Durham & Southern

Company History: The Durham & Southern was incorporated in 1906 to take over a line that ran from Dunn to Apex, North Carolina and push the line onward to the city of Durham. This would provide Durham with a connection to the Seaboard Air Line and Atlantic Coast Line mainlines at Dunn. In total the D&S line was 59 miles long.

In the steam era, the D&S fleet of 9 engines was dominated by 2-10-0’s. One of these decapods was one of only two steam locomotives built for a common carrier in the entire country in the Depression year of 1933. Also on the roster was a former N&W 4-8-0.

For many years, the Duke family owned the D&S. They also owned Duke Power and the Piedmont & Northern Railway. For much of this period the P&N and D&S shared a management team although the two railroads did not directly connect. In the 50s, the management was split and the Dukes sold the D&S to a Durham based construction company.

The early diesel era was dominated by Baldwin road switchers (like most Baldwins, built with the long hood as the front end.) In the early 70s, a quartet of GP38-2’s was brought in to do the heavy work. In 1976, Seaboard Coast Line bought the Durham & Southern and fully merged the company in 1981.

Successor/Parent History: The Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (reporting mark SCL) is a former Class I railroad company operating in the Southeastern United States beginning in 1967. Its passenger operations were taken over by Amtrak in 1971. Eventually the railroad was merged with its affiliate lines to create the Seaboard System in 1983.

At the end of 1970 SCL operated 9230 miles of railroad, not including A&WP-Clinchfield-CN&L-GM-Georgia-L&N-Carrollton; that year it reported 31293 million ton-miles of revenue freight and 512 million passenger-miles.

The Seaboard Coast Line emerged on July 1, 1967, following the merger of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. The combined system totaled 9,809 miles (15,786 km), the eighth largest in the United States at the time. The railroad had $1.2 billion in assets and revenue with a 54% market share of rail service in the Southeast, facing competition primarily from the Southern.

On November 1, 1980, CSX Corporation was created as a holding company for the Family Lines and Chessie System Railroad. In 1983 CSX combined the Family Lines System units as the Seaboard System Railroad and later became CSX Transportation when the former Chessie units merged with the Seaboard in December 1986. Effective January 1, 1983, the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad became Seaboard System Railroad after a merger with the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and Clinchfield Railroad. For some years prior to this, the SCL and L&N had been under the common ownership of a holding company, Seaboard Coast Line Industries (SCLI), the company's railroad subsidiaries being collectively known as the Family Lines System which consisted of the L&N, SCL, Clinchfield and West Point Routes. During this time, the railroads adopted the same paint schemes but continued to operate as separate railroads.

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