Columbia, Newberry & Laurens Railroad: History, Timetable, Roster

Published: October 10, 2026

The Columbia, Newberry & Laurens was a 75-mile South Carolina railroad from Columbia to Laurens. The charter is dated December 26, 1885. Track reached Dover Junction in July 1891, and the purchase of the Laurens Railway in 1896 finished the line. On the October 12, 1908 card, still the one printed in the January 1910 Official Guide, Laurens is mile 75.0.

The Atlantic Coast Line was already running a through passenger train over the railroad by about 1910. The Interstate Commerce Commission, on November 4, 1926, authorized the Coast Line to buy control by purchasing the capital stock. The company kept its name, its reporting mark CNL, and, for a short time, its own diesel numbers. The Coast Line lettered five GP7s for it, 100–104. The corporation merged into the Seaboard System Railroad on April 30, 1984.

Columbia, Newberry and Laurens Railroad timetable from the January 1910 Official Guide, the card dated October 12, 1908

Columbia, Newberry & Laurens in the January 1910 Official Guide. The card is dated October 12, 1908. Columbia, Union Depot, to Laurens is 75.0 miles. Trains 14 and 52 run from Columbia to Laurens. Trains 15 and 53 run back. Daily except Sunday, Eastern time. W. G. Childs of Columbia is president.

On this page: The fork between the rivers · At a glance · The 1908 card · The older railroad to Laurens · Coast Line trains, then Coast Line stock · Five GP7s · April 30, 1984

The fork between the rivers

The South Carolina charter approved on December 26, 1885, authorized a railroad from the city of Columbia through the fork of Lexington and Newberry counties, by way of Prosperity and Newberry, to Laurens, and it left the company free to continue on to the North Carolina line. The country between the Broad and the Saluda is the Dutch Fork. That is the local name of the route, and it is why a later history of the railroad is called The Dutch Fork Line. People along the tracks also called the trains the Crooked, Noisy & Late.

Construction began in 1890. By July 1891 the new railroad was open from Columbia to Dover Junction, 63.5 miles, and a connection there with the Laurens Railway. In 1896 the Columbia, Newberry & Laurens bought that older line and the through route to Laurens was one company. The finished mileage on the 1908 card is 75.0.

Towns on the new portion of the line took their shape from the stations. Irmo, at mile 10.6, is explained locally as a name made from two of the company’s own men, C. J. Iredell, secretary-treasurer, and H. C. Moseley, the first president. Chapin, Little Mountain, and Prosperity are on the same 1908 list. Clinton and Laurens were already towns on the older railroad.

At a glance

Item	Detail
Headquarters	Columbia, South Carolina
Charter	December 26, 1885
Opened	Columbia to Dover Junction, July 1891. Through to Laurens, 1896
Route	Columbia–Laurens, 75.0 miles on the October 12, 1908 card
Gauge	4 feet, 8½ inches on the completed railroad
Reporting mark	CNL
Coast Line control	ICC authority, November 4, 1926, to buy the capital stock. The company kept its name
Diesels lettered CN&L	Five GP7s, 100–104, built November 1950 and October–December 1951
Passenger service	Ended in 1952. The trains had been steam
Successor	Merged into the Seaboard System on April 30, 1984. The route is CSX’s CN&L Subdivision

The 1908 card

The January 1910 Official Guide prints a card dated October 12, 1908. Two trains a day each way, daily except Sunday, on Eastern time. Numbers 14 and 52 leave Columbia for Laurens. Numbers 15 and 53 return. Columbia is Union Depot. A stop at Gervais Street, 1.6 miles out, is already on the card. Connections are marked for diverging roads, for the Seaboard Air Line, and for the Charleston & Western Carolina.

Miles	Station on the October 12, 1908 card
0	Columbia, Union Depot
1.6	Gervais Street
10.6	Irmo
15.3	Balentine
18.1	White Rock
23.0	Chapin
28.5	Little Mountain
35.9	Prosperity
43.1	Newberry
56.1	Kinard
59.6	Goldville
65.5	Clinton
75.0	Laurens

W. G. Childs of Columbia is president on that card, and T. H. Gibbs of Columbia is treasurer. The passenger traffic manager on the same page is W. J. Craig, at Wilmington, an Atlantic Coast Line officer, and the freight claim agent is at Wilmington as well. Childs was a Columbia banker. He was still president of the railroad when he died on the morning of May 2, 1912.

The first mortgage was an 1887 bond, $12,000 a mile, later carried as a 3 percent bond due July 1, 1937. The Commercial and Financial Chronicle of November 27, 1926, shows $888,000 of those bonds and a 1925 gross of $597,541. The same issue records the Coast Line control order of the month before.

The older railroad to Laurens

The outer end of the route was already a railroad when the Columbia company was chartered. The Laurens Railroad, chartered in 1847, opened in 1855 between Newberry and Laurens on five-foot gauge. The iron was taken up during the Civil War. The line was partly repaired in 1875 and operated by the Columbia & Greenville. It went into receivership in 1878, was sold at foreclosure in 1881, and reopened as the Laurens Railway. The Richmond & Danville bought it in 1888. The Columbia, Newberry & Laurens bought it in 1896, and the 75 miles became one property. Goldville, mile 59.6 on the 1908 card, is the town later called Joanna.

Coast Line trains, then Coast Line stock

The Wilmington names on the 1908 card belong to the through passenger train. The Clinton Chronicle of February 14, 1963, describing a photograph of the Clinton yard about 1910, says an Atlantic Coast Line passenger train between Charleston and Greenville used the Columbia, Newberry & Laurens from Columbia to Laurens, and that Clinton then saw four CN&L passenger trains a day, two each way, which is the count on the 1908 card. Seaboard trains between Washington and Birmingham used the same Clinton station. The paper remembered ten or twelve passenger trains a day in the town, four of them on this railroad.

Stock control came later. On November 4, 1926, the Interstate Commerce Commission authorized the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad to acquire control by purchasing the capital stock. The Columbia, Newberry & Laurens remained a separate corporation. Passenger trains out of Columbia’s Union Station continued, and local accounts put the company’s own Columbia passenger station at 630 Gervais Street in the early 1930s. Those same accounts say the passenger trains were pulled by steam until the service ended in 1952.

The Clinton station of 1908 came down in February 1963. Wilson, Sompayrac & Urquhart of Columbia had designed it, and the Chronicle reported that railroad men said the face brick had come from the state of Washington. By then the CN&L passenger trains had ended. The Seaboard had also used the building, and in 1963 that road still had six passenger trains a day through Clinton, using a renovated freight station. Freight on the CN&L included coal for the South Carolina Electric & Gas plant at Lake Murray.

Five GP7s

The Atlantic Coast Line lettered five Electro-Motive GP7s for the railroad, numbers 100 through 104. Those five are the diesel fleet it lettered for the Columbia, Newberry & Laurens. Numbers 100, 101, and 102 came in November 1950, order 6130. Numbers 103 and 104 came in October and December 1951, order 5166. They wore the Coast Line’s purple, aluminum, and yellow, with the Columbia road’s name on the hood.

Columbia, Newberry and Laurens GP7 102 at Columbia, South Carolina, in September 1951

Columbia, Newberry & Laurens GP7 No. 102 at Columbia, South Carolina, in September 1951. M. B. Connery photograph, Warren Calloway collection. Purple, an aluminum band, and yellow striping, the Atlantic Coast Line scheme, lettered for the CN&L. Atlantic Coast Line boxcar 17426 is coupled behind. This is one of five GP7s, 100–104.

In September 1951, when M. B. Connery photographed 102, the unit was ten months old and still carried its CN&L number and lettering. Numbers 103 and 104 were still ahead, in October and December. The Coast Line numbers that followed were brief. The five became Atlantic Coast Line 1100–1104, and then Atlantic Coast Line 275–279. At the Seaboard Coast Line merger of July 1, 1967, they were 875–879. The rows, with builder serials, are on the Atlantic Coast Line diesel roster.

CN&L No.	Serial	Order	Built	Later numbers
100	11968	6130	November 1950	ACL 1100, then ACL 275, SCL 875
101	12002	6130	November 1950	ACL 1101, then ACL 276, SCL 876
102	12003	6130	November 1950	ACL 1102, then ACL 277, SCL 877. The engine in the photograph
103	15600	5166	October 1951	ACL 1103, then ACL 278, SCL 878
104	15601	5166	December 1951	ACL 1104, then ACL 279, SCL 879

April 30, 1984

The company last paid its own employees in the fourth quarter of 1977. On February 23, 1984, the Seaboard System and its subsidiary filed a notice of exemption, Interstate Commerce Commission Finance Docket 30422, to merge the Columbia, Newberry & Laurens into the parent. The notice, issued March 6, said the line was already operated as part of Seaboard and that the service would continue as it was. The articles of merger were filed with the South Carolina Secretary of State on April 30, 1984. The capital stock was cancelled. The tracks and the equipment went to the Seaboard System.

Seaboard System renamed itself CSX Transportation on July 1, 1986. The Columbia–Laurens route remains CSX’s CN&L Subdivision. The Coast Line company that bought the stock in 1926 is the Atlantic Coast Line page, and the five GP7s in their later numbers are on that road’s diesel roster. South Carolina’s railroads are the state page.

Sources

Official Guide of the Railway and Steam Navigation Lines, January 1910. The Columbia, Newberry & Laurens card dated October 12, 1908: Columbia, Union Depot, to Laurens, 75.0 miles; the intermediate stations and miles; trains 14 and 52 from Columbia to Laurens and trains 15 and 53 from Laurens to Columbia; daily except Sunday; Eastern time; the officer list, including W. G. Childs, president, Columbia, and W. J. Craig, passenger traffic manager, Wilmington.
Charter approved December 26, 1885, as quoted in the Columbia, Newberry & Laurens station essay at Roots and Recall: Columbia through the fork of Lexington and Newberry counties, by Prosperity and Newberry, to Laurens, with authority to extend to the North Carolina line. The same essay, and the South Carolina railroad compilation at carolana.com, for construction begun in 1890, Columbia to Dover Junction in July 1891 at 63.5 miles, and the 1896 purchase of the Laurens Railway.
Laurens Railroad and Laurens Railway. Carolana.com: chartered 1847, open 1855, Newberry to Laurens; rails removed in the war; partial restoration in 1875 under the Columbia & Greenville; receivership in 1878; foreclosure sale in 1881 and operation as the Laurens Railway; Richmond & Danville purchase in 1888; conveyance to the Columbia, Newberry & Laurens in 1896. The five-foot gauge of the 1855 railroad is the Laurens Railway account.
The Herald and News (Newberry, S.C.), May 3, 1912. W. G. Childs, president of the C., N. & L. and of the Bank of Columbia, died on Thursday morning, May 2, 1912.
Commercial and Financial Chronicle, November 27, 1926. Columbia, Newberry & Laurens first-mortgage bonds, $12,000 a mile, dated 1887, $888,000 outstanding, 3 percent, due July 1, 1937, the bonds having been reissued as 3s in 1900. Gross for 1925, $597,541. The Interstate Commerce Commission, on November 4, 1926, authorized the Atlantic Coast Line to acquire control by purchase of the capital stock.
The Clinton Chronicle, February 14, 1963. Demolition that week of the CN&L passenger station in Clinton, built in 1908 and designed by Wilson, Sompayrac & Urquhart of Columbia. The paper’s report that railroad men said the face brick came from Washington state. Seaboard use of the same station, and six Seaboard passenger trains a day still running in 1963. The CN&L no longer in the passenger business, and controlled by the Atlantic Coast Line. The photograph of about 1910: an Atlantic Coast Line Charleston–Greenville passenger train on CN&L track from Columbia to Laurens, a Seaboard Washington–Birmingham train, and four CN&L passenger trains a day at Clinton.
Passenger service ended in 1952, and the trains were steam until then, as the Roots and Recall and carolana accounts of the railroad give it. The early-1930s move from Union Station to a company station at 630 Gervais Street is the same local account. Coal for the South Carolina Electric & Gas plant at Lake Murray is that account of the freight after the passenger trains ended. The Newberry Observer, March 4, 2023, gives the Irmo name as C. J. Iredell and H. C. Moseley.
Martin Baumann, Atlantic Coast Line diesel roster, thedieselshop.us, as printed on this site’s Atlantic Coast Line diesel page. GP7 275, serial 11968, order 6130, November 1950, ex-ACL 1100, nee CN&L 100. GP7 276–277, serials 12002–12003, order 6130, November 1950, ex-ACL 1101–1102, nee CN&L 101–102. GP7 278–279, serials 15600–15601, order 5166, October and December 1951, ex-ACL 1103–1104, nee CN&L 103–104. Seaboard Coast Line numbers 875–879. The production list of GP7s likewise gives the Columbia, Newberry & Laurens five units, 100–104, to Atlantic Coast Line 275–279.
Interstate Commerce Commission Finance Docket 30422, notice of exemption issued March 6, 1984, on a filing of February 23, 1984. Railroad Retirement Board legal opinion quoting J. M. Guthrie, director of payroll accounting, Seaboard System Railroad, November 6, 1985, and his letter of January 27, 1986: merger into the Seaboard System completed April 30, 1984; articles filed with the South Carolina Secretary of State that day; capital stock cancelled; the company last compensated employees in the fourth quarter of 1977; the line was already operated as part of Seaboard, and the merger did not change the service. Seaboard System took the name CSX Transportation on July 1, 1986. The route remains that company’s CN&L Subdivision.

Facebook X Pinterest Tumblr Reddit WhatsApp Messenger