Notable Features
Southern and its predecessors were responsible for many firsts in the industry. Starting in 1833, its predecessor, the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road, was the first to carry passengers, U.S. troops and mail on steam-powered trains, and it was the first to operate at night.
On June 17, 1953 the railroad's last steam-powered freight train arrived in Chattanooga, Tennessee behind 2-8-2 locomotive No. 6330.
From dieselization and shop and yard modernization, to computers and the development of special cars and the unit coal train, Southern often was on the cutting edge of change, earning the company its catch phrase, "Southern Gives a Green Light to Innovation."
From 1966, a popular steam locomotive excursion program was instituted under the presidency of W. Graham Claytor, Jr. The steam program survived the merger which formed the new Norfolk Southern Railway in 1982, but was finally discontinued in 1994 but has now been reinstated (on a limited basis) as of 2009.
In the early 2000s a 22 miles (35 km) loop of former Southern Railway right-of-way encircling central Atlanta neighborhoods was acquired and is now the BeltLine trail.
Read more about this topic: Southern Railway (U.S.)
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