Norfolk
Southern Railway - (en)
The Norfolk Southern (AAR reporting marks NS), is a major Class I
railroad in the United States, owned by the Norfolk Southern
Corporation. The company operates 21,500 route miles in 22 eastern
states, the District of Columbia and the province of Ontario, Canada.
The most common commodity hauled on the railroad is coal from mines in
Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. The
railroad also offers an extensive intermodal network in eastern North
America. The current system was planned in 1982 with the formation of
the Norfolk Southern Corporation, merged on December 31, 1990 with the
lease of the Norfolk and Western Railway by the renamed Southern
Railway, and augmented in 1998 with the acquisition of over half of
Conrail.
History of the railroad
Norfolk Southern was created from predecessor railroads which date
back to the early portion of the 19th century. Prior to current times,
the three main branches of the current corporate family tree were for
many years themselves systems: Norfolk and Western, formed in 1881,
Southern Railway System in 1894, and Conrail, formed much later, in
1976. Each of these grew from many smaller local and regional lines as
the industry grew.
Southern Railway
The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road, the earliest predecessor line,
was chartered in December 1827 and ran the nation's first regularly
scheduled passenger train on December 25, 1830. The Richmond and
Danville Railroad (R&D), formed in 1847, which expanded into a
large system after the American Civil War under the leadership of
Algernon S. Buford.
When the R&D fell on hard times financially in the early 1890s, it
became a major portion of the newly created Southern Railway in 1894.
Financier J.P. Morgan selected veteran railroader Samuel Spencer as
President to head the firm, which became well-known as both profitable
and innovative. Southern Railway was the first major U.S. railroad to
completely switch to more efficient diesel-electric locomotives from
steam in 1953.
Norfolk and Western
The City Point Railroad was a nine-mile railroad just south of
Richmond, Virginia established in 1838 which ran from City Point (now
part of the independent City of Hopewell) on the navigable portion of
the James River to Petersburg, Virginia. It was acquired by the South
Side Railroad in 1854. After the War, it became part of the Atlantic,
Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (A,M&O), a trunk line across
Virginia's southern tier formed by mergers in 1870 by William Mahone,
who had been builder of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad in the
1850s. The A,M&O was the oldest portion of the Norfolk and Western
(N&W) when it was formed in 1881, under new owners with a keen
interest and financial investments in the coal fields of Western
Virginia and West Virginia, a product which came to define and enrich
the railroad.
In the second half of the 20th century, the profitable N&W had
already acquired the Virginian Railway, the Wabash Railway, and the
Nickel Plate Road, among others, before it combined with the also
profitable Southern Railway to form the new Norfolk Southern.
1982 merger
NS was created in 1982 from the merger of the Norfolk and Western
Railway and the Southern Railway Company, both profitable companies.
An earlier company, also named the Norfolk Southern Railway, serving
primarily North Carolina and the southeastern tip of Virginia, had
been acquired by the Southern Railway in 1974. The older company was
the namesake for the 1982 combination. Headquarters for the newly
established Norfolk Southern were established in Norfolk, Virginia.
The 1982 combination of the profitable Norfolk and Western Railway and
Southern Railway was done to compete in the eastern United States with
the Chessie System-Seaboard Coast Line merger which had been approved
by the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1980, resulting in formation
of CSX Transportation.
Conrail
Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) was an 11,000-mile (18000 km)
system which had been created in 1976 by bringing together several
ailing northeastern railway systems into a government-owned
corporation. Conrail had become profitable after the Staggers Act in
1980 largely deregulated the U.S. railroad industry.
On June 23, 1997, Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation filed a
joint application with the Surface Transportation Board (STB) for
authority to purchase, divide and operate the assets of Conrail. On
June 6, 1998, the STB approved the Norfolk Southern-CSX application
and set August 22, 1998, as the effective date of its decision.
Norfolk Southern acquired 58% of Conrail’s assets (CSX got the
remaining 42%). As a result of the transaction, Norfolk Southern's
rail operations grew to include some 7,200 miles (11500 km) of the
Conrail system (predominantly the former Pennsylvania Railroad).
Norfolk Southern began operating its trains on its portion of the
Conrail network on June 1, 1999.
Company executives
Presidents of Norfolk Southern have included:
Robert B. Claytor 1982-1993
Arnold B. McKinnon
David R. Goode
Charles "Wick" Moorman 2004
Major businesses
The railroad is a large exporter of West Virginia bituminous coal,
transported on portions of the well-engineered former Virginian
Railway and the famous former Norfolk and Western's double-tracked
line in Eastern Virginia to its Lambert's Point coal transload
facility on Hampton Roads at Norfolk, Virginia. Coal transported by NS
is thus exported to steel mills and power plants around the world. The
company is also a major transporter of auto parts and completed
vehicles. It operates intermodal container and TOFC (trailer on flat
car) trains, some in conjunction with other railroads. Norfolk
Southern was the first railway to employ roadrailers, which are
highway truck trailers with interchangeable wheel sets.
According to Norfolk Southern’s 2003 Annual Report to Investors, at
the end of 2003, the Norfolk Southern Railway had more than 28,160
employees, 3,468 locomotives, and 101,095 freight cars.
At the end of 2003, the transport of coal, coke and iron ore made up
23% of the total amount of traffic hauled by Norfolk Southern.
Intermodal containers made up 19% of the total; autoracks 14%;
chemical tankers 12%; metals, construction materials, agriculture
commodities, and consumer products 11%; paper, clay, and forest
products 10%.
Track network and facilities
Main article: List of Norfolk Southern Railway lines
Largely an eastern United States railway, the Norfolk Southern
directly owns and operates 21,500 miles of track in 21 states:
Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New
York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee,
Virginia, and West Virginia. In addition, Norfolk Southern owns track
in Washington D.C. and the Canadian province of Ontario. It operates
three primary hubs in its system, in Harrisburg, Chicago and Atlanta.
Furthermore, Norfolk Southern has rights to operate its trains with
its own crews on competing railroads' tracks. These trackage rights
permit Norfolk Southern to operate as far west as Dallas, Texas, as
far north as Waterville, Maine, and as far south as Miami, Florida. NS
locomotives also occasionally operate on competitors' tracks
throughout the United States and Canada due to the practice of
locomotive leasing and sharing undertaken by the Class I railroads.
Not including second, third and fourth main line trackage, yard
trackage, and siding trackage, the Norfolk Southern directly operates
some 21,500 miles (34,601 kilometers) of track. When the additional
tracks are counted, however, the amount of track the Norfolk Southern
Railway has direct control over rises to over 38,000 miles (61,155
kilometers).
The company has 26 major rail classification yards, located in:
Allentown, Pennsylvania
Atlanta, Georgia
Baltimore, Maryland
Bellevue, Ohio
Birmingham, Alabama
Bluefield, West Virginia
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chicago, Illinois
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Conway, Pennsylvania
Decatur, Illinois
Detroit, Michigan
Elkhart, Indiana
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Kansas City, Missouri
Knoxville, Tennessee
Linwood, North Carolina
Louisville, Kentucky
Macon, Georgia
Norfolk, Virginia
Roanoke, Virginia
Sheffield, Alabama
St. Louis, Missouri
Williamson, West Virginia
Six major locomotive shops are located in:
Altoona, Pennsylvania
Bellevue, Ohio
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Conway, Pennsylvania
Enola, Pennsylvania
Roanoke, Virginia
Chicago To Fort Wayne
This is probably the easiest route for NS trains to take from Chicago
to Fort Wayne or vice versa. This route has many passing sidings which
allow trains coming from one direction to stop while another train
passes. The longest passing siding on this section of the railroad is
located in Hobart, Indiana.
