Jump to content

Seaboard System Railroad

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Rhatsa26X (talk | contribs) at 23:48, 9 September 2010 (→Operating divisions). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Seaboard System Railroad
File:Seaboard System logo.jpg
File:SCL GP16 1786.jpg
Seaboard System Railroad #1786, a GP16 rebuild in its original paint scheme, at Mulberry, Florida
Overview
HeadquartersJacksonville, Florida
Reporting markSBD
LocaleSoutheastern United States
Dates of operationJanuary 1, 1983 (1983-01-01)–July 1, 1986 (1986-07-01)
SuccessorCSX Transportation

The Seaboard System Railroad was created as an intermediate step for the later CSX Transportation. The newly created railroad combined seven railroads into one, reducing the problems of transferring freight cars from one railroad to another. Also at this time, most railroads lost the reason to exist, as the landmark Staggers Rail Act allowed railroads to freely change rates as they pleased.

The Seaboard's roots were in the Family Lines System, a marketing name adopted by the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad and its subsidiaries in 1972. Under this relationship, equipment of the SCL, Louisville and Nashville Railroad, Georgia Railroad, Clinchfield Railroad, Atlanta and West Point Railroad, and Western Railway of Alabama were repainted French themed gray with yellow and red stripes, but the six companies continued to operate separately with their reporting marks on the cabs of the locomotives or freight cars. However, the marketing name created confusion with customers and shippers, as the railroads operated differently, but the Family Lines logo buried the railroads identities.[1][2]

On December 18, 1982, the Family Lines System marketing name was renamed as the Seaboard System (without Railroad). This was originally intended as a refresher to the already-confusing Family Lines name. However things changed eleven days later as the Louisville & Nashville and Clinchfield railroads were merged into the Seaboard Coast Line on December 29, 1982. Starting on January 1, 1983, the Seaboard Coast Line renamed itself as the Seaboard System Railroad, reflecting the railroads merged away into SCL with System. The Family Lines colors were retained, but redesigned in which the stripes were curved in a stylized "SS" and the meshed in font ITC Eras Demi.[1][2][3]

The Family Lines logo included the seven systems that were grouped under the name.

Mergers and consolidations

Within its short existence of only four years, the Seaboard was considered a temporary railroad. Within its timeframe, the SBD refined equipment to meet the C&O/B&O standards (most noticeably on their new EMD SD50's at the time), discontinued a few railroad traditions, abandoned the use of MARS lights on locomotives, merged away smaller companies, and introduced a numbering system that partially became meshed within the B&O/C&O locomotive fleet. Once CSX Transportation began, the refinements of Seaboard and Chessie System were well combined.

Seaboard System Railroad Mergers
Railroad Date
South Carolina Pacific Railway April 30, 1984
Louisville, Henderson and St. Louis Railway July 1984
Gainesville Midland 1985
Atlanta & West Point Railroad June 1986
Columbia, Newberry & Laurens June 1986


Once the ICC approved of the merger, the Seaboard System Railroad was renamed as CSX Transportation on June 1, 1986. The railroad began applying the CSX Transportation logo and paint scheme on a few of its locomotives. On April 30, 1987, the Baltimore & Ohio was merged into the Chesapeake & Ohio; with the C&O merging into CSX Transportation on August 30, 1987. All the major parts of CSX were now one company.[3] (The Western Railway of Alabama would remain an operating subsidiary until December 2002, when it was finally merged into CSX.[4])

Operating divisions

References

  1. ^ a b Brian Solomon, CSX: Railroad Heritage, 1827-2004, 2005, pp. 41, 62, 93
  2. ^ a b Bill Yenne, Atlas of North American Railroads, 2005, p. 107
  3. ^ a b Moody's Transportation Manual, 1992, pp. xxii-xxiv, 421-428, 451
  4. ^ Surface Transportation Board, CSX TRANSPORTATION, INC.--CORPORATE FAMILY MERGER EXEMPTION--THE WESTERN RAILWAY OF ALABAMA, December 26, 2002
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Seaboard_System_Railroad&oldid=383929107"