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Images of Rail Southern Railway By Loy, Hillman & Cates Soft Cover
Images of Rail Southern Railway By Sallie Loy, Dick Hillman, and C. Pat Cates
For the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History
And the Southern Railway Historical Association
Softcover 127 pages
Copyright 2004
CONTENTS
Introduction
1.The Steam Era
2.The Diesel Locomotive Changes Things
3.Facilities of the Southern Railway
4.The People of the Southern Railway
5.Moving the Freight
6.Traveling by Train
7.Pictures with a Story
Acknowledgments
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 Between the States had a dramatic impact on the railroads. In Virginia, the War waged constantly over the lines of the Orange and Alexandria, Manassas Gap, Richmond and York River, and the Richmond and Danville Railroad. As a railroad center, Chattanooga was an important city to the Confederacy and the Union. Both armies used the line to bring men and supplies to the beleaguered city. Gen. James Longstreet moved his First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia over ten railroads, including three that would become part of the Southern Railway. Union Gen. Joseph Hooker moved 15,000 men via the Orange and Alexandria Railroad and other lines to reach Bridgeport, Tennessee. For four years the railroads of the South were fought over, destroyed, rebuilt, and destroyed again. When the War ended in 1865 the railroads of the South lay in ruins.
In Virginia, the Orange and Alexandria Railroad and the Manassas Gap Railroad became the Orange, Alexander and Manassas, with branch lines to Lynchburg and Harrisonburg, Virginia. When the Piedmont Railroad was constructed during the Civil War from Danville to Greensboro, the Richmond and Danville Railroad had a route as far south as Charlotte. During the 1870s, the Richmond and Danville Railroad gained control of the North Carolina Railroad and helped the Charlotte Air-Line Railway in building a line from Atlanta to Charlotte. At the same time the Orange, Alexandria and Manassas Railroad was helping to build a line from Lynchburg, Virginia, to the Richmond and Danville Railroad at Danville. This was the beginning of Southern Railway's line between Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia.
In Tennessee, the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad and the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad were consolidated as the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad. This line extended from Dalton, Georgia, to Bristol, Virginia. The East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad also took in the Memphis and Charleston Railroad and eventually became part of the Richmond and Danville Railroad. Other lines that became part of the Richmond and Danville Railroad were the Orange, Alexandria and Manassas Railroad and the Atlanta and Charlotte Air-Line Railway. Throughout the 1880s and into the 1890s the Richmond and Danville Railroad continued to expand their railroad network, but by 1893 most of the properties of the Richmond and Danville Railroad were in receivership. It was from this financially-stressed Richmond & Danville Railroad that the Southern Railway Company was organized.
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