The Southern Railway (also known as Southern Railway Company and now known as the Norfolk Southern Railway) was a

class 1 railroad In the United States, railroad carriers are designated as Class I, II, or III, according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$5 ...

based in the

Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...

between 1894 and 1982, when it merged with the

Norfolk & Western The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisi ...

to form Norfolk Southern. The railroad was the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894. At the end of 1971, the Southern operated of railroad, not including its Class I subsidiaries Alabama Great Southern (528 miles or ); Central of Georgia (1729 miles); Savannah & Atlanta (167 miles); Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway (415 miles); Georgia Southern & Florida (454 miles); and twelve Class II subsidiaries. That year, the Southern itself reported 26,111 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 110 million passenger-miles. Alabama Great Southern reported 3,854 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 11 million passenger-miles; Central of Georgia 3,595 and 17; Savannah & Atlanta 140 and 0; Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway 4906 and 0.3; and Georgia Southern & Florida 1,431 and 0.3. The railroad joined forces with the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) in 1980 to form the

Norfolk Southern Corporation The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31, ...

. The Norfolk Southern Corporation was created in response to the creation of the

CSX Corporation CSX Corporation is an American holding company focused on rail transportation and real estate in North America, among other industries. The company was established in 1980 as part of the Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries merger. ...

(its rail system was later transformed to CSX Transportation in 1986). Southern and N&W continued as operating companies of Norfolk Southern until in 1982, when Norfolk Southern merged nearly all of N&W's operations into Southern to form the Norfolk Southern Railway. The railroad has used that name since.

History

Official predecessors

* Richmond, York River and Chesapeake Railroad (1894) *

Richmond and Danville Railroad The Richmond and Danville Railroad (R&D) Company was a railroad that operated independently from 1847 until 1894, first in the U.S. state of Virginia, and later on of track in nine states. Chartered on March 9, 1847, the railroad completed its ...

(1894) *

Memphis and Charleston Railroad The Memphis and Charleston Railroad, completed in 1857, was the first railroad in the United States to link the Atlantic Ocean with the Mississippi River. Chartered in 1846, the gauge railroad ran from Memphis, Tennessee to Stevenson, Alabama th ...

(1894) *

East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway The East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad (ETV&G) was a rail transport system that operated in the southeastern United States during the late 19th century. Created with the consolidation of the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad and th ...

(1894) *

Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway The Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway (abbreviated: CNO&TP; ) is a railroad that leases the Cincinnati Southern Railway from Cincinnati, Ohio, south to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and sub leases it to the Norfolk Southern Railway sys ...

(1894)

Creation and independent status

Southern Railway Building, Washington, D

The pioneering

South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company was a railroad in South Carolina that operated independently from 1830 to 1844. One of the first railroads in North America to be chartered and constructed, it provided the first steam-powered, schedu ...

, Southern's earliest predecessor line and one of the first railroads in the United States, was chartered on December 19, 1827, and ran the nation's first regularly scheduled

steam-powered A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be tr ...

passenger train – the wood-burning ''

Best Friend of Charleston The ''Best Friend of Charleston'' was a steam-powered railroad locomotive widely considered the first locomotive to be built entirely within the United States for revenue service. It produced the first locomotive boiler explosion in the United St ...

'' – over a six-mile section out of Charleston, South Carolina, on December 25, 1830.. By October 1833, its 136-mile line to

Hamburg, South Carolina Hamburg, South Carolina is a ghost town in Aiken County, in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was once a thriving upriver market located across the Savannah River from Augusta, Georgia in the Edgefield District. It was founded by Henry Shul ...

, was the longest in the world. The company leased enslaved African Americans from plantation owners when free

white people White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as ...

refused to work in the swamps. The company eventually purchased 89 people to work as slaves. As railroad fever struck other Southern states, networks gradually spread across the South and even across the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

. By 1857 the

was completed to link both Charleston, South Carolina, and

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. The

Western North Carolina Railroad Western North-Carolina Railroad Company was incorporated under act of North Carolina on February 15, 1855.Interstate Commerce Commission. ''Southern Ry. Co.'', Volume 37, Interstate Commerce Commission Valuation Reports, November 6, 1931, p. 215 ...

was halted because voters were angry about that law allowed purchasers of private bonds to have the train tracks veer to their towns. The provision of the laws that allowed this was not repealed until

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...

. Rail expansion in the South was also halted with the start of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

. The Battle of Shiloh, the

Siege of Corinth The siege of Corinth (also known as the first Battle of Corinth) was an American Civil War engagement lasting from April 29 to May 30, 1862, in Corinth, Mississippi. A collection of Union forces under the overall command of Major General Henry ...

and the

Second Battle of Corinth The second Battle of Corinth (which, in the context of the American Civil War, is usually referred to as the Battle of Corinth, to differentiate it from the siege of Corinth earlier the same year) was fought October 3–4, 1862, in Corinth, ...

in 1862 were motivated by the importance of the Memphis and Charleston line, the only east–west rail link across the Confederacy. The Chickamauga Campaign for

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020 ...

, was also motivated by the importance of its rail connections to the Memphis and Charleston and other lines. Also in 1862 the

Richmond and York River Railroad The Richmond and York River Railroad Company was incorporated under an act of the Virginia General Assembly on January 31, 1853.Interstate Commerce Commission. ''Southern Ry. Co.'', Volume 37, Interstate Commerce Commission Valuation Reports, Nove ...

, which operated from the Pamunkey River at

West Point, Virginia West Point (formerly Delaware) is an incorporated town in King William County, Virginia, United States. The population was 3,306 at the 2010 census. Geography West Point is located at (37.543733, −76.805366). The York River is formed at Wes ...

, to Richmond, Virginia, was a major focus of George McClellan's Peninsular Campaign, which culminated in the

Seven Days Battles The Seven Days Battles were a series of seven battles over seven days from June 25 to July 1, 1862, near Richmond, Virginia, during the American Civil War. Confederate General Robert E. Lee drove the invading Union Army of the Potomac, comman ...

and devastated the tiny rail link. Late in the war, the

was the Confederacy's last link to Richmond, and transported Jefferson Davis and his cabinet to

Danville, Virginia Danville is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States, located in the Southside Virginia region and on the fall line of the Dan River. It was a center of tobacco production and was an area of Confederate activity ...

, just before the fall of Richmond in April 1865. Known as the "First Railroad War", the

left the South's railroads and economy devastated. Most of the railroads, however, were repaired, reorganized and operated again.

Convict lease Convict leasing was a system of forced penal labor which was practiced historically in the Southern United States, the laborers being mainly African-American men; it was ended during the 20th century. (Convict labor in general continues; f ...

was a near continuation of slavery as charges were often only applied to people of African descent. Five-hundred African Americans were assigned to provide back breaking labor on the

. Men were shipped to and from the worksite in iron shackles and around twenty were drowned in the

Tuckasegee River The Tuckasegee River (variant spellings include Tuckaseegee and Tuckaseigee) flows entirely within western North Carolina. It begins its course in Jackson County above Cullowhee at the confluence of Panthertown and Greenland creeks. It flows ...

weighted down by their shackles. In the area along the Ohio River and

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

, construction of new railroads continued throughout

. The Richmond and Danville System expanded throughout the South during this period, but was overextended, and came upon financial troubles in 1893, when control was lost to financier

J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...

, who reorganized it into the Southern Railway System. Southern Railway came into existence in 1894 through the combination of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, the Richmond and Danville system and the

East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad The East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad (ETV&G) was a rail transport system that operated in the southeastern United States during the late 19th century. Created with the consolidation of the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad and the ...

. The company owned two-thirds of the 4,400 miles of line it operated, and the rest was held through leases, operating agreements and stock ownership. Southern also controlled the Alabama Great Southern and the Georgia Southern and Florida, which operated separately, and it had an interest in the

Central of Georgia The Central of Georgia Railway started as the Central Rail Road and Canal Company in 1833. As a way to better attract investment capital, the railroad changed its name to Central Rail Road and Banking Company of Georgia. This railroad was cons ...

. Additionally, the Southern Railway also agreed to lease the North Carolina Railroad Company, providing a critical connection from Virginia to the rest of the southeast via the Carolinas. Southern's first president, Samuel Spencer, brought more lines into Southern's organized system.. During his 12-year term, the railway built new shops at

Spencer, North Carolina Spencer is a town in Rowan County, North Carolina, United States, incorporated in 1905. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 3,267. History The town was named for Samuel Spencer, first president of the Southern Railway, who is credi ...

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state' ...

, and Atlanta, Georgia, upgraded tracks, and purchased more equipment. He moved the company's service away from an agricultural dependence on

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

and

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...

and centered its efforts on diversifying traffic and industrial development. On November 29, 1906, Spencer was killed in a train wreck. After the line from Meridian, Mississippi, to

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

, was acquired in 1916 under Southern's president Fairfax Harrison, the railroad had assembled the 8,000-mile, 13-state system that lasted for almost half a century. Additionally, Southern have operated 6,791 miles of road at the end of 1925, but its flock of subsidiaries added 1000+ more. In 1912, the Southern Railway leased most of its

Bluemont, Virginia Bluemont is an unincorporated village in Loudoun County, Virginia located at the eastern base of Snickers Gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The village's center is located along Snickersville Turnpike ( Virginia Route 734), west of the incorpor ...

, branch to the newly formed

Washington and Old Dominion Railway The Washington and Old Dominion Railroad (colloquially referred to as the W&OD) was an intrastate short-line railroad located in Northern Virginia, United States. The rail transport, railroad was a successor to the bankruptcy, bankrupt Washingto ...

. In 1945, the Southern sold most of the remnant of the branch to the

Washington and Old Dominion Railroad The Washington and Old Dominion Railroad (colloquially referred to as the W&OD) was an intrastate short-line railroad located in Northern Virginia, United States. The railroad was a successor to the bankrupt Washington and Old Dominion Railway ...

, the successor to the Washington and Old Dominion Railway. The

became part of the system in 1963, and the former Norfolk Southern Railway was acquired in 1974. Despite these small acquisitions, the Southern disdained the merger trend when it swept the railroad industry in the 1960s, choosing to remain a regional carrier. In 1978 President L. Stanley Crane''L. Stanley Crane'' (born in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, 1915) raised in Washington, lived in

McLean MacLean, also spelt Maclean and McLean, is a Goidelic languages, Gaelic surname Mac Gille Eathain, or, Mac Giolla Eóin in Irish language, Irish Gaelic), Eóin being a Gaelic form of Johannes (John (given name), John). The clan surname is an A ...

before moving to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

in 1981. He began his career with ''Southern Railway'' after graduating from

The George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , presid ...

with a

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...

degree in 1938. He worked for the railroad, except for a stint from 1959 to 1961 with the Pennsylvania Railroad, until reaching the company's mandatory retirement age in 1980. ''Crane'' went to Conrail in 1981 after a distinguished career that had seen him rise to the position of CEO at the Southern Railway. He died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

on July 15, 2003, at a hospice in Boynton Beach, Florida said the refusal to add routes through merger was a mistake, especially the decision not to add a connecting route to Chicago. The Southern tried to gain access to Chicago by targeting the

Monon Railroad The Monon Railroad , also known as the Chicago, Indianapolis, and Louisville Railway from 1897 to 1971, was an American railroad that operated almost entirely within the state of Indiana. The Monon was merged into the Louisville and Nashville Ra ...

and the

Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad The Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago to southern Illinois, St. Louis, and Evansville. Founded in 1877, it grew aggressively and stayed relatively strong throughout the Great Depression and two Wor ...

but both those railroads went to Southern's competitor, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. A decade later Crane tried to rectify the situation by merging with the

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad in the Central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama. A line also c ...

. When that failed, he petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to give Southern the old Monon routes and the old Atlantic Coast Line route from Jacksonville to Tampa by way of Orlando among other properties as a condition of the I.C.C.'s approval of the Seaboard Coast Line – Chessie System merger in 1979. While the request was supported by the I.C.C.'s Enforcement Bureau, it was ultimately unsuccessful.

Becoming part of the Norfolk Southern Corporation

In response to the creation of the

in November 1980, the Southern Railway joined forces with the Norfolk and Western Railway and formed the

in 1980 which began operations in 1982, further consolidating railroads in the eastern half of the United States. The Southern Railway was renamed Norfolk Southern Railway as the Norfolk and Western Railway became a subsidiary to its system on June 1, 1982. The railroad then acquired more than half of Conrail on June 1, 1999.

Notable features

Southern and its predecessors were responsible for many firsts in the industry. Starting in 1833, its predecessor, the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road, was the first to carry passengers, U.S. troops and mail on steam-powered trains and experimented with railroad lighting. They had a pine log fire on a

flatcar A flatcar (US) (also flat car, or flatbed) is a piece of rolling stock that consists of an open, flat deck mounted on a pair of trucks (US) or bogies (UK), one at each end containing four or six wheels. Occasionally, flat cars designed to carry ...

, covered in sand, to provide light at night before inexpensive

kerosene Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...

was invented for lamps. In 1941, the Southern Railway went under

dieselization Dieselisation (US: dieselization) is the process of equipping vehicles with a diesel engine or diesel engines. It can involve replacing an internal combustion engine powered by petrol (gasoline) fuel with an engine powered by diesel fuel, as o ...

and became the first major railroad in the United States to be fully converted from steam to diesel-powered locomotives in 1953.. On January 20, 1953, the last steam-powered passenger train arrived in Knoxville, Tennessee. On June 17, 1953, the railroad's last steam-powered freight train arrived in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Although a handful of 63 steam locomotives were still in the Southern's employ in 1954 according to ''Southern Railway System, Steam Locomotives and Boats'' by Richard E. Prince. The Southern Railway was active in mechanization, used bank engines, is widely credited with inventing

unit train A unit train, also called a block train or a trainload service, is a train in which all cars (wagons) carry the same commodity and are shipped from the same origin to the same destination, without being split up or stored en route. They are dist ...

s for coal and new freight cars, and understood the power of marketing using the promotional phrase "Southern Gives a Green Light to Innovation". In 1966, a popular steam locomotive

excursion An excursion is a trip by a group of people, usually made for leisure, education, or physical purposes. It is often an adjunct to a longer journey or visit to a place, sometimes for other (typically work-related) purposes. Public transportatio ...

program was instituted under the presidency of W. Graham Claytor Jr., and included Southern veteran locomotives No. 630, No. 722,. No. 4501, and Savannah & Atlanta No. 750 along with non-Southern locomotives such as Texas & Pacific No. 610,. Canadian Pacific No. 2839,. and Chesapeake & Ohio No. 2716.. The steam program continued after the 1982 merger with the Norfolk and Western to form the Norfolk Southern, through increased operating costs and concerns ended the program in 1994. Norfolk Southern reinstated the steam program on a limited basis from 2011 to 2015, as the 21st Century Steam program. In the early 2000s, a loop of former Southern Railway right-of-way encircling central

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

neighborhoods was acquired and is now the

BeltLine The Atlanta BeltLine (also Beltline or Belt Line) is a open and planned loop of multi-use trail and light rail transit system on a former railway corridor around the core of Atlanta, Georgia. The Atlanta BeltLine is designed to reconnect nei ...

trail.

Passenger trains

Along with its famed '' (Southern) Crescent'' and '' Southerner'', the Southern's other named passenger trains included:. * ''

Aiken-Augusta Special The ''Aiken-Augusta Special'' was a named night train of the '' Southern Railway'' between New York City and Augusta, Georgia. Different from other long distance Southern Railway lines which tended to briefly go through the northwestern edge of S ...

'' * ''

Airline Belle The ''Airline Belle'' or ''Air-line Belle'' was a steam passenger train running between Atlanta and Toccoa, Georgia, on the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railway (later the Southern Railway) between 1879 and 1931. Its route was long with 39 ...

'' * '' Asheville Special'' * '' Birmingham Special'' * ''

Carolina Special The ''Carolina Special'' was a passenger train operated by the Southern Railway between Cincinnati, Ohio and the Carolinas. It operated from 1911 to 1968. It was the last passenger train to use the route of the Charleston and Hamburg Railroad, w ...

'' * '' Fast Mail "Old 97"'' * ''Florida Sunbeam'' * ''Goldenrod'' * '' Kansas City–Florida Special'' * ''Land of the Sky Special'' * ''Memphis Special'' * ''New Yorker'' * ''Peach Queen'' * '' Pelican'' * ''

Piedmont Limited The ''Piedmont Limited'' was a named passenger train operated by the Southern Railway in the southern United States. For most of its life it was a New York—New Orleans train, operating over the same route as the more famous '' Crescent Li ...

'' * '' Ponce de Leon'' * ''

Queen and Crescent Limited The ''Queen and Crescent Limited'' was a named passenger train operated by the Southern Railway in the United States of America. It was operated over a historic route that had been established in the late 1800s called the Queen and Crescent Rou ...

'' * ''

Royal Palm ''Roystonea regia'', commonly known as the Cuban royal palm or Florida royal palm, is a species of palm that is native to Mexico, parts of Central America and the Caribbean, and southern Florida. A large and attractive palm, it has been planted ...

'' * '' Skyland Special'' * ''Sunnyland'' * ''

Tennessean Tennessean refers to someone or something of, from, or related to the state of Tennessee, including: * ''The Tennessean'' newspaper * Tennessean (train) See also * List of people from Tennessee * Tennessine Tennessine is a synthetic chemic ...

'' The Southern Railway also handled ticket sales and operations for subsidiary railroads, such as: * '' The Nancy Hanks'' (operated by Central of Georgia Railway). * ''The Man O' War'' (operated by Central of Georgia Railway) The Southern Railway also participated in the operation of the '' City of Miami'', which was operated by the Southern Railway over the Central of Georgia trackage from

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

, to

Albany, Georgia Albany ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Georgia. Located on the Flint River, it is the seat of Dougherty County, and is the sole incorporated city in that county. Located in southwest Georgia, it is the principal city of the Albany, Georgia m ...

, where it traded off with the

Seaboard Coast Line The Seaboard Coast Line Railroad was a Class I railroad company operating in the Southeastern United States beginning in 1967. Its passenger operations were taken over by Amtrak in 1971. Eventually, the railroad was merged with its affiliate lin ...

until its discontinuation in 1971. When

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

took over most intercity rail service in 1971, Southern initially opted out of turning over its passenger routes to the new organization. However, it shared operation of its flagship train, the New Orleans–New York ''Southern Crescent'', with Amtrak. Under a longstanding haulage agreement inherited from

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...

and the Pennsylvania Railroad, Amtrak carried the train north of Washington. By the late 1970s, growing revenue losses and equipment-replacement expenses convinced Southern it could not continue in the passenger business. It handed full control of its passenger routes to Amtrak in 1979.

Roads owned by the Southern Railway

* Alabama Great Southern Railway (AGS) *

Albany and Northern Railway The Albany and Northern Railway (A&N) began life in about 1895 on a stretch of railway from Cordele to Albany, Georgia. The line had originally been built around 1890 by the Albany, Florida and Northern Railway (AF&N). The AF&N was leased then ...

(A&N) * Atlantic & Eastern Carolina Railway (A&EC) * Birmingham Terminal Company * Camp Lejeune Railroad Company * Carolina and Northwestern Railway (C&NW) * Central of Georgia Railway (CofG)(CG) *

(CNO&TP) * Chattanooga Station Company *

Chattanooga Traction Company Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, it also extends into Marion County, Tennessee, Marion County on its west ...

(CTC) * Georgia and Florida Railroad (G&F) * Georgia Ashburn Sylvester and Camilla Railway (GAS&C) * Georgia Northern Railway (GANO) – acquired in 1967 *

Georgia Southern and Florida Railway The Georgia Southern and Florida Railway , also known as the ''Suwanee River Route'' from its crossing of the Suwanee River, was founded in 1885 as the Georgia Southern and Florida ''Railroad'' and began operations between Macon, GA and Valdosta ...

(GS&F) *

Interstate Railroad The Interstate Railroad was a railroad in the southwest part of the U.S. state of Virginia. It extended from the Clinchfield Railroad at Miller Yard in northeastern Scott County north and west to Appalachia and north to the main yard at Andover ...

(INT) * Kentucky and Indiana Terminal Railroad (K&IT) * Sievern and Knoxville Railroad * Live Oak Perry and Gulf Railway (LOP&G) * Louisiana Southern Railway (LS) * New Orleans and North Eastern Railway (NO&NE) * New Orleans Terminal Company (NOTCO) * Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) * Savannah & Atlanta Railway (SA) * Saint John's River Terminal Company (SJRT) * State University Railroad Company (54%) * South Georgia Railway (SG) *

Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia Railway The Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia Railroad was created through a reorganization of the Chattanooga Southern Railway in 1911. A few years later, in 1922, the line's name was changed to the Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia Railway and was also kn ...

(TA&G) *

Tennessee Railway The Tennessee Railroad was a short line standard gauge (4 ft 8in) common carrier railroad running from Oneida, Tennessee to Fork Mountain, Tennessee. Reorganized in 1973 by the Southern Railway as the Tennessee Railway, it remains a subsi ...

(TENN)

Major railroad yards

* Chattanooga, Tennessee – DeButts Yard (formerly Citico Yard) * Atlanta, Georgia – Inman Yard * Spencer, North Carolina – Spencer Yard *

– Norris Yard * Knoxville, Tennessee – Sevier Yard * Macon, Georgia – Brosnan Yard. *

Sheffield, Alabama Sheffield is a city in Colbert County, Alabama, United States, and is included in the Shoals metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 9,039. Sheffield is the birthplace of "country-soul pioneer" and songwriter Arth ...

– Sheffield Yard *

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. ...

–

Potomac Yard Potomac Yard is a neighborhood in Northern Virginia that straddles southeastern Arlington County and northeastern Alexandria, Virginia, located principally in the area between U.S. Route 1 and the Washington Metro Blue Line / Yellow Line trac ...

Company officers

Presidents of the Southern Railway: * Samuel Spencer (1894–1906) * William Finley (1906–1913) * Fairfax Harrison (1913–1937) * Ernest E. Norris (1937–1951) * Harry A. DeButts (1951–1962) * D. William Brosnan (1962–1967) * W. Graham Claytor Jr. (1967–1977) * L. Stanley Crane (1977–1980) * Harold H. Hall (1980–1982)

Heritage unit

To mark its 30th anniversary, Norfolk Southern painted 20 new locomotives with the paint schemes of predecessor railroads. GE ES44AC #8099 was painted in Southern Railway's green and white livery.Norfolk Southern Heritage Locomotives
Norfolk Southern

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

Southern Railway Historical Association
covers Southern Railway history * , which was replaced by
map version on AbandonedRails.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Southern Railway U.S. Predecessors of the Norfolk Southern Railway Former Class I railroads in the United States Standard gauge railways in the United States Defunct Alabama railroads Defunct Florida railroads Defunct Georgia (U.S. state) railroads Defunct Mississippi railroads Defunct Tennessee railroads Railway companies established in 1894 Railway companies disestablished in 1990 Defunct Missouri railroads Defunct Illinois railroads Defunct Kentucky railroads Defunct Indiana railroads Defunct Virginia railroads Defunct South Carolina railroads Defunct North Carolina railroads Defunct Washington, D.C., railroads

History

Official predecessors

Creation and independent status

Becoming part of the Norfolk Southern Corporation

Notable features

Passenger trains

Roads owned by the Southern Railway

Major railroad yards

Company officers

Heritage unit

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links