The
Seaboard System Railroad was a former
Class I railroadA Class I railroad in the United States and Mexico, or a Class I rail carrier in Canada, is a large freight railroad company, as classified based on operating revenue.Smaller railroads are classified as Class II and Class III...
created by merging the railroads of the Family Lines System. Although sharing common ownership, the railroads of the Family Lines System used different names when conducting business. In order to alleviate confusion and facilitate the eventual merger of the railroad subsidiaries of
CSX CorporationCSX Corporation was formed in 1980 by the merger of Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries and eventually merged the various railroads owned by those predecessors into a single line that became known as CSX Transportation. Based in Richmond, Virginia, USA after the merger, in 2003...
, the Seaboard System was created effective January 1, 1983. The company was merged on July 1, 1986 with the
Chessie SystemChessie System, Inc. was a holding company that owned the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway , the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad , the Western Maryland Railway , and several smaller carriers. It was incorporated in Virginia on February 26, 1973, and it acquired the C&O on June 15...
to form
CSX TransportationCSX Transportation operates a Class I railroad in the United States known as the CSX Railroad. It is the main subsidiary of the CSX Corporation. The company is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and owns approximately 21,000 route miles...
.
History
The Seaboard's roots were in
Seaboard Coast Line IndustriesSeaboard Coast Line Industries, Inc., incorporated in Delaware on May 9, 1969, was a railroad holding company that owned the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, its subsidiary Louisville and Nashville Railroad, and several smaller carriers. Its railroad subsidiaries were collectively known as the Family...
, a holding company created in 1972 in order to combine the SCL's subsidiary railroads into a single entity. Although a new unified Family Lines System name and logo was adopted, each railroad under its control maintained its identity. This arrangement often caused confusion among customers of the railroad.
On November 1, 1980, CSX Corporation acquired both the Family Lines group as well as the Chessie System. Although now sharing a common owner, the two railroads remained as distinct operating entities. Effective January 1, 1983, the Family Lines group subsidiaries were merged into a single operating unit, the Seaboard System. The new railroad was quick to shed the confusing nature of its predecessor by creating a new logo, using new universally applied reporting marks, and by adopting a new stylized font; a variant of
ITC Eras Demi.
Effective July 1, 1986, the Seaboard System was merged with the Chessie System to form
CSX TransportationCSX Transportation operates a Class I railroad in the United States known as the CSX Railroad. It is the main subsidiary of the CSX Corporation. The company is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and owns approximately 21,000 route miles...
.
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 SD50The EMD SD50 was a diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division. It was introduced in May 1981 as part of EMD's "50 Series", but prototype SD50S locomotives were built from 1980; production ceased in January 1986...
'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 The South Carolina Pacific Railway was a shortline railroad operation that existed in eastern South Carolina in the late 19th century and much of the 20th century.The line was chartered in 1882 and completed in 1884...
|
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. (The Western Railway of Alabama would remain an
operating subsidiaryAn operating subsidiary is a business term frequently used within the United States in corporate profile descriptions. In the railroad industry, for example, it refers to a company that is a subsidiary but operates with its own identity and rolling stock...
until December 2002, when it was finally merged into CSX.)
Operating divisions
This section lists the operating divisions of the Seaboard System as of January 1, 1985:
- Atlanta
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
- Birmingham
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
- Corbin
- Economy :Originally formed by L&N Railroad, rail transport was the backbone of the local economy in the first half of the twentieth century. While the railroad continues to play an important role, the decline of the rail industry in the latter half of the twentieth century, as well as the loss...
- Evansville
Evansville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Indiana and the largest city in Southern Indiana. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 117,429. It is the county seat of Vanderburgh County and the regional hub for both Southwestern Indiana and the...
- Florence
-Municipal government and politics:The City of Florence has a council-manager form of government. The mayor and city council are elected every four years, with no term limits...
- Jacksonville
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
- Louisville
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
- Mobile
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...
- Nashville
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
- Raleigh
Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...
- Savannah
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...
- Tampa
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state of Florida. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709....