The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midwest along with the intermediate cities of Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Detroit. New York Central was headquartered in New York City's New York Central Building, adjacent to its largest station, Grand Central Terminal.
The Pere Marquette Railway operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections included Buffalo; Toledo; and Chicago. The company was named after Père Jacques Marquette S.J. (1637–1675), a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste Marie.
The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, established in 1833 and sometimes referred to as the Lake Shore, was a major part of the New York Central Railroad's Water Level Route from Buffalo, New York, to Chicago, Illinois, primarily along the south shore of Lake Erie and across northern Indiana. The line's trackage is still used as a major rail transportation corridor and hosts Amtrak passenger trains, with the ownership in 1998 split at Cleveland between CSX to the east, and Norfolk Southern in the west.
The Florida Midland Railroad is one of several short line railroads operated by the Pinsly Railroad Company in Florida. The Florida Midland Railroad operates two former CSX Transportation railroad lines including their former Lake Wales Subdivision, and their former Bartow Subdivision. It also ran a third line from Wildwood to Leesburg that is now mostly abandoned. Florida Midland Railroad began operating the lines in 1987.
The Alabama Midland Railway was incorporated in Alabama and Georgia in 1887, and built a line from Bainbridge, Georgia, to a point near Montgomery, Alabama. The route was completed in 1890. It became part of the Plant System in 1894, and in 1901 it was merged into the Savannah, Florida and Western Railway.
The Bay Line Railroad is one of several short line railroad companies owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. It operates between Panama City, Florida, and Dothan, Alabama, including a branch from Grimes to Abbeville, Alabama, reached via trackage rights on CSX's Dothan Subdivision between Dothan and Grimes. The line interchanges with CSX's P&A Subdivision at Cottondale, Florida, and their Dothan Subdivision at the trackage rights section near Dothan, Alabama. It also interchanges with the Chattahoochee Bay Railroad in Dothan.
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.
The Great Lakes Central Railroad is a Class II regional railroad, originally called the Tuscola and Saginaw Bay Railway, that was formed on August 26, 1977 to operate over former Penn Central lines from Millington to Munger, Michigan, and Vassar to Colling, Michigan. Its name was derived from the three Michigan counties it operated in: Tuscola, Saginaw and Bay.
Mid Michigan, occasionally called Central Michigan, is a region in the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. As its name implies, it is the middle area of the Lower Peninsula. Lower Michigan is said to resemble a mitten, and Mid Michigan corresponds roughly to the Thumb and palm, stretching from Michigan's eastern shoreline along Lake Huron into the fertile rolling plains of the Michigan Basin. The region contains cities of moderate size including Flint, Saginaw, and the state capital of Lansing.
The Sarnia Subdivision is a railroad line owned by the Lake Erie and Detroit River Railway and operated by CSX Transportation in the Canadian province of Ontario. The line runs from Chatham north to Sarnia along a former Pere Marquette Railway line. From its north end, CSX has trackage rights west over the Canadian National Railway's Strathroy Subdivision and the Grand Trunk Western Railroad's Flint Subdivision to the CSX Port Huron Subdivision near Port Huron, Michigan and the Saginaw Subdivision in Flint.
The Lincoln Secondary is a railroad line owned and operated by Conrail in the U.S. state of Michigan as part of its Conrail Shared Assets Operations.
The Toledo Division was the southern half of the Pere Marquette Railway's main line, which ran from Ludington, Michigan to Toledo, Ohio. The Toledo Division encompassed the portion which ran from Toledo north to Saginaw, Michigan, where it met the Ludington Division. The line was built by a predecessor of the PM, the Flint & Pere Marquette, and is currently owned by CSX Transportation.
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 make up the Plant System, which would later become part of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.
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.
Huron and Eastern Railway is a short line railroad operating 394 miles (634 km) of track in The Thumb and Flint/Tri-Cities area of the lower peninsula of Michigan. It is currently owned by Genesee & Wyoming, Inc., who purchased it from RailAmerica in 2012. Its headquarters is in the former Michigan Central Railroad depot in Vassar, Michigan.
The CSX Saginaw Subdivision is a railroad line in the U.S. state of Michigan. The line runs 105 miles from Toledo, Ohio to Saginaw, Michigan; although since 2006, the section from Mt. Morris to Saginaw has been leased to the Lake State Railway, but is still occasionally used by CSX.
The Abbeville–Grimes Railway Company, also known as the A&G Railroad after 1994, was a shortline railroad formerly operating from Grimes to Abbeville, Alabama, 26.9 miles (43.3 km). The railroad was merged with the Bay Line Railroad in 1996 and continued operation under the new name.
The CSX Plymouth Subdivision is a freight railroad line in the U.S. state of Michigan. It connects the Plymouth Diamond at milepost CH 24.5 to Grand Rapids at CH 148.1, passing through the Lansing metropolitan area en route. Other towns served include Brighton, Howell, Williamston, Grand Ledge, and Lake Odessa. Operationally, it is part of the CSX Chicago Division, dispatched from Calumet City, IL.
