SAL RR Co.

Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company

The Seaboard Air Line was created through several mergers during the first years of the twentieth century. At that time, it totaled a route mileage of almost exactly 2,600 miles. Mainlines extended from Richmond, VA, to Tampa, FL, and from Hamlet, NC, to Atlanta, GA. Major branch lines included the lines from Norlina, NC, to Portsmouth, VA, from Hamlet, to Wilmington, NC, from Monroe, to Rutherfordton, NC, from Savannah, SC, to Montgomery, Ala, and from Baldwin to River Jct., FL. In 1930, Seaboard had reached a peak of 5,005 route miles, but then 200 miles of branch lines were abandoned in the early thirties due to the Great Depression.

In 1967, it's final year, Seaboard Air Line's system length had been reduced to 4,100 miles and on July 1st of that year, the Atlantic Coast Line was merged into SAL and the surviving corporation was then renamed Seaboard Coast Line, but the new railroad was dominated by the former Atlantic Coast Line. The Seaboard Air Line had passed into history. Today, CSX Transportation owns and operates (parts of) the rich Seaboard heritage.

The Seaboard's lines were located in the piedmont plateau and the coastal plain. Its curvy mainline from Richmond, VA to Columbia, SC, closely followed the fall line, the geographic demarcation line between these two regions. East and south of Columbia, on the coastal plain, Seaboard's lines were straight and level. The Wilmington branch, from Hamlet, NC to its namesake city was (and still is) the longest stretch of tangent track in the US. However, SAL did have a "mountain railroad", the Birmingham Subdivision from Birmingham, AL, to Atlanta, GA.

The Seaboard Air Line was famous for its fast and luxury passenger trains. It operated the first streamlined passenger train in the southeast - the Silver Meteor, the flagship of the Silver Fleet. SAL's most important passenger services connected Florida, especially the Gold Coast between West Palm Beach and Miami, with New York and New Orleans as well as New York with Atlanta, GA and Birmingham, AL. Among its glamorous trains were the Orange Blossom Special, the Silver Star and the Silver Comet.

As expected of a railroad of that size, SAL hauled a wide variety of commodities. Northbound perishable traffic originating in Florida was quite heavy during the winter months. Unfortunately SAL had lost a lot of this buisness to truckers over the years. Other important agricultural commodities included cotton and cotton products, wheat and flour, and other grains and grain products. While agricultural traffic was mostly northbound, manufacturers and miscellaneous commodities traffic was traditionally predominantly southbound and included a bit of almost everything going almost everywhere. Fertilizer and cement were the most common of these products. Forest products, mostly pulpwood, were hauled northward from the coastal south and created a lot of traffic as well. Important minerals transported by the Seaboard included coal, iron ore, clay, sand, gravel, rock, and, in Florida, phosphate. When TOFC (trailer on flatcar) or piggyback service was introduced in the late 1950s and early 1960s SAL was able to regain a lot of perishable and general merchandise traffic from the truckers. TT-23, the Razorback, from Hialeah, FL, to Richmond, VA, was such a train. And in 1963 it was the fastest freight train in the US, with an average speed of 60.8mph!

Seaboard's main rivals were the Southern Railway to its west and the Atlantic Coast Line to its east. Both had the advantage of shorter lines but SAL served the Florida east coast, which ACL did not. Nevertheless ACL was an important interchange partner to the SAL, as they met almost everywhere. However, Seaboard's leading freight connection was the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac. Almost all traffic between Seaboard points and the Northeast moved over the RF&P, and then, farther north over the Pennsylvania Railroad.

These few lines are supposed to give a quick overview on the Seaboard. Much more detailed information is available through several publications on the SAL. You'll find them listed on our Literature page.