Southern Railway (USA): Map, Locomotives, Logo, History

Last revised: October 16, 2026

The Southern Railway was the railroad of the Piedmont and the Appalachians, and then of nearly everything south of them. It was formed on July 1, 1894, when J. P. Morgan put two financially extended systems into one company. The two fundamental parts were the Richmond & Danville and the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia. Samuel Spencer was the first president. By 1918 the railroad owned or controlled over 8,000 miles, from Cincinnati and St. Louis to Jacksonville, and from Washington to Memphis and New Orleans. Headquarters were in Washington, D.C. The reporting mark was SOU. The slogan on the property was The Southern Serves The South. A later one, used when the company was selling its own modernization, was The Southern Gives A Green Light To Innovations.

Jim McClellan, who knew the property from the inside and later worked at Norfolk Southern, called it a rather boring place to work due its excellent management. The line is in Rush Loving Jr.’s The Men Who Loved Trains. On June 1, 1982, Norfolk Southern Corporation, a holding company, took control of the Southern and the Norfolk & Western. The two railroads remained separate subsidiaries. Robert B. Claytor was the holding company’s first chief executive, and Harold H. Hall its first president. On December 31, 1990, the Norfolk & Western became a subsidiary of the Southern Railway, and the Southern took the name Norfolk Southern Railway.

Southern Railway F7s with through freight 154 northbound near Austell, Georgia, on May 26, 1956

F7s with through freight 154, northbound near Austell, Georgia, just west of Atlanta, May 26, 1956. Shelby Lowe photograph.

On this page: At a glance · Charleston · Richmond & Danville · East Tennessee · Queen & Crescent · 1894 · The map · Steam · Passenger trains · Diesels · Later lines · Norfolk Southern

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Southern Railway. Reporting mark SOU
Headquarters	Washington, D.C.
States	Louisiana, Missouri (St. Louis), Illinois, Indiana, Ohio (Cincinnati), Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina
Formation	July 1, 1894. Richmond & Danville and East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia
Route miles	Over 8,000 (1918)
Gauge	5 feet, then 4 feet, 8½ inches from 1886
Slogans	The Southern Serves The South. The Southern Gives A Green Light To Innovations.
Principal lines	Washington–Charlotte–Atlanta–Birmingham–New Orleans. Cincinnati–Chattanooga–Birmingham. Danville, Kentucky–St. Louis. Chattanooga–Memphis. Chattanooga–Morristown–Knoxville–Bristol. Chattanooga–Atlanta–Valdosta–Jacksonville. Valdosta–Palatka. Salisbury–Asheville–Morristown. Asheville–Spartanburg–Charleston. Charlotte–Jacksonville. Danville, Virginia–Richmond–West Point. Greensboro–Norfolk. Rome–Mobile. Selma–Morehead City. Asheville–Murphy. Knoxville–Cumberland Gap–Middlesboro. Knoxville–Vasper–Fonde. Manassas–Harrisonburg
Steam	Post-1900 classes, including the large subsidiaries, are the steam roster. The newest steam was built in 1928
Diesels	Six Fairbanks-Morse power cars in 1939. All-diesel in 1953. Diesel roster
Passenger trains	The Crescent was the flagship. The named trains are below. Amtrak kept the Crescent
Successor	Norfolk Southern Corporation, the holding company, June 1, 1982. The Southern Railway took the name Norfolk Southern Railway on December 31, 1990

Charleston

The oldest line that later sat inside the Southern was not a Virginia railroad. The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company was chartered on December 19, 1827, to move agricultural freight from the interior to Charleston. The Best Friend of Charleston was in service on December 25, 1830. By October 1833 the railroad was open the 136 miles from Charleston to Hamburg, across the Savannah River from Augusta. It was the longest railroad of its day.

Richmond & Danville

The modern company begins with the Richmond & Danville, chartered on March 9, 1847, to connect those two Virginia cities. The line was finished in 1856 on a gauge of 5 feet. The gauge change to 4 feet, 8½ inches came in 1886. During the Civil War a subsidiary, the Piedmont Railroad, carried the R&D to Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1864. Atlanta was reached in 1873, together with a connection toward Washington that the partners sold as the Piedmont Air-Line. The name had nothing to do with airplanes. It was the period’s phrase for a route built with fills, cuts, and bridges, and advertised as a fast, low-grade line.

The roads gathered into that corridor included the Atlanta & Richmond Air Line between Charlotte and Atlanta, the state-owned North Carolina Railroad from Charlotte toward Morehead City, the Charlotte, Columbia & Augusta, and the Richmond & York River from Richmond to West Point. In 1880 the R&D interests formed the Richmond Terminal to keep buying. Within a few years the two companies controlled some 2,500 miles.

The Southern Railway herald. Author’s work.

East Tennessee

The other fundamental component was the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia. It was assembled from two earlier railroads. The East Tennessee & Virginia was incorporated on January 27, 1848, and opened 131 miles from Knoxville to Bristol in 1856. The East Tennessee & Georgia began as the Hiwassee Rail Road, incorporated on February 19, 1836, was reorganized under the later name on January 1, 1847, and finished 140 miles from Knoxville to Dalton, Georgia, by way of Chattanooga, in 1859. The two merged in 1869.

The ETV&G then grew past a regional railroad. A connection with the Virginia & Tennessee, later a Norfolk & Western line, opened a route toward Norfolk. In 1872 it leased the Memphis & Charleston, 332 miles from Memphis to Stevenson, Alabama. In 1880 it added the Selma, Rome & Dalton, from Selma, Alabama, to Kingston, Georgia. In 1881 it added the Macon & Brunswick, 185 miles between those cities, at first disconnected, and then closed the gap with an extension from Rome to Macon. At its peak the ETV&G owned or controlled some 1,400 miles. In February 1887 it was sold to the Richmond & Danville.

Queen & Crescent

The Queen & Crescent was a route, not a single company. The name covered the railroads that made a through line from Cincinnati to New Orleans: the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific, the Alabama Great Southern, the New Orleans & Northeastern, the Alabama & Vicksburg, and the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific. The through trains on that route are on the Queen & Crescent page.

The Cincinnati–Chattanooga railroad is the city-built Cincinnati Southern. The CNO&TP was incorporated on September 8, 1881, under Ohio general laws, to lease and operate it. The line through the Cumberland Mountains was the Rathole. The tunnels, and the work that replaced them, are on the Rathole Division page. The Alabama Great Southern carried the route from Chattanooga to Meridian. The New Orleans & Northeastern carried it from Meridian to New Orleans, and it was the last of the great extensions, taken in 1916.

1894

In 1890 the Richmond Terminal, which controlled or operated most of this collection, had a network of nearly 9,000 miles. The R&D and the ETV&G had already studied a merger, in 1887. The money failed first. The Richmond Terminal failed with it. J. P. Morgan took the assets and would reorganize only part of them. The Southern Railway was born on July 1, 1894, on just over 2,000 miles: the Richmond & Danville, the Virginia Midland into Washington by way of Danville, the Piedmont Railroad, the leased North Carolina Railroad, and the Atlanta & Charlotte Air Line.

Samuel Spencer, Morgan’s president, spent the rest of his life putting the useful pieces back. Later in the summer of 1894 the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia, the Charlotte, Columbia & Augusta, the Georgia Pacific, the Louisville Southern, and the Columbia & Greenville returned, some 2,400 miles. Further additions followed, among them the Georgia Southern & Florida and the Alabama Great Southern, then the Memphis & Charleston, the Mobile & Birmingham, and the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific. The Atlantic & Danville was a lease, not a purchase: the indenture is dated August 31, 1899, and the term ran from September 1, 1899, to July 1, 1949. In 1901 the Southern reached St. Louis through the Louisville, Evansville & St. Louis. In 1902 the Atlantic, Valdosta & Western extended the map to Jacksonville. In 1908 the Virginia & Southwestern brought a coal branch into southwestern Virginia, where the Southern interchanged with the Clinchfield, the Interstate, and the Louisville & Nashville.

Spencer was killed in a wreck in Virginia on November 29, 1906. The shop town of Spencer, North Carolina, carries his name. The Southern’s deed to the shops property was accepted on September 29, 1977. The site is the North Carolina Transportation Museum.

The map

What Drury’s chapter could say by 1918 was a system of over 8,000 miles. The heart of it was not a water-level railroad. Washington to Atlanta follows the foothills. Predecessor construction had been cheap, and the main lines kept the curves. Light rail and light bridges limited locomotive weight except on the trunks. The two maps below are the twentieth-century picture of that network, one before the Central of Georgia and one after the 1960s additions that were already in the family.

Southern Railway system map, 1952, from Cincinnati and St. Louis to Jacksonville and New Orleans

System map, 1952. Author’s work. Southern control of the Central of Georgia came on June 17, 1963. The Georgia & Florida and the Savannah & Atlanta were merged into the Central in 1971. The original Norfolk Southern was sold into the Carolina & Northwestern on January 1, 1974.

Official Southern Railway system map, 1969

Official system map, 1969. Author’s collection.

Steam

The Southern did not build its own engines. Twentieth-century orders favored Baldwin and Alco’s Richmond Works. Motive power stayed conservative. The newest steam was built in 1928. Except for a modest fleet of 2-8-8-2s, the largest locomotives were World War I-era USRA and pre-USRA 2-10-2s. More than 300 K and Ks Consolidations were the ordinary freight engine. Valve gear was Baker, Stephenson, and Southern, and many engines later received Walschaerts. H. Stafford Bryant, in The Georgian Locomotive, wrote that they were really not quite of this prosaic world: high Chippendale, with brass eagles, stars on the cylinders, Masonic wheels, and polished candlesticks about the headlight. No two engines still matched after the prewar and wartime modernization, which added stokers, feedwater heaters, multiple-bearing crossheads, mechanical lubricators, rebuilt cabs, and enlarged tenders. Roundhouses then personalized the handrails, the headlights, and the striping.

The trademark passenger engine was the Ps-4 Pacific. Deliveries began in 1923, a modified USRA heavy Pacific with 73-inch drivers, a slightly shorter boiler and frame, and, on the 1926 and 1928 batches, twelve-wheel tenders of 14,000 gallons. There were 64 Ps-4s for the Southern proper, the CNO&TP, and the Alabama Great Southern. They were black until 1926. Fairfax Harrison, after a trip to London and a look at the London & North Eastern’s green, brought Virginia green and gold leaf home. Within a few years the scheme was on passenger power from 4-8-2s down to 4-4-0s. Ps-4 No. 1401 has been the centerpiece of the Smithsonian’s railroad collection at the Museum of American History since 1962.

The Southern began steam excursions in 1966 with Ms Mikado 4501 in green and gold, joined by Ks-1 Consolidation 722, also green and gold. No. 4501 is a Baldwin engine of 1911, in the Ms series 4501–4635. The class grid, from switchers through the Mountains and the subsidiary rosters, is the steam page. The photographs of 4-8-2 No. 1452 at Asheville and 4-8-2 No. 6499 at Danville, Kentucky, are there with it.

Southern Railway F3s led by 4134 at Roanoke, Virginia, on the Norfolk and Western, April 4, 1967

F3s led by 4134 at Roanoke, Virginia, on the Norfolk & Western, April 4, 1967. Photographer unknown. American-Rails.com collection.

Passenger trains

The passenger trains were the public face of Virginia green. North of Washington they used the Pennsylvania Railroad, later Penn Central. The named trains included:

Aiken-Augusta Special, Washington–Salisbury–Augusta
Asheville Special, Washington–Greensboro–Asheville
Birmingham Special, Washington–Birmingham
Carolina Special, Cincinnati–Greensboro and Charleston
Crescent, New York–Washington–Atlanta–Montgomery–New Orleans
Florida Sunbeam, Cincinnati to Florida
Kansas City-Florida Special, Kansas City–Brunswick, Georgia, and Florida
Peach Queen, Washington–Atlanta
Pelican, New York–Lynchburg–Bristol–Knoxville–Chattanooga–Birmingham–New Orleans
Piedmont Limited, Washington–New Orleans
Ponce de Leon, Cincinnati–Jacksonville
Queen & Crescent, Cincinnati–New Orleans
Royal Palm, Cincinnati–Chattanooga–Jacksonville
Skyland Special, Asheville–Jacksonville
Southerner, Washington–Atlanta–Birmingham–New Orleans
Sunnyland, Memphis–Atlanta
Tennessean, Washington–Lynchburg–Bristol–Knoxville–Chattanooga–Memphis
Washington-Atlanta-New Orleans Express

Southern Railway F3 A-B set in the original passenger livery at Ivy City, Washington, D.C., on May 14, 1947

An F3 A-B set in the original passenger livery at Ivy City, Washington, D.C., May 14, 1947. When new, these units handled Washington–Atlanta trains. Leonard Rice photograph. American-Rails.com collection.

Southern Railway E7A 2914 with the Washington-Atlanta Express at Potomac Yard, Alexandria, Virginia, in August 1964

E7A No. 2914 with the Washington-Atlanta Express at Potomac Yard, Alexandria, Virginia, August 1964. Roger Puta photograph.

Southern Railway E8A 6907 leading the Southern Crescent at Atlanta on July 11, 1978

E8A No. 6907 leading the Southern Crescent at Atlanta, July 11, 1978. Carl Sturner photograph. American-Rails.com collection.

Southern Railway E8As at Ivy City, Washington, D.C., on March 19, 1977, for the Southern Crescent

E8As at Ivy City, Washington, D.C., March 19, 1977, for the Southern Crescent. William Mischler photograph. American-Rails.com collection.

Southern Railway FP7 6148 with train 5, remnants of the Piedmont Limited, at Orange, Virginia, on March 13, 1972

FP7 No. 6148 with train 5, the remnants of the Piedmont Limited, carrying expedited intermodal, at Orange, Virginia, March 13, 1972. Marty Bernard photograph.

Amtrak began on May 1, 1971. The Southern did not join at the start. It kept the Southern Crescent, and the remnants of other trains, into the late 1970s. The Crescent is the train Amtrak still runs over the former Southern between Washington and New Orleans.

Diesels

The first diesels in the record were six Fairbanks-Morse power cars for local passenger schedules, in 1939. Fourteen years later, in 1953, the Southern was all-diesel, the largest railroad up to that time to finish the change. Ernest Norris was the president through dieselization. Harry A. DeButts carried the company into the postwar years. D. W. Brosnan, W. Graham Claytor Jr., and L. Stanley Crane were the later presidents who made the green-light slogan mean centralized traffic control, welded rail, and a freight railroad that other lines studied. The system number series, including the locomotives lettered for the subsidiaries, is the diesel roster. FTA No. 6100, from the 1939 Electro-Motive demonstrator set, is photographed there.

Southern Railway GP30s in local service at Cary, North Carolina, in the fall of 1965

GP30s in local service at Cary, North Carolina, fall 1965. Warren Calloway photograph.

Southern Railway GP30s with trailers near Greensboro, North Carolina, in November 1971

GP30s with a string of trailers near Greensboro, North Carolina, November 1971. Warren Calloway photograph.

Southern Railway F3A 6706 and another F unit at Eatonton, Georgia, on November 24, 1972

F3A No. 6706 and another F unit at Eatonton, Georgia, November 24, 1972. American-Rails.com collection.

Southern Railway F3A 4195 leading an A-B-B-A-A set at Asheville in July 1973

F3A No. 4195 leading an A-B-B-A-A set at Asheville, July 1973. Warren Calloway photograph.

Southern Railway GP38 2736 with a trailer train on Seaboard Coast Line trackage rights near South Rocky Mount, North Carolina, on June 19, 1971

GP38 No. 2736 with a trailer train, by trackage rights over the Seaboard Coast Line near South Rocky Mount, North Carolina, June 19, 1971. Warren Calloway photograph.

Southern Railway mixed train Extra 4145 at Boylan Junction, Raleigh, on September 7, 1969

Mixed train Extra 4145 at Boylan Junction, Raleigh, September 7, 1969. Warren Calloway photograph. Boylan Junction is the Southern Railway.

Later lines

Southern control of the Central of Georgia dates from June 17, 1963. In 1971 the Southern merged the Georgia & Florida, the Wrightsville & Tennille, and the Savannah & Atlanta into the Central, which was renamed the Central of Georgia Railroad. The Central’s own history stays on that page. Its diesels that kept Central numbers stay on the Central’s roster. Units numbered in the Southern series and lettered for the Central are on the Southern diesel roster.

The Interstate Railroad was a coal road in southwestern Virginia, not a line the Southern simply absorbed in the autumn of 1960. Ralph K. Knode accepted the sale on May 20, 1959. Harry A. DeButts confirmed it on May 21, 1959. The price was 275,000 shares of Southern voting common for 80,000 Interstate shares. Southern stockholders approved on July 21, 1959, in Richmond. An examiner reported on October 6, 1960, and the Commission approved that report on February 24, 1961. A labor case dates the acquisition June 6, 1961. June 1, 1982, did not end the Interstate company. On October 31, 1985, the former Interstate lines were transferred to the Clinch Valley Extension of the Pocahontas Division. The Interstate-lettered diesels, ten RS3s, are on the Interstate page.

The original Norfolk Southern was a different railroad, the Elizabeth City & Norfolk line, reporting mark NS. On January 1, 1974, the Southern bought it and merged it into the Carolina & Northwestern, which kept the Norfolk Southern name. In 1981 that subsidiary was renamed Carolina & Northwestern. It was not dissolved in 1982, and it did not stop running trains in 1982. The company page is the original Norfolk Southern. Its 59 diesels are the diesel roster there.

Southern Railway GP38AC 2860 with trailers southbound near Midland, Virginia, in August 1982

GP38AC No. 2860 with trailers southbound near Midland, Virginia, August 1982. American-Rails.com collection. The holding company was two months old. The operating company was still the Southern Railway.

Southern Railway FP7s on a fan trip across Williamsburg Road in Richmond, Virginia, on July 24, 1983

FP7s on a fan trip across Williamsburg Road in Richmond, Virginia, July 24, 1983. Doug Boyd photograph, Warren Calloway collection.

Boylan Junction in Raleigh, North Carolina, on November 18, 1983

Boylan Junction, Raleigh, November 18, 1983. Warren Calloway photograph. The holding company dated from June 1, 1982. The Southern Railway was still the operating company. The Norfolk & Western did not become its subsidiary until December 31, 1990.

Norfolk Southern

The holding company of June 1, 1982, was the competitive answer to the Seaboard Coast Line and Chessie combination. It was not the day the Southern stopped being a railroad. Trains in the photographs of August 1982, July 1983, and November 1983 were still Southern operations. The corporate step that created one operating name came on December 31, 1990, when the Norfolk & Western became a subsidiary of the Southern Railway and the Southern took the name Norfolk Southern Railway. Much of the map at the top of this page is still that railroad.

Sources

George H. Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition. “Southern,” by Dale Roberts and Bill Schafer, pp. 294–299. Formation, the 1918 mileage, the character of the power, the Ps-4s, and the class grid.
H. Stafford Bryant Jr., The Georgian Locomotive. The description of the passenger engines quoted above.
Richard E. Prince, Southern Railway System Steam Locomotives and Boats (Richard E. Prince, 1970).
Railroad Magazine, June 1937, p. 80; July 1938, p. 134; March 1950, p. 114. Trains, December 1949, p. 18.
Rush Loving Jr., The Men Who Loved Trains. The McClellan remark in the lead.
Tom Murray, Southern Railway, and Mike Schafer, More Classic American Railroads. The predecessor mileage in the formation section, including the Richmond Terminal’s nearly 9,000 miles and the just-over-2,000-mile railroad of July 1, 1894.
Central of Georgia control, June 17, 1963, and the 1971 mergers into that company, are the dates already fixed on the Central of Georgia page. The Interstate sale dates are the dates already fixed on the Interstate page. The original Norfolk Southern sale of January 1, 1974, and the 1981 renaming, are the dates already fixed on that page. June 1, 1982, and December 31, 1990, are the Norfolk Southern holding-company dates already fixed on the Norfolk & Western page.

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