Southern Railway

he Southern Railway was a class 1 railroad system based in the southeastern United States between 1894 and 1982, when it merged with the Norfolk & Western to form the current Norfolk Southern corporation. The Southern was the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized, and recombined beginning as early as the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894.

At the start of the 1970s, the Southern operated more than 6,000 miles of mainline railroad and reported over 26 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 110 million passenger-miles. These numbers did not include its Class I subsidiaries Alabama Great Southern (528 miles); Central of Georgia (1729 miles); Savannah & Atlanta (167 miles); Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway (415 miles); Georgia Southern & Florida (454 miles); all in addition to twelve Class II subsidiaries.

Southern Railway came into existence in 1894 through the combination of the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, the Richmond & Danville system, and the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad. The company owned two-thirds of the 4,400 miles of line it operated, and the rest was held through leases, operating agreements, and stock ownership. Southern also controlled the Alabama Great Southern and the Georgia Southern & Florida, which it operated separately, and it also held an interest in the Central of Georgia. Additionally, the Southern also agreed to lease the North Carolina Railroad Company, providing a critical connection from Virginia to the rest of the southeast via the Carolina regions. By the time the route from Meridian, Mississippi, to New Orleans, Louisiana, was acquired in 1916, the railroad had assembled the 8,000-mile, 13-state system that lasted for almost half a century.

The railroad joined forces with the Norfolk & Western Railway in 1980 to form the Norfolk Southern Corporation. This combination was created in response to the formation of the CSX Corporation, later transformed into CSX Transportation in 1986. Southern and N&W continued as operating companies of Norfolk Southern until 1982, when Norfolk Southern merged nearly all of N&W's operations into Southern to form the Norfolk Southern Railway. The combined railroad has used that name since.