This work documents the history of the companies, lines, and locomotives which eventually formed one of the most successful railroads of the Atlantic Seaboard. Although the Atlantic Coast Line RR organisation did not exist until 1900, the ACL as a rail system operated long before this date. Sections of its track, known as the Weldon Route, were constructed prior to the civil war. Acquisitions and mergers resulted, by 1900, in a 1676-mile system extending from Richmond, VA to Charleston, SC and Augusta, GA. In 1902, with the support of J. Pierpont Morgan, ACL chairman Henry Walters took over the all 2220 miles of the plant system. With the additions of The Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Ry in 1924 and the Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic Ry in 1926, the Atlantic Coast Line was able to proclaim itself The Standard Railroad of the South. By 1960 the system exceeded 12,000 miles, Atlantic Coast Line railroad, however, focuses upon the 5,572 miles of track which were actually operated as the Atlantic Coast Line RR.
The author gives detailed histories of the Atlantic Coast Line's composite railways, and subsidiaries, as well as connecting steamboat and ship lines operated or acquired by the organisation. He documents the ACL's passenger and freight routes, which included popular services to and from New York and Havana plus Chicago and Florida. His engineering background also makes him the perfect person to provide informative descriptions, photographs, rosters and pages of schematic diagrams of the railroad's steam locomotives.
- ISBN10 0253336945
- ISBN13 9780253336941
- Publish Date 1 March 2000
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 17 October 2003
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Indiana University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 232
- Language English