Editing Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (section)

==History==
[[Image:CSX A and S lines.png|thumb|upright|180px|The main lines of the ACL (shown in red) and SAL (shown in blue), which became [[CSX Transportation|CSX]]'s A and S lines]] 
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 {{Convert|9809|mi|km}}, the eighth largest in the United States at the time.<ref>''Transport Statistics'' shows 9306 route-miles operated by SCL itself at the end of 1967, not including numerous subsidiaries.</ref> The railroad had $1.2 billion in assets and revenue with a 54% market share of rail service in the [[Southeastern United States|Southeast]], facing competition primarily from the [[Southern Railway (U.S.)|Southern]].<ref name="SCL1">{{cite book |title=Seaboard Coast Line & Family Lines |last=Griffin |first=William |year=2004 |publisher=TLC Publishing |isbn=0-9766201-0-3 |pages=4–16 }}</ref> The seemingly redundant name resulted from the longstanding short-form names of these two major Southeastern railroads. For years, SAL had been popularly known as "Seaboard," while ACL was known as "the Coast Line."

Prior to the creation of [[Amtrak]] on May 1, 1971, the Seaboard Coast Line provided passenger service over much of its system, including local passenger trains on some lines.<ref>''Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Passenger Schedules'', July 1, 1967.</ref> Local trains ended when the Amtrak era began.<ref name=SCL1 /><ref name="LS1">{{cite journal |last1=Harwell |first1=Jeffrey |year=2008 |title=Operations In and Around Dothan |journal=Lines South |publisher=White River Productions |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=4–19 }}</ref> Although several named passenger trains survived through the Amtrak era, many were renamed or combined with other services.

The first expansion for the Seaboard Coast Line came in 1969 with the acquisition of the [[Piedmont and Northern Railway]], which operated about {{Convert|128|mi|km}} in North and South Carolina.<ref name="EIR">{{cite book |title=The Electric Interurban Railways in America |last=Hilton |first=George W. |year=2000 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=0-8047-4014-3 |pages=331–333 }}</ref> SCL would buy out the remaining shares and gain control of the [[Louisville and Nashville Railroad]] (L&N) in 1971, and also bought the [[Durham and Southern Railway]] from the Duke family in 1979. In 1978, SCL was approached by the [[Southern Pacific Transportation Company|Southern Pacific Railroad]] (SP) and entered negotiations for a potential transcontinental merger, with the L&N being used to connect the two railroads.<ref name=":0">{{Cite magazine |last=Appel |first=Walter |date=September 1978 |title=Railnews - SP/SCL Merger: It's not over yet |magazine=Railfan |publisher=Carstens Publications |page=18 |volume=2 |issue=7}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Hershberg |first=Ben |date=July 16, 1978 |title=A merger made in heaven? |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-courier-journal-scli-sp-merger/143422746/ |access-date=October 28, 2024 |work=The Courier-Journal - marketplace |page=67 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> In May of that year, then-SCL president Prime Osborn III personally called off the merger, but SCL still sold some of their stock to the SP.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

On November 1, 1980, [[CSX Corporation]] was created as a holding company for the [[Seaboard System Railroad|Family Lines]] and [[Chessie System|Chessie System Railroad]]. 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 [[Seaboard System Railroad|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.

In 1983, CSX combined the Family Lines System units as the [[Seaboard System Railroad]] and later [[CSX Transportation]] when the former Chessie units merged with the Seaboard in December 1986.<ref>{{cite book |title=CSX |last=Solomon |first=Brian |year=2005 |publisher=MBI Publishing Company |isbn=0-7603-1796-8 |pages=63–67 }}</ref>