Railroad classes are the system by which freight railroads are designated in the United States. Railroads are assigned to Class I, II or III according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$504,803,294 for Class I carriers and US$40,384,263 for Class II carriers.
Short Line or Shortline can refer to:
The Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi Railroad is a 52.9-mile (85.1 km) short-line railroad in northern Louisiana and southern Arkansas. Opened in 1908, it has undergone several corporate reorganizations, but has remained independent of larger carriers. In 2004, paper producer Georgia-Pacific sold the company to shortline operator Genesee & Wyoming Inc. Traffic generally consists of lumber, paper, forest products, and chemicals.
The Portland and Western Railroad is a 516-mile (830 km) Class II railroad serving the U.S. state of Oregon, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of shortline and regional railroad holding company Genesee & Wyoming Inc. The PNWR includes a subsidiary, the Willamette and Pacific Railroad.
The Savannah, Americus and Montgomery Railway (SA&M) was a historic railroad located in the U.S. states of Georgia and Alabama. SA&M was built in the 1880s running between Montgomery, Alabama and Lyons, Georgia. It would be completed to Savannah, Georgia in 1896 after being renamed the Georgia and Alabama Railway. The line would notably become part of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad network in 1900.
The Wiregrass Central Railroad is a shortline railroad operating 19.5 miles (31.4 km) of track from a CSX Transportation connection at Waterford, near Newton, to Enterprise, Alabama via the south side of Fort Novosel. The company was initially a subsidiary of Gulf and Ohio Railways and began operations in 1987 following the purchase of the Enterprise Subdivision branch line of CSX Transportation.
The Georgia Midland Railroad was a shortline railroad that operated several lines in Georgia that it acquired in 2004 from the initial operations of Ogeechee Railway. In 2009 the Georgia Midland was purchased by Pioneer RailCorp from Atlantic Western Transportation Company, the holding company for the Heart of Georgia Railroad. Pioneer renamed the railroad as the Georgia Southern Railway. Hauling an average of 5000 carloads per year of aggregate sand, stone, farm products and wood, the Georgia Midland Railroad connected with the Norfolk Southern Railway.
Louisiana Highway 19 (LA 19) is a state highway located in southeastern Louisiana. It runs 33.93 miles (54.61 km) in a north–south direction from U.S. Highway 61 (US 61) in Baton Rouge to the Mississippi state line north of Norwood.
The Sand Springs Railway is a class III railroad operating in Oklahoma. It was formed in 1911 by industrialist Charles Page to connect his newly formed city of Sand Springs to Tulsa, operating both as a passenger-carrying interurban and a freight carrier. At Sand Springs, the company also served his children's home, and Page directed all railroad profits to support the home's operations.
The Georges Creek Railway is a shortline railroad in Western Maryland that performed contract switching, and it owns 14 miles (23 km) of trackage between Westernport and Carlos. The railroad was headquartered at 119 Pratt Street in Luke in the former Luke Post Office. Gerald Altizer and Pat Stakem are the primary partners in the company.
The V&S Railway is a shortline railroad that operates two disconnected lines in the U.S. state of Kansas. It is affiliated with A&K Railroad Materials. The company acquired its first line, a former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway line between Medicine Lodge and a BNSF Railway junction at Attica, from the Central Kansas Railway in 2000. In 2006 it expanded its operations by acquiring from the Hutchinson and Northern Railway a short segment of former interurban in eastern Hutchinson, where it interchanges with the BNSF Railway, Union Pacific Railroad, and Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad. Other railroads under common control with the V&S are the out-of-service Kern Valley Railroad in Colorado, the Gloster Southern Railroad in Louisiana and Mississippi, the Grenada Railway and Natchez Railway in Mississippi, a portion of the former Rock Island from St. Louis to Union, Missouri operated by the Missouri Central and the Southern Manitoba Railway in Manitoba.
The following is a brief history of the North American rail system, mainly through major changes to Class I railroads, the largest class by operating revenue.
The Worcester, Nashua and Rochester Railroad was a railroad line that was to link the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, to the city of Portland, Maine, via the New Hampshire cities of Nashua and Rochester, by merging several small shortline railroads together.
Patriot Rail Company LLC is a holding company for a number of shortline railroads across the United States.
The Arizona and California Railroad is a class III short line railroad that was a subdivision of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF). The ARZC began operations on May 9, 1991, when David Parkinson of the ParkSierra RailGroup purchased the line from the Santa Fe Railway. ParkSierra Railgroup was purchased in January 2002 by shortline railroad holding company RailAmerica. The Genesee & Wyoming shortline railroad holding company purchased RailAmerica in December 2012. ARZC's main commodities are petroleum gas, steel, and lumber; the railroad hauls around 12,000 carloads per year.
The Thermal Belt Railway is a Class III shortline railroad that operates for freight service on an irregular schedule on a former CSX line from Bostic to Forest City and on a former Norfolk Southern line from Forest City to Alexander Mills, North Carolina. Total mileage is 8.5 miles (13.7 km). Connections are made with CSX at Bostic. Rail is 85 pounds.
The Delmarva Central Railroad is an American short-line railroad owned by Carload Express that operates 188 miles (303 km) of track on the Delmarva Peninsula in the states of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The railroad operates lines from Porter, Delaware to Hallwood, Virginia and from Harrington, Delaware to Frankford, Delaware along with several smaller branches. The DCR interchanges with the Norfolk Southern Railway and the Maryland and Delaware Railroad. The railroad was created in 2016 to take over the Norfolk Southern Railway lines on the Delmarva Peninsula. The DCR expanded by taking over part of the Bay Coast Railroad in 2018 and the Delaware Coast Line Railroad in 2019.
Southern Pine Lumber Company No. 28 is a preserved 2-8-0 “Consolidation” steam locomotive that was originally operated by the United States Army Transportation Corps. It is one of three survivors out of over 1,500 General Pershing locomotives built in 1917 for the War Department in World War I, originally numbered 396. After the war, the locomotive was sold off to the Claiborne and Polk Railroad for short distance freight service, and from there, it was sold multiple times throughout its revenue career, until 1956, when it was sold to the Southern Pine Lumber Company in East Texas, where it operated until it was retired in the early 1970s. In 1972, the locomotive was donated to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, who moved it to the Texas State Railroad for restoration four years later. After over twenty years of being stored, awaiting for restoration to come to fruition, the locomotive was fired up again in April 1996 as TSRR No. 300. It has pulled multiple excursion trains between Rusk and Palestine every year since its return to steam alongside a few other steam locomotives, including 2-8-2 No. 400. As of 2024, the locomotive was reverted to one of its original identities as SPLCO No. 28, but is currently getting its running gear repaired in Rusk.
