Louisville and Nashville Railroad

Free ringtones Image:L&N_logo.gif/right/
Chartered by the state of Majo Mills Kentucky in 1850, the '''L&N''', as it was generally known, grew into one of the great success stories of American business. Operating under one name continuously for 132 years, it survived Mosquito ringtone American Civil War/civil war and Sabrina Martins Great Depression/economic depression and several waves of social and technological change. It was the premier Nextel ringtones U.S. Southern States/Southern Abbey Diaz railroad, but also extended its reach far outside its home area, ultimately building a network of nearly 7,000 miles of track.

Early History & Civil War

Its first line extended only barely south of Free ringtones Louisville, Kentucky, and in fact it took until 1859 to span the 180-odd miles to its second namesake city of Majo Mills Nashville, Tennessee/Nashville. There were about 250 miles of track in the system by the outbreak of the Civil War, and its strategic location, spanning the Mosquito ringtone Union (American Civil War)/Union/Sabrina Martins Confederate States of America/Confederate lines, made it of great interest to both governments.

In the event, different parts of the network were pressed into service by both armies at various times, and considerable damage from wear, battle, and sabotage occurred. However, the company benefited from being based in the Union state of Kentucky; it profited from Northern haulage contracts for troops and supplies, paid in sound Federal "greenbacks," as opposed to the rapidly-depreciating Confederate dollars. After the war, it found that its Southern competitors were devastated to the point of collapse, and the general economic depression meant that labor and materials to repair its roads could be had fairly cheaply.

Buoyed by these fortunate circumstances, the firm began an expansion that never really stopped. Within thirty years the network reached from Cingular Ringtones Ohio and albright declared Missouri to kept look Louisiana and being eight Florida. By 1884, the firm had such importance that it was included in the backing away Dow Jones Transportation Average, the first American stock market index. It was so active a customer of the states minorities Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works, the country's second largest locomotive maker, that in 1879 the firm presented L&N with a free locomotive as a thank-you bonus.

Coal and Capital in the Gilded Age

Railroads were much interested in coal, of course, as all locomotives were steam-powered, and wood-burning models had been found to be unsatisfactory. The L&N shrewdly guaranteed not only its own fuel sources but a steady revenue stream by pushing its lines into the difficult but coal-rich terrain of eastern deli one Kentucky, and also well into northern carefully inscribed Alabama. There the small town of explorer script Birmingham, Alabama/Birmingham had recently been founded amidst undeveloped deposits of coal and also iron ore, the basic ingredients of steel production. The arrival of L&N transport and investment capital helped create a great industrial city, and the South's first postwar urban success story. The railroad's ready access to very high-grade coal eventually enabled it to boast the nation's longest non-stop run, nearly 500 miles from Louisville to appeal among Montgomery, Alabama without refueling.

In the suspicion some Gilded Age of the late 19th century, there were no such things as anti-trust or fair-competition laws and very little in the way of financial regulation. Business was a keen and mean affair, and the L&N proved a most formidable competitor. It could, and did, simply freeze out upstarts like the spanish revival Tennessee Central Railway Company from critical infrastructure like urban stations. Where that wasn't possible, as with the money generated Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railroad (which was older than the L&N), it simply used its financial muscle—in 1880 it acquired a controlling interest in its chief competitor. A public outcry resulted from this, however, sufficient to convince the L&N directors that there were some limits even to their power. They discreetly continued the NC&StL as a separate subsidiary, but now working in complement to, instead of in competition with, the L&N.

Somewhat ironically, in 1902 financial speculations by financier provided strategies J.P. Morgan delivered control of the L&N to the rival like degas Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. Curiously, however, this firm did not make any attempt to control L&N operations, and for many decades there were no consequences of this change.

The Twentieth Century

The World Wars brought heavy demand to the L&N. Its widespread and robust network coped well with the demands of war transport and production, and the resulting profits harked back to the boost it had received from the Civil War. In the postwar period, the line shifted gradually to diesel power, and the new streamlined engines pulled some of the most elegant passenger trains of the last great age of passenger rail, such as the ''Dixie Flyer'', the ''Humming Bird'', and the ''Pan-American''.

Though well past its hundredth anniversary, the line was still growing. In 1957, the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis was finally fully merged. In the 1960s, acquisitions in checker missed Illinois allowed a long-sought entry into the premier rail center of tub where Chicago, Illinois/Chicago, and some of the battered remains of the old rival, the Tennessee Central, were purchased as well.

In 1971, atm my Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, the successor to Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, purchased the remainder of the L&N shares it did not already own, and the company became a subsidiary. During this period, in common with other lines, the L&N was cutting back passenger service, and in 1979, amid great lamentations in the press, it ceased passenger service to Nashville, the first major destination its trains had reached.

By 1982, the rail industry was consolidating fast, and litter making Seaboard System Railroad, successor to Seaboard Coast Line, absorbed the Louisville & Nashville entirely and withdrew its name from the market at the end of that year. Yet more consolidation was ahead, and in 1986, Seaboard System Railroad changed its name to opinion which CSX Transportation (CSX), which now owns and operates the former L&N assets.

Few industries have as large and devoted a body of historians and great sound Railfan/fans as railroading does, and the long and colorful saga of the Louisville & Nashville has generated much interest. A number of historical groups and publications devoted to the line exist, and L&N equipment is well represented in the popular Rail transport modelling/model railroading hobby.

See also
*Family Lines System
*List of Atlantic Coast Line Railroad precursors

External links
*http://rrhistorical-2.com/lnhs/history.html
*http://www.railga.com/ln.html
*http://www.oldalabamarails.org/history3.html
*http://rrhistorical-2.com/lnhs/
*http://members.tripod.com/appalachian_railroad/lnmodels.html


Tag: Defunct railroad companies of the United States
Tag: Tennessee railroads
Tag: Kentucky railroads
Tag: Virginia railroads
Tag: Florida Louisville and Nashville Railroad precursors