I was visiting my son on the west side of Michigan when I noticed freight cars with Norfolk Southern Railway markings. After some research I found that The Norfolk Southern Railway serves southern Michigan Therefore I find it fitting to include this information here.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia| Norfolk Southern Railway | |
|---|---|
| Reporting mark |
|
| Locale | Eastern United States |
| Dates of operation | 1982–Present |
| Predecessor | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 81⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
| Length | 21,500 miles (34,600 kilometres) |
| Headquarters | Norfolk, Virginia |
| Website | nscorp.com |
The Norfolk Southern Railway (reporting mark NS) is a Class I railroad in the United States, owned by the Norfolk Southern Corporation. With headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, the company operates over 22,000 route miles in 22 eastern states, theDistrict of Columbia,[1] and has rights in Canada from Buffalo to Toronto and over the Albany to Montreal route.[2][dubious ][3] The most common commodity hauled on the railroad is coal from mines in Indiana, Kentucky,Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The railroad also offers the most extensive intermodal network in eastern North America.
The current system was formed in 1982 with the creation of the Norfolk Southern Corporation, a holding company, and on December 31, 1990, the Southern Railway was renamed the Norfolk Southern Railway, and control of the Norfolk & Western Railway was transferred from the holding company to the Norfolk Southern Railway. In 1999, the system grew substantially with the acquisition of over half of Conrail.
Together Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Railroad have a duopoly over all east-west freight rail traffic east of the Mississippi River.
History[edit]
Norfolk Southern's predecessor railroads date to the early 19th century. The three main branches of the current corporate family tree were systems for many years themselves:
- Norfolk & Western, formed in 1881.
- Southern Railway System, formed in 1894.
- Conrail, formed in 1976 from the Penn Central Railroad (1968–1976),[4] perhaps the most controversial conglomerate in corporate history. Penn Central itself was created by merging three venerable rivals — the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR, 1846), the New York Central Railroad (NYC, 1831), and the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad(NYNH&H, 1872) — as well as some smaller competitors.
Southern Railway[edit]
The SR's earliest predecessor line was the South Carolina Canal & Rail Road. Chartered in December 1827, the South Carolina Canal & Rail Road Company became the first in the nation to offer regularly scheduled passenger train service with the inaugural run of the Best Friend of Charleston on December 25, 1830.[5]
Another early predecessor, the Richmond & Danville Railroad (R&D), was formed in 1847 and expanded into a large system after the American Civil War under Algernon S. Buford. The R&D ultimately fell on hard times and in 1894, it became a major portion of the new Southern Railway (SOU). Financier J. P. Morgan selected veteran railroaderSamuel Spencer as president. Profitable and innovative, Southern became in 1953 the first major U.S. railroad to completely switch to diesel-electric locomotives from steam.
Norfolk & Western[edit]
The City Point Railroad, established in 1838, was a 9-mile (14 km) railroad in Virginia that started just south of Richmond — specifically, City Point on the navigable portion of theJames River, now part of the independent city of Hopewell — and ran to Petersburg. It was acquired by the South Side Railroad in 1854.
After the Civil War, it became part of the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad (AM&O), a trunk line across Virginia's southern tier formed by mergers in 1870 by William Mahone, who had built the Norfolk & Petersburg Railroad in the 1850s. The AM&O was the oldest portion of the Norfolk & Western (N&W) when it was formed in 1881, under new ownerswith 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 N&W acquired the Virginian Railway (1959), the Wabash Railway, and the Nickel Plate Road, among others.[4]
1982 merger[edit]
NS was created in 1982 from the merger of N&W and SOU, both profitable companies. The new company was given the name of the Norfolk Southern Railway, an older line, acquired by SOU in 1974, that served primarily North Carolina and the southeastern tip of Virginia. Headquarters for the new NS were established in Norfolk, Virginia. The company suffered a slight embarrassment when the marble headpiece at the building's entrance was unveiled, which read "Norfork Southern Railway". A new headpiece replaced the erroneous one several weeks later.[6]
The merger aimed to compete in the eastern United States with CSX Transportation, formed after the Interstate Commerce Commission's 1980 approval of the merger of theChessie System and the Seaboard System.
Conrail[edit]
Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) was a 11,000-mile (18,000 km) system formed 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.
In 1996, CSX bid to buy Conrail. Norfolk Southern, fearing that CSX would come to dominate rail traffic in the eastern U.S., responded with a bid of its own. On June 23, 1997, NS and CSX 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 NS-CSX application, effective August 22, 1998.
NS acquired 58% of Conrail assets, while CSX got the remaining 42%, including about 7,200 miles (11,600 km) of track, most of which was part of the former Pennsylvania Railroad. NS began operating its trains on its portion of the former Conrail network on June 1, 1999, closing out the 1990s merger era.
Operations[edit]
NS is a major transporter of domestic and export coal. The railroad's major sources of the mineral are located in: Pennsylvania's Cambria and Indiana counties, as well as theMonongahela Valley; West Virginia; and the Appalachia regions of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. In Pennsylvania, NS also receives coal through interchange with R.J. Corman Railroad/Pennsylvania Lines at Cresson, Pennsylvania, originating in the "Clearfield Cluster".
NS's export of West Virginia bituminous coal, begins transport on portions of the well-engineered former Virginian Railway and the former N&W double-tracked line in Eastern Virginia to its Lambert's Point coal pier on Hampton Roads at Norfolk. 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. NS was the first railway to employ roadrailers, which are highway truck trailers with interchangeable wheel sets.
According to NS's 2012 Annual Report to Investors, at the end of 2012, NS had more than 30,943 employees, 3,468 locomotives, and 79,082 freight cars.
At the end of 2012, the transport of coal, coke, and iron ore made up 26% of the total operating revenue of NS, general merchandise (automotive, chemicals, metals, construction materials, agriculture commodities, consumer products, paper, clay, and forest products) made up 54%, and intermodal made up 20% of the total.
As of October 1, 2014 Norfolk Southern Railway's total public stock value was slightly over $34.5 billion.
