Misplaced Pages

#230769

52-578: The Piedmont Limited was a named passenger train operated by the Southern Railway in the southern United States . For most of its life it was a New York — New Orleans train, operating over the same route as the more famous Crescent Limited . The Southern Railway discontinued the Piedmont Limited in 1967, though reused the name Piedmont a few years later for an Atlanta–Washington service. The Southern Railway introduced

104-504: A great expense with generally half of the large fleet laid up for repairs, modification or breaking up. These early machines suffered from slightness in the drive wheels, axles and valve gear, and from unequal distribution of weight, a serious problem given the questionable track they ran on. Inside actions were eventually converted to outside. The early eight-wheeled locomotives shared these problems along with overly weak frames, but otherwise were appreciated for greater power and less injury to

156-619: A large number of white laborers from the North and from Europe. The first run over the entire 136-mile (219 km) line was celebrated in October 1833. Elias Horry had become president of the company in 1831, and was responsible for building what was then the longest railway in the world. The line was a commercial success despite price competition against riverborne traffic and later railroad projects in Georgia. Its initial cost of $ 951,148

208-604: Is a historic district in Charleston , South Carolina , that contains structures of the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company and the home of the company's founder, William Aiken . These structures are considered "nationally significant" in relation to the history of the development of the railroad industry in the United States . The South Carolina Department of Archives and History states that

260-694: The Civil War . The Battle of Shiloh , the Siege of Corinth and the Second Battle of Corinth in 1862 were motivated by the importance of the Memphis and Charleston line, the only east–west rail link across the Confederacy . The Chickamauga Campaign for Chattanooga, Tennessee , was also motivated by the importance of its rail connections to the Memphis and Charleston and other lines. Also, in 1862,

312-619: The Louisville and Nashville Railroad . A decade later Crane tried to rectify the situation by merging with the Illinois Central Railroad . When that failed, he petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to give Southern the old Monon routes and the old Atlantic Coast Line route from Jacksonville to Tampa by way of Orlando among other properties as a condition of the I.C.C.'s approval of

364-923: The Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W) to form the Norfolk Southern Railway . The railroad was the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894. At the end of 1971, the Southern operated 6,026 miles (9,698 km) of railroad, not including its Class I subsidiaries Alabama Great Southern (528 miles or 850 km); Central of Georgia (1729 miles); Savannah & Atlanta (167 miles); Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway (415 miles); Georgia Southern & Florida (454 miles); and twelve Class II subsidiaries. That year,

416-599: The Panic of 1837 and overhanging debt from the busted LC&CRR, but not without a retrenchment that continued through the next decade. South Carolina legislators merged the two companies' charters in 1844. The SCC&RR was fortunate in its chief engineer, Horatio Allen , who had already toured English railroads, and drove the Stourbridge Lion on its first and only run in America. Allen argued successfully before

468-651: The Richmond and York River Railroad , which operated from the Pamunkey River at West Point, Virginia , to Richmond, Virginia , was a major focus of George McClellan's Peninsular Campaign , which culminated in the Seven Days Battles and devastated the tiny rail link. Late in the war, the Richmond and Danville Railroad was the Confederacy's last link to Richmond, and transported Jefferson Davis and his cabinet to Danville, Virginia , just before

520-665: The Seaboard Coast Line until its discontinuation in 1971. When Amtrak took over most intercity rail service in 1971, Southern initially opted out of turning over its passenger routes to the new organization. However, it shared operation of its flagship train, the New Orleans–New York Southern Crescent , with Amtrak. Under a longstanding haulage agreement inherited from Penn Central and the Pennsylvania Railroad , Amtrak carried

572-667: The Western North Carolina Railroad . Men were shipped to and from the worksite in iron shackles and around twenty were drowned in the Tuckasegee River weighted down by their shackles. In the area along the Ohio River and Mississippi River , construction of new railroads continued throughout Reconstruction . The Richmond and Danville System expanded throughout the South during this period, but

SECTION 10

#1732781111231

624-526: The 1982 merger with the Norfolk and Western to form the Norfolk Southern, through increased operating costs and concerns ended the program in 1994. Norfolk Southern reinstated the steam program on a limited basis from 2011 to 2015, as the 21st Century Steam program. In the early 2000s, a 22-mile (35 km) loop of former Southern Railway right-of-way encircling central Atlanta neighborhoods

676-540: The Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad Company. The merged company changed its name to South Carolina Railroad Company under an act of the South Carolina legislature dated December 19, 1843. With the advent of cotton cultivation in the early 19th century, the relatively remote South Carolina upcountry enjoyed a vast expansion in the value of its agricultural produce. Overland transport by wagon

728-679: The Norfolk Southern Railway. The railroad has used that name since. The pioneering South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company , Southern's earliest predecessor line and one of the first railroads in the United States , was chartered on December 19, 1827, and ran the nation's first regularly scheduled steam-powered passenger train – the wood-burning Best Friend of Charleston – over a six-mile section out of Charleston, South Carolina , on December 25, 1830. By October 1833, its 136-mile line to Hamburg, South Carolina ,

780-568: The Norfolk and Western Railway in 1980 to form the Norfolk Southern Corporation . The Norfolk Southern Corporation was created in response to the creation of the rival CSX Corporation by a number of railroads in the eastern United States (adopting the name CSX Transportation for its rail system in 1986). Southern and N&W continued as operating companies of Norfolk Southern until in 1982, when Norfolk Southern merged nearly all of N&W's operations into Southern to form

832-565: The SCC&;RR directors for immediate adoption of steam locomotion, stating that the power of horses was known and would never increase, but the future power of locomotives was beyond imagination. The first locomotive was the Best Friend of Charleston of 1830; by 1834 the line had purchased a total of 15 locomotives and scheduled one daily run in each direction. The way consisted of flat strap iron fastened to continuous timber sills. Much of

884-616: The Seaboard Coast Line – Chessie System merger in 1979. While the request was supported by the I.C.C.'s Enforcement Bureau, it was ultimately unsuccessful. In response to the creation of the CSX Corporation in November 1980, the Southern Railway joined forces with the Norfolk and Western Railway and formed the Norfolk Southern Corporation in 1980 which began operations in 1982, further consolidating railroads in

936-572: The Southern Railway leased most of its Bluemont, Virginia , branch to the newly formed Washington and Old Dominion Railway . In 1945, the Southern sold most of the remnant of the branch to the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad , the successor to the Washington and Old Dominion Railway. The Central of Georgia became part of the system in 1963, and the former Norfolk Southern Railway was acquired in 1974. Despite these small acquisitions,

988-597: The Southern disdained the merger trend when it swept the railroad industry in the 1960s, choosing to remain a regional carrier. In 1978 President L. Stanley Crane said the refusal to add routes through merger was a mistake, especially the decision not to add a connecting route to Chicago. The Southern tried to gain access to Chicago by targeting the Monon Railroad and the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad but both those railroads went to Southern's competitor,

1040-435: The Southern itself reported 26,111 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 110 million passenger-miles. Alabama Great Southern reported 3,854 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 11 million passenger-miles; Central of Georgia 3,595 and 17; Savannah & Atlanta 140 and 0; Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway 4906 and 0.3; and Georgia Southern & Florida 1,431 and 0.3. The railroad joined forces with

1092-406: The cheaper (and less toxic) Earlizing with copper and iron sulphates was adopted. When new longer routes made night travel necessary, passenger faced risks from collisions. South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company experimented with a pine log fire on a flatcar covered in sand to provide light before inexpensive kerosene for lamps was invented. Novel and clumsily designed locomotives were

SECTION 20

#1732781111231

1144-444: The daring concept of a steam-driven railroad. Under William Aiken as the first president, six miles (10 km) of line were completed at Charleston in 1830. However, construction was delayed and expenses increased by a shortage of labor, due to the high death rate of slaves leading to a reluctance to lease slave labor to the project by plantation owners.  Messrs. Gray & Co., the principal firm of contractors, turned to importing

1196-493: The eastern half of the United States. The Southern Railway was renamed Norfolk Southern Railway as the Norfolk and Western Railway became a subsidiary to its system on June 1, 1982. The railroad then acquired more than half of Conrail on June 1, 1999. Southern and its predecessors were responsible for many firsts in the industry. Starting in 1833, its predecessor, the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road ,

1248-470: The fall of Richmond in April 1865. Known as the "First Railroad War", the Civil War left the South's railroads and economy devastated. Most of the railroads, however, were repaired, reorganized and operated again. Convict lease was a near continuation of slavery as charges were often only applied to people of African descent. Five-hundred African Americans were assigned to provide back breaking labor on

1300-442: The northwest side of the city and renamed Coster. The 1850s-era Atlanta , Georgia shops were moved to the south side of the city in 1883. These were originally called South Shops but later renamed to Pegram. In 1907 a new terminal with medium repair capabilities was added to the north side of Atlanta. The modern and complete Spencer Shops, located 2.5 miles north of Salisbury, North Carolina , were opened in 1896. Another new shop site

1352-603: The original charter, a 66.3-mile (106.7 km) line from Branchville to Columbia was built in 1840 and opened in 1842. In 1844, The Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad Company and The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company were merged under an act of the South Carolina General Assembly of December 19, 1843 as the South Carolina Railroad Company. William Aiken House and Associated Railroad Structures

1404-460: The pilings began to rot at the ground line, and were supplanted by earthen embankments made by dumping dirt over the side (encasing and preserving some of the longleaf pine structures to this day). Beginning in 1836 the flat strap rails were replaced with "T" rails. Wood rot was an early maintenance evil. By 1841 a surface treatment called Kyanizing was found to be helpful, but used a toxic mercury compound for wood preservation — shortly thereafter

1456-424: The railroad informally as the Charleston and Hamburg Railroad , a reference to its end points, but that was never its legal name. In 1839, The Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad Company, which had built no track of its own, gained stock control of The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company, which continued to operate under that name. In 1844, The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company merged with

1508-461: The railroad town of Aiken, South Carolina , as a stopover place. The line was built with 16 equally spaced turnouts each with a water pump and timber shed. A maintenance station responsible for perhaps eight miles (13 km) of track was based at each turnout. The station overseer surveyed half of that track daily, and effected minor repairs such as making secure loose bars of iron, punching down protruding spikeheads, chamfering wheel flange rubs off

1560-576: The rails, ramming earth around the piles, and so on. The overseer was also responsible for maintaining adequate supplies of water and timber at the station, and for calling on the Superintending Engineer for nonroutine derangements. Timber pilings had allowed the SCC&RR to build their line quickly and cheaply, especially in comparison with northern lines such as the Baltimore and Ohio that tended to overbuild. Nevertheless, by 1834

1612-684: The rest was held through leases, operating agreements and stock ownership. Southern also controlled the Alabama Great Southern and the Georgia Southern and Florida , which operated separately, and it had an interest in the Central of Georgia . Additionally, the Southern Railway also agreed to lease the North Carolina Railroad Company, providing a critical connection from Virginia to the rest of

Piedmont Limited - Misplaced Pages Continue

1664-461: The road. With limited facilities in an agricultural economy, all of these shortcoming resulted in long outages. Through 1834, locomotives had been purchased from six different suppliers. The original line generally paralleled U.S. Route 78 and remained in service until the 1980s. The downtowns of many railroad towns such as Warrenton, Williston and Blackville are still marked by railroad esplanades frequently with elevated causeways. In accordance with

1716-521: The route. By late 1966, the train was running from Washington, D.C. to Salisbury, North Carolina in both directions. Amid the postwar decline in passenger rail service, the train was eliminated in 1967. Beginning in 1970 the Piedmont name was revived for an Atlanta–Washington daytime service, supplementing the then- Southern Crescent along its middle leg. Southern did not join Amtrak in 1971, leaving

1768-409: The service as one of the few intercity rail routes in America which was not operated by the new quasi-government agency. In 1975, its southern terminus was truncated to Charlotte . This train was discontinued in 1976; by then its southern terminus had been cut back to Salisbury, North Carolina . In its prime the Piedmont Limited operated over the following roads: Aside from the above cited cities,

1820-573: The southeast via the Carolinas. Southern's first president, Samuel Spencer , brought more lines into Southern's organized system. During his 12-year term, the railway built new shops at Spencer, North Carolina , Knoxville, Tennessee , and Atlanta, Georgia , upgraded tracks, and purchased more equipment. He moved the company's service away from an agricultural dependence on tobacco and cotton and centered its efforts on diversifying traffic and industrial development. On November 29, 1906, Spencer

1872-423: The structures in this district "represent the best extant collection of antebellum railroad structures illustrating the development of an early railroad terminal facility." The railroad company with which they are associated was the first to use steam from the beginning of its operations, use an American-made locomotive , and carry U.S. mail. When it began operation in 1833 it had the greatest length of track in

1924-494: The train north of Washington. By the late 1970s, growing revenue losses and equipment-replacement expenses convinced Southern it could not continue in the passenger business. It handed full control of its passenger routes to Amtrak in 1979. Presidents of the Southern Railway: To mark its 30th anniversary, Norfolk Southern painted 20 new locomotives with the paint schemes of predecessor railroads. GE ES44AC #8099

1976-476: The train on March 12, 1899, and it was known as the crack train of the route until the introduction of the Crescent in 1925. A spur branch served Birmingham , but this was eliminated by 1964. By the end of that year, the southbound itinerary of the route was cut from running from New York to New Orleans to having Kings Mountain, North Carolina , south of Charlotte, North Carolina as the southern terminus of

2028-539: The train served Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Lynchburg, Charlottesville, Greensboro, Charlotte, Spartanburg, Greenville, Gainesville, Mobile and Gulfport. [REDACTED] Media related to Piedmont Limited at Wikimedia Commons Southern Railway (US) The Southern Railway (also known as Southern Railway Company ; reporting mark SOU ) was a class 1 railroad based in the Southern United States between 1894 and 1982, when it merged with

2080-425: The way passed easily through South Carolina's monotonously flat Pine Barrens. Elsewhere, the track was elevated – frequently over long distances – on timber pilings . A drop of 180 ft (55 m) over a 3,800 ft (1,200 m) run into Horse Creek Valley required an inclined plane, with a steam-powered winch later replaced by a locomotive used as a counterweight. Delays at this archaic bottleneck brought about

2132-500: The world under single management. The district was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1963. Contributing structures in the district include: This map depicts a certain section of railroad tracks in the wrong location. It went through Branchville to St. George and so on from the north side of the Edisto River. https://www.waymarking.com/gallery/image.aspx?f=1&guid=6a0f677c-7dbd-4f1a-a7a3-210d69d29ac6 All of

Piedmont Limited - Misplaced Pages Continue

2184-655: Was acquired and is now the BeltLine trail. Along with its famed Crescent and Southerner , the Southern's other named passenger trains included: The Southern Railway also handled ticket sales and operations for subsidiary railroads, such as: The Southern Railway also participated in the operation of the City of Miami , which was operated by the Southern Railway over the Central of Georgia trackage from Birmingham, Alabama , to Albany, Georgia , where it traded off with

2236-660: Was active in mechanization, used helper engines , is widely credited with inventing unit trains for coal and new freight cars, and understood the power of marketing using the promotional phrase "Southern Gives a Green Light to Innovation". In 1966, a popular steam locomotive excursion program was instituted under the presidency of W. Graham Claytor Jr. , and included Southern veteran locomotives No. 630 , No. 722 , No. 4501 , and Savannah & Atlanta No. 750 along with non-Southern locomotives such as Texas & Pacific No. 610 , Canadian Pacific No. 2839 , and Chesapeake & Ohio No. 2716 . The steam program continued after

2288-404: Was completed to link both Charleston, South Carolina, and Memphis, Tennessee . The Western North Carolina Railroad was halted because voters were angry about that law allowed purchasers of private bonds to have the train tracks veer to their towns. The provision of the laws that allowed this was not repealed until Reconstruction . Rail expansion in the South was also halted with the start of

2340-449: Was doubled by early way improvements, at that price still quite economical. This satisfying position blew up in the course of an overly ambitious overmountain expansion under the name of the Louisville, Cincinnati and Charleston Railroad . It never reached the Ohio River at Cincinnati, although it reached Columbia, South Carolina in 1840, Camden, South Carolina in 1848 and Atlanta, Georgia in 1853. The SCC&RR successfully weathered

2392-524: Was established on the north side of Birmingham, Alabama near the Findley Yard in 1924, taking the place of two obsolete facilities. The Princeton, Indiana shops were built in 1890. After the railroad switched to diesel power, the primary repair shops were consolidated to Spencer and Pegram. The Southern Railway began dieselization in 1941, and was the largest all-diesel railroad when it retired its last steam locomotive in 1953. The Southern Railway

2444-408: Was killed in a train wreck. After the line from Meridian, Mississippi , to New Orleans, Louisiana , was acquired in 1916 under Southern's president Fairfax Harrison , the railroad had assembled the 8,000-mile, 13-state system that lasted for almost half a century. Additionally, Southern have operated 6,791 miles of road at the end of 1925, but its flock of subsidiaries added 1000+ more. In 1912,

2496-632: Was overextended, and came upon financial troubles in 1893, when control was lost to financier J. P. Morgan , who reorganized it into the Southern Railway System. Southern Railway came into existence in 1894 through the combination of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, the Richmond and Danville system and the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad . The company owned two-thirds of the 4,400 miles of line it operated, and

2548-827: Was painted in Southern Railway's green and white livery. As of May of 2023, the engine was released from the Juniata Engine shops in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after having been repaired from a derailment in December 2021. South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company Chartered under act of the South Carolina General Assembly of December 19, 1827, the company operated its first 6-mile (9.7 km) line west from Charleston, South Carolina in 1830. The railroad ran scheduled steam service over its 136-mile (219 km) line from Charleston, South Carolina, to Hamburg, South Carolina , beginning in 1833. Some sources referred to

2600-529: Was slow and expensive, so this produce tended to go to Augusta, Georgia , then down the Savannah River to the seaport at Savannah, Georgia . The SCC&RR Company was chartered on December 19, 1827 (amended January 30, 1828) to divert this commerce to Charleston by means of connections to Columbia, Camden and Hamburg. Despite its novelty the project was pursued by its Charleston leaders with aggressive method, public demonstrations encouraging support for

2652-522: Was the first to carry passengers, U.S. troops and mail on steam-powered trains and experimented with railroad lighting. They had a pine log fire on a flatcar , covered in sand, to provide light at night before inexpensive kerosene was invented for lamps. The Southern operated some of the largest heavy repair shops of any US southeastern railroad. The oldest shops were located in Knoxville , Tennessee, first built in 1855. In 1890 they were relocated to

SECTION 50

#1732781111231

2704-531: Was the longest in the world. The company leased enslaved African Americans from plantation owners when free white people refused to work in the swamps. The company eventually purchased 89 people to work as slaves. As railroad fever struck other Southern states, networks gradually spread across the South and even across the Appalachian Mountains . By 1857, the Memphis and Charleston Railroad

#230769