899, stockholders of the

Raleigh and Gaston Railroad The Raleigh and Gaston Railroad was a Raleigh, North Carolina, based railroad opened in April 1840 between Raleigh and the town of Gaston, North Carolina, on the Roanoke River. It was North Carolina's second railroad (the Wilmington and Weldon Rai ...

met in Raleigh, to consider the merger of the Raleigh and Gaston with the South Bound Railroad, along with the

Raleigh and Augusta Air Line Railroad The Raleigh and Augusta Air Line Railroad was a North Carolina railroad that operated in the second half of the 19th century. History Early years The Raleigh and Augusta Air Line Railroad traces its history back to the early 1850s, when the line w ...

, the Durham and Northern Railway, the Roanoke and Tar River Railroad, the

Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad The Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad was organized in 1833 (as the Portsmouth and Roanoke Railroad) to extend from the area of the rapids of the Roanoke River at its fall line near Weldon, North Carolina to Portsmouth, Virginia, across the Elizabet ...

, the Louisburg Railroad, the

Carolina Central Railroad The Carolina Central Railroad, was a railway company in the United States. It was incorporated in 1855 as the Wilmington and Charlotte Railroad and was renamed the Wilmington, Charlotte and Rutherford Railroad shortly after. It was reorganized as ...

, the Palmetto Railroad, the

, the

Georgia, Carolina and Northern Railway The Georgia, Carolina and Northern Railway was a Southeastern railroad that began after Reconstruction and operated up until the start of the 20th century. It ran from Monroe, North Carolina to Atlanta, Georgia and later became part of the Seaboa ...

, the Seaboard Air Line Belt Railroad, the

Georgia and Alabama Railroad The original Georgia and Alabama Railroad was based in Rome, GA, incorporated in 1853, and started initial rail construction in 1857. In August 1866, the G&A officially consolidated with the Dalton and Jacksonville Railroad and the Alabama and ...

, the

, the Georgia and Alabama Terminal Company, the

Logansville and Lawrenceville Railroad The Loganville and Lawrenceville Railroad (L&L) was founded in 1898 and operated a line between Loganville and Lawrenceville, Georgia, USA. It was owned by the Georgia, Carolina and Northern Railway which was incorporated into the Seaboard Air ...

, the

Richmond, Petersburg and Carolina Railroad The Richmond, Petersburg and Carolina Railroad was a railroad built in the early 1900s. As its name suggests, it ran from Richmond, Virginia south through Petersburg into northern North Carolina. It was a key part of the network of the Seaboar ...

and the

Pittsboro Railroad The Pittsboro Railroad was a railroad that historically ran from Moncure, North Carolina to Pittsboro, North Carolina, a distance of about 10.5 miles. The line became part of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad and operated as the company's Pittsboro ...

. The resulting company became known as the

Seaboard Air Line Railroad The Seaboard Air Line Railroad , which styled itself "The Route of Courteous Service," was an American railroad which existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime rival, t ...

. The South Bound was merged into the Seaboard in 1901.

Station listing

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:South Bound Railroad Defunct South Carolina railroads Defunct Georgia (U.S. state) railroads Railway companies established in 1882 Railway companies disestablished in 1901 Predecessors of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad