Family Lines | History

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Family Lines System (Railroad)

Family Lines System Historical Timeline

1967–1971: The genesis of common ownership

  • 1967: The Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL), two historic rivals, merge to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (SCL).
  • Ownership: A holding company, Seaboard Coast Line Industries (SCLI), is created in 1968 to bring together the SCL and its various subsidiary railroads, including its majority-owned affiliate, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N).
  • Financial Results: Merging the two railroads reduces redundancies and improves profitability in a challenging economic climate for the rail industry.
  • Passenger Service: Following the creation of Amtrak in 1971, SCL transfers its passenger services, including its flagship Florida trains, to the new national passenger rail system. 

1972–1979: A marketing cooperative emerges

  • 1972: The railroads owned by SCLI, including SCL, L&N, the Georgia Railroad, the Clinchfield Railroad, the Atlanta & West Point Railroad, and the Western Railway of Alabama (known as the “West Point Route”), begin to be marketed collectively as the “Family Lines System”.
  • Marketing Campaigns: The Family Lines System brand is created to present a unified image and compete more effectively with rival railroads like the Southern Railway. A distinct gray, gold, and red paint scheme is applied to locomotives and rolling stock, but locomotives also display the reporting mark of the individual railroad.
  • Strategy: The strategy is a “marketing umbrella” to provide shippers with seamless service across the various lines, as full corporate merger was delayed for financial and regulatory reasons.
  • Operations: The member railroads for the most part continue to operate independently under their own names, though operational coordination and system-wide service improvements are implemented.
  • Ownership: The SCL maintains controlling stock or leases in the member railroads through the SCL Industries holding company structure.
  • Top Commodities: Primary freight includes Appalachian coal from the Clinchfield and L&N lines, automobiles and parts, lumber, and phosphates, reflecting the diverse traffic of the combined network. 

1980–1982: The path to consolidation and CSX

  • 1980: Seaboard Coast Line Industries and Chessie System merge their holding companies to form the CSX Corporation.
  • Ownership: The Family Lines System and the Chessie System become subsidiaries of the new CSX Corporation, but continue to operate as separate railroads.
  • Restructuring: The holding company structure is viewed as an intermediate step toward complete corporate and operational consolidation.
  • 1982: The Family Lines System name is officially dropped as the full merger of the member railroads finally occurs. The SCL and L&N merge and change their name to the Seaboard System Railroad.
  • Executives: Management works to integrate the operations of the long-separate railroads, a significant restructuring effort. 

1983–1986: The Seaboard System and the final merger

  • 1983: The Seaboard System Railroad formally absorbs the Clinchfield, Georgia, Atlanta & West Point, and Western Railway of Alabama, completing the merger of the former Family Lines railroads.
  • Innovation: The consolidation allows for further system-wide modernization and operational improvements.
  • 1986: On July 1, the Seaboard System is renamed CSX Transportation.
  • Final Merger: The corporate history of the Family Lines railroads concludes as they become part of the larger CSX Transportation entity, which would later absorb the Chessie System railroads. 

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For More Information – Sources and Resources

The following are excellent resources for those of you wanting to explore and learn more about the history and operation of the Appalachian Railroads. These sources of information also serve as reference and historical materials for Appalachian-Railroads.org. Much of the collective railroad history data points on this website are verified across multiple sources.

  • Personal Maps & Memorabilia: Documents, maps, timetables, and track charts
  • Associations, Historical Societies and their Archives
  • Archives of Appalachia: ETSU, Johnson City TN
  • Newspaper Articles: Newspapers.com
  • Magazines/Online: ‘Trains‘, ‘Classic Trains‘
  • Books
    • Drury: The Historical Guide to North American Railroads
    • Appalachian Region
      • Grant: ‘The Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston Rail Road’
      • Graybeal: ‘The Railroads of Johnson City
      • Huddleston: ‘Appalachian Crossings – The Pocahontas Roads‘ and ‘Appalachian Conquest‘
      • Poole: ‘A History of Railroading in Western North Carolina‘
      • Timko and Young: ‘Appalchian Coal Mines and Railroads, Vol. 1, 2, & 3‘
      • Roberts: ‘Sand Patch, Clash of the Titans‘
      • Yanosey: ‘Tidewater Triangle’
    • Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
      • Calloway: ‘Atlantic Coast Line, The Diesel Years‘
      • Griffin: ‘Atlantic Coast Line, The Standard Railroad of the South‘
      • Goolsby: ‘Atlantic Coast Line Passenger Service, The Postwar Years‘
    • Baltimore & Ohio Railway
      • Jacobs: ‘The History of the Baltimore & Ohio’
      • McGuirk: ‘Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in the Potomac Valley‘
      • Ori, Salamon and Oroszi: Baltimore & Ohio/Reflections of the Capitol Dome‘ and ‘Baltimore & Ohio/Sunburst Trail to Chicago’
    • C&O Railway/Chessie System
      • Dixon: ‘Chesapeake & Ohio, Superpower to Diesels‘, Chesapeake & Ohio in the Coalfields, ‘C&O Allegheny Subdivision‘, and ‘Chesapeake & Ohio Railway – A Concise History and Fact Book‘, and ‘The Chessie Era’
      • Dorin: ‘The Chesapeake & Ohio Railway’
      • Huddleston: ‘Riding the New River Train‘
      • Ori – ‘Chessie System‘
      • Paton: ‘Allegheny with an A’
      • Turner: ‘Chessie’s Road‘
    • Clinchfield Railroad
      • Beach: ‘The Black Mountain Railway’
      • Goforth: ‘Building the Clinchfield‘ and ‘When Steam Ran the Clinchfield‘
      • Helm: ‘The Clinchfield Railroad in the Coal Fields‘
      • Irwin & Stahl: ‘The Last Empire Builder: The Life of George L. Carter‘
      • King: ‘Clinchfield Country‘
      • Marsh: ‘Clinchfield in Color‘
      • Poteat & Taylor: ‘The CSX Clinchfield Route in the 21st Century‘
      • Stevens & Peoples: ‘The Clinchfield No. 1 – Tennessee’s Legendary Steam Engine‘
      • Way: ‘The Clinchfield Railroad, the Story of a Trade Route Across the Blue Ridge Mountains‘
    • CSX Railroad
      • Springirth: ‘CSX Transportation Heritage‘
    • ET&WNC: Listed on the website’s ET&WNC pages
    • Interstate Railroad
      • Wolfe & Wolfe: ‘Appalachian Coal Hauler’
      • Wolfe: ‘The Interstate Railroad‘
    • L&N Railroad
      • Castner, Flanary & Dorin: Louisville & Nashville Railroad The Old Reliable‘
      • Flanary: The Louisville & Nashville Cumberland Valley Division
      • Flanary, Oroszi & McKee: ‘The Louisville & Nashville in the Appalachians‘
      • Oroszi & Flanary: ‘Dixie Lines, The Louisville & Nashville Railroad‘
    • NC&StL Railway
      • Prince: ‘Nashville Chattanooga & St Louis Railway‘
    • Norfolk Southern
      • Esposito: ‘Norfolk Southern Railroad’
      • Lindsey: ‘Norfolk Southern 1995 Review‘
    • Norfolk & Western Railway
      • Newton: ‘Rails Remembered, Volumes 1-6
      • Warden: ‘Norfolk & Western: Diesel’s Last Conquest‘ and ‘Norfolk & Western’s Passenger Service’
      • Wolfe, Wilson & Mandelkern: ‘Norfolk & Western’s Clinch Valley Line‘
    • Pennsylvania Railroad
      • Jacobs: ‘The History of the Pennsylvania Railroad‘
    • Seaboard Air Line, Seaboard Coast Line, Seaboard System
      • Calloway and Withers: ‘Seaboard Motive Power‘
      • Carleton: ‘Locomotives of the Seaboard System‘
      • Griffin: ‘Seaboard Coast Line and Family Lines Railroad‘ and ‘All Lines North of Raleigh‘
      • Johnson: ‘Through the Heart of the South‘
    • Southern Railway
      • Davis: The Southern Railway, Road of the Innovators‘
      • Flanary, Lindsey & Oroszi. The Southern Railway‘
      • Webb: ‘The Southern Railway System: An Illustrated History‘
      • Wolfe: ‘Southern Railway Appalachia Division‘
    • Virginian Railway
      • Reisweber: ‘Virginian Rails’
      • Wiley & Wallace: ‘The Virginian Railway Handbook‘
  • Online Article: Flanary: ‘The Quick Service Route, The Clinchfield Railroad‘; Scientific American: ‘The Costliest Railroad in America‘
  • Online Videos: Ken Marsh on Kingsport area railroads and region’s history Video #1 | Video #2:
  • Websites:

3Cs Websites

Appalachian-Railroads.org | Clinchfield.org | Southern-Railroads.org