Southern Railway (United States)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Southern Railway ( SOU ) was an American railroad company . It was formed in 1894 from originally almost 150 individual companies that have merged since the 1830s. Through the merger with the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1990, it went into the successor company that still exists today, the Norfolk Southern Railway .

history

Southern Railway Company's $ 1000 Goldbond dated November 2, 1922

The oldest predecessor of the Southern Railway and one of the first railways in the United States, the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company , was founded in December 1827. On December 25, 1830, it began the first regular steam train service in the USA with the wood-fired Best Friend of Charleston on a six-mile stretch of route outside of Charleston (South Carolina) (the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad opened passenger services a little earlier, but was still partially one Horse tram ). In 1833 the 136 mile long line from Charleston to Hamburg (South Carolina) was the longest railway line in the world.

As the railroad bug raged in the southern states, a network slowly developed that also extended over the Allegheny Mountains . In 1857 Charleston and Memphis were connected. However, the Civil War brought a slump in construction activity .

The Richmond and York River Railroad , which ran from the Pamunkey River at West Point, Virginia to Richmond, Virginia , was a major focus of McClellan's Peninsula Campaign in 1862. During the Seven Day Battle , this small railway line was destroyed. The Richmond and Danville Railroad was thus the last railway line from the Confederate States to Richmond. This helped evacuate CSA President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet to Danville just before the capture of Richmond in April 1865 .

The civil war, also known as the First Railroad War , left the south not only in economic misery, but also in a ruined rail network. However, many railway lines have been repaired, reorganized and reopened.

In the area along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers , expansion of the network continued during the reconstruction . During this time, the Richmond and Danville system was expanding south, but overran and ran into financial difficulties in 1893. Banker JP Morgan took control of the company and reorganized it into the Southern Railway System.

Network map from 1895

The actual Southern Railway, as it originated in 1894, was a combination of the Richmond and Danville system and the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad . The new company owned two-thirds of the 4,400-mile network it rode, and held the remainder through leasing, company agreements, and stock majors. The Southern continued to control the Alabama Great Southern and Georgia Southern and Florida , which conducted separate operations, and had an interest in the Central of Georgia Railroad .

Samuel Spencer , the first president of Southern, expanded the heart network. During his twelve-year tenure, the company built new workshops in Knoxville, Tennessee and Atlanta, and purchased more automotive equipment. Spencer shifted the operational focus away from dependence on agricultural products such as tobacco and cotton . He promoted diversification of transport tasks, especially in the field of industrial development. In 1906, Spencer died in a Virginia railway wreck.

Network map from 1921

Under President Fairfax Harrison , the company bought the line from Meridian (Mississippi) to New Orleans in 1916 and covered a distance of 8,000 miles. From then on, the network extended over 13 states, marking their territorial borders for almost half a century.

The Central of Georgia merged with the Southern system in 1963 and the old Norfolk Southern Railway was bought out in 1974.

Features worth mentioning

The Southern and its predecessors stood out in many areas as pioneers for innovations in the railway industry. The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company was the first rail company to carry passengers, US troops, and mail on steam-powered trains, including night trains.

In 1953, the Southern Railway was the first railroad company in the USA to completely change traction to diesel locomotives, thus ending the golden age of steam.

Each freight locomotive of EMD GP series , which acquired the Southern Railway, came with high bonnets and used with the long hood forward. This was done for the safety of the locomotive crew in the event of a frontal collision. From the first GP7 to the last GP50 , this option was chosen. The tradition was broken only with the SD50 .

In passenger traffic, however, the EMD locomotives of the E series , which are normally used on US railways , dominated and were considered the US locomotives par excellence.

From dieselization to the modernization of workshops and freight depots, to computer technology and the development of special wagons, the Southern played a pioneering role and called itself The Railway System that gives a green light to innovations .

In the early 1960s, the famous steam excursions were introduced under President W. Graham Claytor Jr. The steam program survived the merger to form Norfolk Southern in 1990, but was discontinued in 1994.

The Southern maintained an extensive passenger train service between Washington DC and New Orleans. The most famous train was the Crescent Limited. Even with the founding of the American long-distance rail operator Amtrak in 1971, the Southern kept passenger traffic. It was only abandoned in 1983 and transferred to Amtrak.

The End

In response to the founding of the CSX in 1986, the Southern Railway merged with the Norfolk and Western Railway and formed the Norfolk Southern Railway in 1990, which continued the trend towards mergers of railway companies in the USA. Both companies had been owned by the Norfolk Southern Corporation since 1982 , but were legally independent.

Companies owned by Southern

Main freight stations

Board members

Southern Railway Presidents:

Web links

Commons : Southern Railway (US)  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files