Raleigh and Augusta Air Line Railroad

The Raleigh and Augusta Air Line Railroad was a North Carolina railroad that operated in the second half of the 19th century.

The Raleigh and Augusta Air Line Railroad traces its history back to the early 1850s, when the line was chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly as the Chatham Railroad in February 1851.[1] It changed its name to the Raleigh and Augusta Air Line Railroad in 1871, and was chartered by the South Carolina General Assembly in February 1878.[2]

In 1871, the Chatham Railroad was reorganized as the Raleigh and Augusta Air Line Railroad.[3] The carrier's goal was to build a line from Raleigh to Augusta, Georgia, through Columbia, South Carolina. However, it never progressed past the North Carolina-South Carolina state line, where it met the Palmetto Railroad.[3]

The Raleigh and Gaston Railroad controlled the Raleigh and Augusta Air-Line Railroad, owning most of its stock.[3] By this time, the Raleigh and Augusta stretched from Raleigh, North Carolina, toward Hamlet, North Carolina. Later, the Raleigh and Gaston, and Raleigh and Augusta both fell on hard times during the Panic of 1873, and John M. Robinson, president of the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad, acquired financial control of both carriers, becoming president of all three railroads in 1875.[4]

By 1881, the Seaboard and Roanoke, the Raleigh and Gaston, and others were operating as a coordinated system under the Seaboard Air-Line System name for marketing purposes, combining the nicknames of the two principal roads.[4]

By 1883, the Raleigh and Augusta was operating nearly 100 miles (160 kilometres) of track between Raleigh and Hamlet.[1]

In November 1899, stockholders of the Raleigh and Gaston Railroad considered the consolidation of the Raleigh and Gaston with the following other roads:

  1. Raleigh and Augusta Air Line Railroad
  2. Durham and Northern Railway
  3. Roanoke and Tar River Railroad
  4. Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad
  5. Louisburg Railroad
  6. Carolina Central Railroad
  7. Palmetto Railroad
  8. Chesterfield and Kershaw Railroad
  9. Georgia, Carolina and Northern Railway
  10. Seaboard Air Line Belt Railroad
  11. Georgia and Alabama Railroad
  12. Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad
  13. Georgia and Alabama Terminal Company
  14. Logansville and Lawrenceville Railroad
  15. Richmond, Petersburg and Carolina Railroad
  16. Pittsboro Railroad
  17. Southbound Railroad[5]

The resulting company became known as the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. The Raleigh and Augusta Air Line was merged into the Seaboard in November 1901.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 Poor's Manual of the Railroads of the United States, Henry Poor, 1884, page 419
  2. 1 2 Wikipedia, WikiProject Trains, ICC valuations, Seaboard Air Line Railway
  3. 1 2 3 North Carolina Railroads, Raleigh and Augusta Air Line Railroad
  4. 1 2 Railroading History, Train Travel, Classic Trains Magazine, Steam Locomotives - Fallen Flags: P-S
  5. ↑ Seaboard Air Line Combine, New York Times, October 27, 1899
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