The Southern Railway

By Sallie Loy, Dick Hillman, C. Pat Cates and 2 more

Go inside the transition from steam to diesel, the pinnacle of rail travel and the development of the South through much of the 20th century.

The Southern Railway was the pinnacle of rail service in the South for nearly 100 years. Its roots stretch back to 1827, when the South Carolina Canal & Rail Road Company was founded in Charleston to provide freight transportation and America's first regularly scheduled passenger service. Through the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Great Depression, rail lines throughout the South continued to merge, connecting Washington, D.C. to Atlanta and Charleston to Memphis. The Southern Railway was born in 1893 at the height of these mergers. It came to an end in 1982, merging with Norfolk and Western Railway to become Norfolk Southern Railway. The history of the railway lives on, however, and Norfolk Southern continues to "serve the South."

In 2003, the Southern Railway Historical Association selected the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History as the repository for its extensive archives. Included in this collection are hundreds of professional quality, black-and-white photographs taken by company photographers throughout the railway's history. While a few of these images have been seen by the public, the vast majority have not.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Apr 13, 2004
• ISBN: 9781439629536

Sallie Loy

Authors Sallie Loy, Dick Hillman, and C. Pat Cates have selected over 200 photographs to document this legacy in Images of Rail: The Southern Railway. They serve as archivist, assistant curator, and assistant archivist, respectively, at the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw, Georgia.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

INTRODUCTION

The Southern Railway has faithfully served the South since the 1830s. Now a part of the Norfolk Southern Railway Company, the Southern Railway was a product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined and reorganized. Today the Southern Railway Historical Association, a non-profit educational and historical organization, is dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of information related to the Southern Railway. On August 15, 2003, representatives from the Southern Railway Historical Association and the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History signed an historic agreement to place the association’s archives in the museum. In attendance at that meeting were Pres. John Hawkins of New Orleans, Louisiana; Board Members Dan Sparks of Duluth, Georgia and George Eichelberger of Smyrna, Georgia from the Southern Railway Historical Association; and Dr. Jeffrey A. Drobney, Executive Director of the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History. The Southern Railway collection represents an extensive source of documentation on the economic and social development of the southern states from 1895 to 1985.

The earliest predecessor line of the Southern Railway was the South Carolina Canal & Rail Road Company of Charleston. Chartered in 1827, it was the hope of investors to divert commerce from the port of Savannah to Charleston. The railroad would provide the link to move goods inland. Horatio Allen assumed the role as chief engineer and plans were made to run the line from Charleston to an area near Augusta, Georgia. Allen convinced the owners of the railroad to employ steam power, and the first locomotive was delivered in October 1830. The Best Friend of Charleston became the first locomotive to run regular passenger service when it made an historic six-mile trip on December 25, 1830. In October 1833, the railroad boasted 136 miles of track from Charleston to Hamburg, South Carolina, a small town across the Savannah River from Augusta.

During the same time period there were other railroads that were being constructed. In Virginia the Chesterfield Railroad operated a short line that carried coal from Midlothian to the James River. This railroad later became part of the Richmond and Danville Railroad. The Central Railroad and Banking Company was chartered in Georgia in 1835 with a surveyed route between Savannah and Macon. During this time period railroads were often seen as a threat to local drayage, hotel, and warehouse business, and it took the Central Railroad eight years to gain rights to build a bridge over the Ocmulgee River near Macon. A similar problem was faced by the South Carolina road in getting a bridge built from Hamburg to Augusta. The bridge was completed in 1853, and during this time the railroad had merged with the Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad.

Four major predecessor lines all had their roots during the period from 1840 to 1850. The Orange and Alexandria Railroad (chartered in 1848) laid rails from Washington to Manassas, Virginia. By 1855, a rail line was in construction towards Lynchburg, Virginia. The Richmond and Danville Railroad was constructing lines south and west from the state capital towards the North Carolina border. A 140-mile line was completed in 1856, and the Richmond and Danville’s equipment consisted of 17 locomotives; 19 passenger, baggage, and mail cars; and 317 freight cars. Builders of the Richmond and Danville Railroad turned their sights towards a connection with the North Carolina Railroad at Greensboro, which was completed in 1856. Work soon began on the Western North Carolina extension from Salisbury to Asheville. The North Carolina Railroad connected at Charlotte with the South Carolina Railroad. The most ambitious railroad was completed in 1857. The 760 miles of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad connected the waters of the Atlantic Ocean with those of the Mississippi River. This line proved invaluable in the transportation of passengers and freight throughout the lower South.

The War