List of Seaboard Air Line Railroad precursors

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Below is a list of railroads that were bought, leased, or in other ways had their track come under ownership or control by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad or one of its predecessors.

Contents

The Seaboard Air Line Railroad merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad on July 1, 1967, to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad .

Predecessor lines

Map of CSX's "A" and "S" lines, inherited from predecessors ACL and SAL, respectively. CSX A and S lines.png
Map of CSX's "A" and "S" lines, inherited from predecessors ACL and SAL, respectively.

The Seaboard main line from Richmond to Tampa, heart of its 2600-mile system in 1900, (today mostly CSX's "S" Line), had been built by the following companies:

Acquired lines

In the first decades of the 20th century, Seaboard expanded its holdings by acquiring the following lines, some of which were created by the Seaboard to construct new lines it wished to have.

Acquired by purchase:

Acquired by lease:

Seaboard Air Line Railway

American Agricultural and Chemical Company

Athens Terminal Company

Atlanta and Birmingham Air Line Railway

Atlantic, Suwannee River and Gulf Railway

Brooksville and Inverness Railway

Carolina, Atlantic and Western Railway

Carolina Central Railroad

Catawba Valley Railway

Central Railway of Georgia (Lyons Branch only)

Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway

Charlotte, Monroe and Columbia Railroad

Chesterfield and Kershaw Railroad

Chesterfield and Lancaster Railroad

Columbus Railroad

Durham and Northern Railway

Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad

Florida, Peninsular and Gulf Railroad

Florida West Shore Railway

Gainesville Midland Railroad (bought by Seaboard in 1959)

Georgia and Alabama Railway

Georgia, Carolina and Northern Railway

Georgia, Florida and Alabama Railroad (gained control in 1928)

Kissimmee River Railway

Loganville and Lawrenceville Railroad

Macon, Dublin and Savannah Railroad

McRae Terminal Railway

Oxford and Coast Line Railroad

Line from Dickerson to Oxford, NC

Palmetto Railway

Plant City, Arcadia and Gulf Railway

Raleigh and Augusta Air Line Railroad

Raleigh and Charleston Railroad

Raleigh and Gaston Railroad

Richmond, Petersburg and Carolina Railroad

Roanoke and Tar River Railroad

Seaboard Air Line Belt Railroad

Seaboard-All Florida Railway

Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad

South Bound Railroad

Tallahassee, Perry and Southeastern Railway

Tampa Terminal Company

Tavares and Gulf Railroad (bought 1926)

See also

Related Research Articles

Seaboard Air Line Railroad Railroad system

The Seaboard Air Line Railroad, which styled itself "The Route of Courteous Service," was an American railroad which existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime rival, to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. Predecessor railroads dated from the 1830s and reorganized extensively to rebuild after the American Civil War. The company was headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, until 1958, when its main offices were relocated to Richmond, Virginia. The Seaboard Air Line Railway Building in Norfolk's historic Freemason District still stands and has been converted into apartments.

Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad Historic railroad system

The Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad was the final name of a system of railroads throughout Florida, becoming part of the Seaboard Air Line Railway in 1900. The system, including some of the first railroads in Florida, stretched from Jacksonville west through Tallahassee and south to Tampa. Much of the FC&P network is still in service under the ownership of CSX Transportation.

Plant System Historic railroad system

The Plant System named after its owner, Henry B. Plant, was a system of railroads and steamboats in the U.S. South, taken over by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1902. The original line of the system was the Savannah, Florida and Western Railway, running across southern Georgia. The Plant Investment Company was formed in 1882 to lease and buy other railroads and expand the system. Other major lines incorporated into the system include the Savannah and Charleston Railroad and the Brunswick and Western Railroad.

Riceboro Southern Railway

The Riceboro Southern Railway began operations in 2004 operating on about 33 miles of track, some of which is leased from CSX Transportation. The track on which it operates is part of the ex-Seaboard Air Line route from Savannah, Georgia to Jacksonville, Florida. It runs generally from Ogeechee, Georgia, where the line splits from the CSX Savannah Subdivision, which is the former Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's Savannah-Jacksonville route, and Riceboro. It does not have any of its own locomotives; it uses Georgia Central power.

First Coast Railroad

The First Coast Railroad is a class III railroad operating in Florida and Georgia, owned by Genesee and Wyoming Inc. The name is derived from its area of operations around the First Coast of Florida.

Tallahassee station

Tallahassee station, also known as the Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile Railroad Company Freight Depot, is a historic train station in Tallahassee, Florida. It was built in 1858 and was served by various railways until 2005, when Amtrak suspended service due to Hurricane Katrina. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.

<i>Champion</i> (train)

The Champion was a streamlined passenger train operated by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and Florida East Coast Railway between New York City and Miami or St. Petersburg, Florida. It operated from 1939 until 1979, continuing under the Seaboard Coast Line and Amtrak. It was a direct competitor to the Seaboard Air Line Railway's Silver Meteor, the first New York-Florida streamliner.

The Florida Railroad was the first railroad to connect the east and west coasts of Florida, running from Fernandina to Cedar Key. The line later became part of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, and, where still in use, is operated by CSX Transportation and the First Coast Railroad. The highway corridor of SR 24, US 301, and SR A1A/SR 200 closely parallels the former Florida Railroad.

Florida Southern Railway Historic railroad in Florida

The Florida Southern Railway was a railroad that operated in Florida in the late 1800s. It was one of Florida's three notable narrow gauge railway when it was built along with the South Florida Railroad and the Orange Belt Railway. The Florida Southern was originally chartered to run from Lake City south through central Florida to Charlotte Harbor. However, with the influence of Henry B. Plant, it operated with two discontinuous segments that would be part of the Plant System, which would later become part of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.

The Jacksonville & Southwestern Railroad (J&SW) was a railroad that served Florida from 1899 to 1904. It was purchased by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1904; some of the original right-of-way was converted to a recreational path in the rails to trails program in the 1990s.

The Callahan Subdivision is a CSX Transportation railroad subdivision within the Jacksonville Division on the former Seaboard Air Line Railroad. The sub extends northward 20 miles from Baldwin, Florida, where the Jacksonville Terminal Subdivision's S Line and Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad meet just north of Baldwin Yard, a classification yard. According to Jacksonville Division Timetable Number 4 published in 2005, the sub runs from milepost SM 0.18 to milepost SM 20.0, where it joins the Nahunta Subdivision, a former Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, in Callahan, Florida. The line serves as a bypass to Jacksonville.

The Brooker Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in Florida. The line runs from the CSX S Line at Wannee Junction in Starke to Newberry for a total of 39.6 miles. At its north end it continues south from the Wildwood Subdivision and at its south end it junctions at a wye with the Florida Northern Railroad.

The Kingsland Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in Northeast Florida. The line begins in Jacksonville at a junction with the A Line near Moncrief Yard. From there, it heads east and then turns north near Panama Park. From Panama Park, the Kingsland Subdivision heads north to Yulee on a discontinuous piece of CSX's S Line. In Yulee, the line connects with the First Coast Railroad, which operates north to Seals, Georgia, on tracks that were previously part of the Kingsland Subdivision prior to 2005.

The Wildwood Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in Florida. It runs along CSX's S Line from Baldwin south to Zephyrhills via Ocala and Wildwood for a total of 155.7 miles. The S Line is CSX's designation for the line that was the Seaboard Air Line Railroad main line from 1903 to 1967.

The Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad is a Class III railroad owned and operated by RailUSA in the Florida Panhandle. The line consists of 373 miles of track running from Baldwin, Florida west through Tallahassee to Pensacola. The line also has a short branch from Tallahassee north to Attapulgus, Georgia. The line connects to CSX lines in Baldwin, Pensacola, and Attapulgus.

The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's Perry Cutoff was a historic rail line in northern Florida running from Monticello southeast to Perry. The line was notable for the fact that it provided a significant shortcut for rail traffic running between the Midwest and the Tampa Bay area by providing a more direct route and a bypass for the busy rail hub in Jacksonville. It was completed in 1928 to reduce travel times for its passenger trains to the west coast, or Gulf Coast, of Florida during the Florida land boom of the 1920s.

The Live Oak, Tampa and Charlotte Harbor Railroad was a historic railroad in Florida chartered by railroad tycoon Henry B. Plant. It was built as an extension of Plant's Live Oak and Rowlands Bluff Railroad. Together, the two lines ran from Live Oak, Florida to Gainesville via High Springs. The lines were completed in 1884.

The Gross Cutoff was a rail line built by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad in northern Florida. It ran from the Seaboard Air Line Railroad’s main line at a point known as Gross to Callahan connecting two pre-existing tracks.