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Southern
Railway
is
the
product
of
nearly
150
predecessor
lines
that
were
combined,
reorganized
and
recombined
since
the
1830s.
The
nine-mile
South
Carolina
Canal
&
Rail
Road
Co.,
Southern's
earliest
predecessor
line,
was
chartered
in
December
1827
and
ran
the
nation's
first
scheduled
passenger
service
to
be
pulled
regularly
by
a
steam
locomotive
--
the
wood-burning
"Best
Friend
of
Charleston"
--
out
of
Charleston,
S.C.,
on
Christmas
Day
1830.
When
its
136-mile
line
to
Hamburg,
S.C.
was
completed
in
October
1833,
it
was
the
longest
continuous
line
of
railroad
in
the
world.
As
railroad
fever
struck
other
Southern
states,
networks
gradually
spread
across
the
South
and
even
across
the
Allegheny
Mountains.
Charleston
and
Memphis,
Tenn.,
were
linked
by
1857,
although
rail
expansion
halted
with
the
start
of
the
Civil
War.
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
and
Mississippi
rivers,
construction
of
new
railroads
continued
throughout
Reconstruction.
Southern
Railway
was
created
in
1894,
largely
from
the
financially-stressed
Richmond
&
Danville
system
and
the
East
Tennessee,
Virginia
&
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
subsequently
controlled
the
Queen
&
Crescent
Route
(Alabama
Great
Southern;
New
Orleans
&
Northeastern;
Cincinnati,
New
Orleans
&
Texas
Pacific;
and
for
a
time
the
Alabama
&
Vicksburg),
and
the
Georgia
Southern
&
Florida,
which
were
operated
separately.
Samuel Spencer - Southern
Railway's first President 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,
Tenn.,
and
Atlanta,
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.
By
the
time
the
New
Orleans
&
Northeastern
(Meridian-New
Orleans)
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
Co.
(Norfolk-Charlotte)
was
acquired
in
1974.
Southern
and
its
predecessors
were
responsible
for
many
firsts
in
the
industry.
Its
predecessor,
the
South
Carolina
Canal
&
Rail
Road
Co.,
was
the
first
to
carry
passengers,
U.S.
troops
and
mail
on
regularly-scheduled
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.
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." from
Norfolk
Southern
website |
