The 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 . It was combined with the
Norfolk And Western Railway to form the
Norfolk Southern Railway in
1982 .
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The nine-mile
South Carolina Canal And Rail Road , Southern's earliest predecessor line and one of the
First Railroads In The United States , was chartered in December
1827 and ran the nation's first regularly scheduled
Steam Powered passenger train – the wood-burning ''
Best Friend Of Charleston '' – out of
Charleston, South Carolina , on
December 25 ,
1830 . (The
Baltimore And Ohio Railroad ran regular passenger service earlier that year.) By
1833 , its 136-mile line to
Hamburg, SC , was the longest in the world.
As railroad fever struck other Southern states, networks gradually spread across the South and even across the
Allegheny Mountains .
Charleston, South Carolina and
Memphis, TN , were linked by
1857 , although rail expansion halted with the start of the
Civil War . The
Richmond And York River Railroad , which operated from the
Pamunkey River at
West Point, Virginia to
Richmond, Virginia , was a major focus of
George McClellan 's
1862 Peninsular Campaign , which culminated in the
Seven Days Battles and devastated the tiny rail link. The
Richmond And Danville Railroad was the
Confederacy's last link to Richmond, and transported
Jefferson Davis and his cabinet to
Danville, Virginia just before the fall of
Richmond in April
1865 .
Known as the "first railroad war," the
Civil War left the South's railroads and economy devastated. Most of the railroads, however, were repaired, reorganized and operated again. In the area along the
Ohio River and
Mississippi River , construction of new railroads continued throughout
Reconstruction . 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 , who reorganized it at the Southern Railway System.
Southern Railway, as it came into existence in
1894 , was a combination of the Richmond and Danville system and the
East Tennessee, Virginia And Georgia Railroad . 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 .
was the locomotive that started the Southern Railway Steam Program, she is currently owned by the
Tennessee Valley Railroad and is motballed]]
Southern's first president,
Samuel Spencer , drew more lines into Southern's core system. During his 12-year term, the railway built new shops at
Knoxville, TN , and
Atlanta, GA and purchased more equipment. He moved the company's service away from an agricultural dependence on
Tobacco and
Cotton and centered its efforts on diversifying traffic and industrial development. Sadly, Spencer was killed in train wreck in 1906.
By the time the line from
Meridian, Mississippi , to
New Orleans, LA was acquired in
1916 under Southern's president
Fairfax Harrison , the railroad had attained the 8,000-mile, 13-state system that marked its territorial limits for almost half a century.
The
Central Of Georgia became part of the system in
1963 , and the former
Norfolk Southern Railway was acquired in
1974 .
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Southern and its predecessors were responsible for many firsts in the industry. 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 it was the first to operate at night. In
1953 , Southern Railway became the first major railroad in the United States to convert totally to diesel-powered locomotives, ending its rich history in the golden age of steam.
Every
Diesel Locomotive Southern owned had to be ordered with a high hood and pointed
Long Hood Forward , this was meant for crew safety in case of accidents with vehicles and from the first
GP7 to the last
GP50 , they came with this option until the tradition stopped with the
SD50 .
From
Dieselization and shop and yard modernization, to computers and the development of special cars and the unit coal train, Southern often was on the cutting edge of change, earning the company its catch phrase, "The Railway System that Gives a Green Light to Innovations".
In the early 1960s, a popular
Steam Locomotive excursion program was instituted under the presidency of
W. Graham Claytor Jr. The steam program survived the merger which formed the new Norfolk Southern in 1982, but was finally discontinued in 1994.
In response to the creation of
CSX in
1980 , the Southern Railway merged with
Norfolk And Western Railway to form the
Norfolk Southern Railway in 1982, further consolidating railroads in the eastern half of the United States.
Presidents of the Southern Railway:
