Norfolk and Western Railway
The Norfolk and Western Railway (NW, N&W) is a former Class I railroad company in the eastern half of the United States . It was created in 1870 when various railway companies, including the City Point Railroad founded in 1836 , merged to form the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad . This was renamed Norfolk and Western Railroad in 1881 and finally Norfolk and Western Railway in 1896 . In 1981 it operated a route network of 7800 miles (approximately 12550 km), which stretched from Norfolk to Buffalo , Chicago , Omaha and Kansas City . The railway company nominally still exists today, but was leased on December 31, 1990 by the Norfolk Southern Railway and is 100% owned by this railway company.
history
Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (1870-1881)
On November 12, 1870, the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (AM&O) was created through the merger of several railway companies in Virginia , namely the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad , the South Side Railroad , the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad and the Virginia and Kentucky Railroad . The new railway company owned a 657-kilometer main line, completed in 1858, from Norfolk on the Atlantic coast via Petersburg and Lynchburg to Bristol on the Tennessee border , an approximately 16-kilometer branch from Petersburg to City Point, and an approximately 16-kilometer branch from Glade Spring to Saltville . The track width of the network was 1524 millimeters (" Russian broad gauge "). Virginia & Kentucky wanted to extend this route to Kentucky, but this was not carried out. Instead, AM&O survived the economic crisis of 1873 with difficulty and had to go bankrupt in 1876. On February 10, 1881, the company was sold to the Clark banking family in Philadelphia, who already owned the Shenandoah Valley Railroad .
Norfolk and Western Railroad (1881-1896)
The railway company was renamed Norfolk and Western Railroad on May 3, 1881 , and the company's headquarters were moved from Norfolk to Big Lick, now Roanoke . On May 9, 1882, the New River Railroad of Virginia , the New River Railroad of West Virginia and the East River Railroad of West Virginia merged with the N&W. All three companies had been formed to build a railroad line from Roanoke to the coal fields in West Virginia, which was then done in the 1880s by Norfolk & Western. From this time on, coal was the railway company's main cargo.
In the 1880s, the gauge was changed from 1524 to 1448 millimeters across the entire southern United States. Norfolk & Western also rebuilt their routes during this time.
On February 1, 1890, the N&W acquired the Scioto Valley and New England Railroad , the 200-kilometer main line from Columbus to Coal Grove in Ohio . The Shenandoah Valley Railroad with its railway line from Roanoke to Hagerstown (Maryland) was incorporated into the N&W on September 30, 1890. Norfolk & Western also leased various railway companies, namely the Lynchburg and Durham Railroad and the Roanoke and Southern Railroad in 1892 and the Columbus Connecting and Terminal Railroad in 1893 . This expanded the network south to Winston-Salem and Durham (both North Carolina). In 1892 a new line from New Kanawha to the Ohio River went into operation, connecting the previously isolated Scioto Valley & New England line to the route network.
Norfolk and Western Railway (1896-1964)
On September 24, 1896, the company was finally renamed Norfolk and Western Railway . From 1900 the Pennsylvania Railroad began to buy shares in Norfolk & Western. In the years that followed, the company acquired other, primarily smaller, railway companies
- the Cincinnati, Portsmouth and Virginia Railroad (172 km main line from Sciotoville to Cincinnati ) in January 1901,
- the Columbus Terminal and Transfer Railroad (shunting and connecting tracks in Columbus) on May 19, 1905,
- the Iaeger and Southern Railway in West Virginia on April 25, 1906,
- the Caretta Railway and the West Virginia Southwestern Railway on February 26, 1909,
- the Lynchburg Belt Line and Connecting Railway on April 7, 1910,
- the Blackstone and Lunenberg Railroad on April 25, 1910,
- the Pocahontas and Western Railroad on April 29, 1910,
- the Big Stony Railway on December 9, 1910,
- the Virginia Anthracite Coal and Railway on August 29, 1911,
- the Columbus Connecting and Terminal Railroad, leased since 1893, on December 16, 1913,
- the New River, Holston and Western Railroad on May 13, 1919 and
- the Virginia-Carolina Railway on August 27, 1919.
Around 1908 Norfolk & Western tracked its entire network to standard gauge (1435 mm).
In order to be more competitive, the N&W electrified about 90 kilometers of its railway line from Iaeger to Bluefield in West Virginia between 1915 and 1924 . The mountainous route could be driven faster and with a higher capacity. Only when the line was re-routed in 1950 did electrical operation end. On October 12, 1923, the N&W acquired all shares in the Big Sandy and Cumberland Railway , but initially did not merge. The Buck Creek Railroad was founded as a subsidiary on November 10, 1924 , which built a railway line in Martin County (Kentucky) and which merged with the N&W on November 7, 1936.
In addition, the N&W wanted to lease its long-standing competitor, the Virginian Railway , on July 3, 1925 , but this was prohibited by the Interstate Commerce Commission for reasons of competition. In 1959 another attempt was made to merge and on December 1, 1959, this was completed with the approval of the ICC. Shortly afterwards, the electrical operation of a section of the Virginian also ended. In 1962, the N&W acquired another competitor, the Atlantic and Danville Railroad , which was renamed Norfolk, Franklin and Danville Railroad at the same time . Most of the 340 km long main line of this railway company was closed.
As a coal transporter, Norfolk & Western drove with steam locomotives until well into the 1950s and only then gradually switched its fleet to diesel locomotives.
From Norfolk & Western to Norfolk Southern
One of the largest mergers of railway companies took place on October 16, 1964. The Norfolk & Western, until then mainly in Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio, expanded their network suddenly by over 5000 miles. It acquired the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad ("Nickel Plate"), the Wabash Railroad , the Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railroad , the Akron, Canton and Youngstown Railroad and the route from Columbus to Sandusky (Ohio) that day. from the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Another major merger was announced on August 31, 1965. It should include the Norfolk & Western, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway , the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Western Maryland Railway . It was also proposed to extend this merger to the Reading Company , the Central Railroad of New Jersey , the Erie Lackawanna Railroad , the Delaware and Hudson Railway and the Boston and Maine Railroad . For this purpose, the N&W founded a holding company Dereco , composed of the initials of some of the railway companies to be merged. This holding company acquired Erie Lackawanna and Delaware & Hudson. After the bankruptcy of Penn Central in 1970, however , had torn numerous railway companies in the northeast with the financial crash, Norfolk & Western and Chesapeake & Ohio officially abandoned the merger plans on April 22, 1971. The holding company was dissolved and Erie Lackawanna sold to Conrail and Delaware & Hudson to Guilford Transportation .
It wasn't until September 1, 1981, that another merger took place, with the Illinois Terminal Railroad . After the failure of the merger with Chesapeake & Ohio, the Southern Railway should now act as a large partner company. On June 1, 1982, both railway companies became daughters of the newly founded Norfolk Southern Corporation , based in Norfolk. On December 31, 1990, the Norfolk & Western was a subsidiary of the Southern Railway, which was renamed Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) at the same time . On the same day the operations of Norfolk & Western ended on their routes, which passed to the NS.
attachment
literature
- George H. Drury: The Historical Guide to North American Railroads. 2nd edition. Kalmbach Publishing Co., Waukesha WI 2000, ISBN 0-89024-356-5 .
- H. Reid: Norfolk & Western and Virginian Railways in Color. Edited by Lloyd D. Lewis. TLC Publishing Inc., Lynchburg VA 1994, ISBN 1-883089-09-3 .
- Richard E. Prince: Norfolk & Western Railway, Pocahontas Coal Carrier. Precision Transportation. RE Prince, Millard NE 1980, ISBN 0-9600088-9-6 .
- EFP Striplin: The Norfolk & Western. A history. Norfolk and Western Railway Co., Roanoke VA 1981, ISBN 0-9633254-6-9 .
