 | |
 1916 map of the Seaboard routes | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Seaboard Air Line Railway Building, 1 High Street,Portsmouth, Virginia (1900–1958) 3600 W. Broad Street,Richmond, Virginia (1958–1967) |
| Reporting mark | SAL |
| Locale | Virginia,North Carolina,South Carolina,Georgia,Alabama,Florida |
| Dates of operation | 1900–1967 |
| Successor | Seaboard Coast Line |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)standard gauge |
TheSeaboard Air Line Railroad (reporting markSAL), known colloquially as theSeaboard Railroad during its time, was an Americanrailroad that existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with theAtlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime rival, to form theSeaboard Coast Line Railroad. Its predecessor railroads dated from the 1830s and reorganized extensively to rebuild after theAmerican Civil War, and by 1900 had merged together to form the SAL. The company was headquartered inPortsmouth, Virginia until 1958, when its main offices were relocated toRichmond, Virginia.
Styling itself as "The Route of Courteous Service", Seaboard, along with its main competitorsAtlantic Coast Line Railroad,Florida East Coast Railway andSouthern Railway, contributed greatly to the economic development of theSoutheastern United States, and particularly to that ofFlorida throughout the first half of the 20th century. Its trains brought vacationers to Florida from theNortheast and carried southern timber, minerals and produce, especially Floridacitrus crops, to the northern states.
At the end of 1925 SAL operated 3,929 miles of road, not including its flock of subsidiaries; at the end of 1960 it reported 4,135 miles. Themain line ran fromRichmond, Virginia toTampa, Florida viaRaleigh, North Carolina,Columbia, South Carolina,Savannah, Georgia, andJacksonville, Florida. Jacksonville itself was a major interchange point forpassenger trains bringing travelers to the Sunshine State. Seaboard rails continued aroundTampa Bay toSt. Petersburg, and by 1927 extended toWest Palm Beach andMiami starting fromWildwood.
Other important Seaboard routes included a line from Jacksonville viaTallahassee to a connection with theLouisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N) atChattahoochee, Florida, for through service toNew Orleans; a line toAtlanta, Georgia, andBirmingham, Alabama, connecting with themain line atHamlet, North Carolina; and a line from the main atNorlina, North Carolina, toPortsmouth, Virginia, the earliest route of what became the Seaboard.
The complex corporate history of the Seaboard began on March 8, 1832, when its earliest predecessor, thePortsmouth and Roanoke Railroad was chartered by the legislatures of Virginia and North Carolina to build a railroad fromPortsmouth, Virginia, to theRoanoke River port ofWeldon, North Carolina. After a couple of months of horse-drawn operation, the first locomotive-pulled service on this line began on September 4, 1834, with a twice-daily train from Portsmouth toSuffolk, Virginia, 17 miles away.[1]
By June 1837 the railroad was completed to Weldon, where a connection was made with the tracks of theWilmington and Raleigh Railroad (later part of theAtlantic Coast Line Railroad). In 1846, after suffering financial difficulties, the P&R was reorganized as theSeaboard and Roanoke Railroad, known informally as theSeaboard Road.[citation needed]
Meanwhile, theRaleigh and Gaston Railroad had begun construction on November 1, 1836, with the first scheduled service between its endpoints beginning on March 21, 1840. After theAmerican Civil War, this was advertised as theInland Air-Line Route. By 1853, the Raleigh and Gaston had connected with the Seaboard and Roanoke at Weldon, thus offering travelers through service on the 176-mile route from Portsmouth to Raleigh.[1] Both railroads were built to4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)standard gauge, rather than the5 ft (1,524 mm) gauge favored by most other railroads in the South; therefore, cars of both roads could run on the entire route, eliminating the need for travelers or freight to make achange of cars.[citation needed]
The R&G takeover also gave the P&R control of the Raleigh & Augusta Air-Line Railroad which the former road controlled. This was the first time "Air Line" appeared as part of a Seaboard predecessor. The R&AA-L began as the Chatham Railroad, chartered by the state on February 14, 1855 (from the 1877 booklet, "History Of The Raleigh & August Air-Line Railroad" compiled by Walter Clark, Attorney At Law) to build a rail line, "...between Deep River, at or near the Coalfields,Moncure, NC in the county of Chatham, and the City of Raleigh or some point on the North Carolina Railroad." The project was riddled with delays and finally reorganized as the Raleigh & Augusta Air-Line in 1871. It eventually reached Hamlet in 1877 which in later years was a major SAL terminal point. With a route that now extended through North Carolina the three roads offered a competitive network serving several important cities. The South was also blossoming into an industrial giant in the area of cotton, agriculture/farming, textiles, and manufacturing.
The American Civil War devastated railroads, particularly in former Confederate territories including Virginia and North Carolina. After the war,Moncure Robinson andAlexander Boyd Andrews organized the Seaboard Inland Air Line to connect Georgia and South Carolina toPortsmouth, Virginia (in the Hampton Roads area across fromNorfolk, Virginia).[2] They worked with Confederate general turned Republican political bossWilliam Mahone to work against the conglomeration of railroads reorganized by Thomas A. Scott, who had moved up the ranks of the Pennsylvania Railroad, took control of theChesapeake and Ohio Railroad after the Civil War, and tried to work with African American legislators to acquire (and rebuild) railroads further South. As it had before the Civil War, Virginia paid millions to get railroads rebuilt and commerce moving through its cities. Charges of corruption against Scott, and resentment against northern and black workers led to volatile situations in many areas. Eruptions ofKu Klux Klan violence centered on railroads through interior North and South Carolina.[3]Together the R&G, P&R, and R&AA-L formed the backbone of the future Seaboard Air Line. Moncure Robinson's son John M. Robinson acquired financial control of the trio in 1875. As a marketing tactic they were collectively known as the "Seaboard Air-Line System." The name initially had no legal authority, although that changed as Robinson continued to extend southward. The first known official use of "Seaboard Air Line" appeared when the system was pushing towards Atlanta. It had already acquired the Georgia, Carolina & Northern Railway which intended to reach that city from Monroe, North Carolina. Construction began in 1887 and was completed as far as Inman Park, east of Atlanta, by 1892. However, an ordinance prevented it from reaching the city directly. To circumvent this issue the Seaboard Air Line Belt Railroad (SALB) was chartered in 1892 to build an 8-mile branch and a connection with the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis at Howells. From there the SALB utilized trackage rights over the Dixie Line to reach the downtown area. Just prior to this event Robinson would link Rutherfordton and Wilmington, North Carolina via Charlotte and Hamlet by acquiring the Carolina Central Railroad in 1883. Rail service between these cities opened in 1887.
In the days before air travel,air line was a common term for the shortest distance between two points: a straight line drawn through the air (or on a map), ignoring natural obstacles (i.e., "as the crow flies"). Hence, a number of 19th-century railroads usedair line in their titles to suggest that their routes were shorter than those of competing roads: see list atAir-line railroad.
The Seaboard never owned an airplane. In 1940 the railroad proposed the creation of "Seaboard Airlines," but this idea was struck down by theInterstate Commerce Commission as violating federalanti-trust legislation.[citation needed]
During a spate of interest in aviation shares onWall Street followingCharles A. Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight in 1927, Seaboard Air Line shares actually attracted some investor curiosity because of the name's aviation-related connotations; only after noticing that Seaboard Air Line was actually a railroad did investors lose interest.[4]
The railroads' prosperous operations of the 1850s, hauling passengers as well as valuable cargos of cotton, tobacco and produce from thePiedmont to the tidewater port ofPortsmouth, were interrupted by theCivil War, during which bridges and tracks of both railroads were destroyed at various times byUnion orConfederate troops.
Prosperity returned after the war, with the efficiently managed Seaboard Road showing a profit even during thePanic of 1873, and paying stockholders an annual dividend of 8 percent for many years.[1] In 1871, the Raleigh and Gaston acquired the Raleigh and Augusta Air-Line Railroad, which, however, reached only toHamlet, North Carolina. When the R&G and its subsidiary fell into financial straits in 1873, the Seaboard's president, John M. Robinson, acquired financial control of them, becoming president of all three railroads in 1875.
By 1881, the Seaboard and Roanoke, the Raleigh and Gaston, and others were operating as a coordinated system under theSeaboard Air-Line System name for marketing purposes, combining the nicknames of the two principal roads.[5] In 1889, the Seaboard leased the still-unfinishedGeorgia, Carolina and Northern Railway, providing a link fromMonroe, North Carolina, (on the Seaboard line toCharlotte, North Carolina, acquired in 1881) toAtlanta, Georgia, (completed in 1892).
During its heyday in the 1890s, the system prided itself on offering excellent passenger service betweenAtlanta and thenortheast. A daily coach andPullman train, theS.A.L. Express, ran from Atlanta to the Seaboard Road's depot and wharf at Portsmouth, where passengers could transfer to steamships for direct passage toBaltimore,Philadelphia andNew York. The system's premier train, however, was theAtlanta Special, running in daily service between Atlanta and Washington, using theAtlantic Coast Line's tracks from Weldon to Richmond, and the tracks of theRichmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac from Richmond to Washington.
Between 1898 and 1900, Seaboard affiliateRichmond, Petersburg and Carolina completed the laying of track from Norlina to Richmond, thereby providing an all-Seaboard route from Atlanta to Richmond.
As important as the route to the major railroad hub of Atlanta was, access to Florida resorts and markets would be even more important to the railroad's success in years to come. In the last two decades of the 19th century, the pieces of the route to Florida began to fall into place. Between 1885 and 1887, thePalmetto Railroad, later reorganized as thePalmetto Railway, had built southward from Hamlet, North Carolina, on the Seaboardmain line, toCheraw, South Carolina. In 1895, the Seaboard took control of the Palmetto Railway and extended the tracks toColumbia.
Also in 1895, theSavannah, Americus and Montgomery Railway, a Savannah-to-Montgomery route, was bought by a syndicate that included the Richmond bankers John L. Williams and Sons.John Skelton Williams, a son of John L. Williams, became president of the line, renaming it theGeorgia and Alabama Railway. In January 1899, the Williams syndicate offered to purchase a majority of shares in the Seaboard and Roanoke, which included controlling interests in each of the affiliated companies and subordinated railroads in the Seaboard Air Line system.[6] Although a New York syndicate of various stockholders headed byThomas Fortune Ryan bitterly opposed the deal, control of all of the railroad properties comprising the Seaboard system was formally transferred to the Williams syndicate in February 1899.[7] Immediately, Williams and his financial backers sought to expand into the Florida market.
In 1860, theFlorida, Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroad (FA&GC) completed construction of a line running west fromJacksonville, Florida, toLake City, Florida.[8] That same year, theFlorida Railroad opened fromFernandina, just north of Jacksonville, southwest toCedar Key on theGulf Coast. In 1863, thePensacola and Georgia Railroad (P&G) completed a line running east fromQuincy, Florida, throughTallahassee to Lake City, where it connected with the FA&GC.[8]
In 1868, the P&G and the FA&GC were acquired bycarpetbaggers, with the P&G being renamed theJacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile Railroad (JP&M), into which the FA&GC — now called theFlorida Central Railroad — was consolidated in 1870.[8] Meanwhile, in 1871, the Florida Railroad was reorganized as the Atlantic, Gulf and West India Transit Company.[8] Through two new subsidiaries, the Peninsular Railroad and the Tropical Florida Railroad, the Atlantic, Gulf and West India opened two new lines, one running toOcala andTampa from a junction with the main line atWaldo, and another running from Ocala toWildwood.[8]
In 1881,Sir Edward Reed acquired the Atlantic, Gulf and West India and its subsidiaries and reorganized them as the Florida Transit Company.[8] The following year, Reed acquired the JP&M along with its subsidiary, the Florida Central, both of which he combined together as theFlorida Central and Western Railroad.[8] In 1883, Reed reorganized the Florida Transit Company as the Florida Transit and Peninsular Railroad.[8] Then, in 1884, Reed brought both the Florida Central and Western and the Florida Transit and Peninsular under the umbrella of a single entity, the Florida Railway and Navigation Company, which instantly became the largest railroad in Florida. In 1886, the company was reorganized as theFlorida Central and Peninsular Railroad (FC&P).[8]
In late 1892, the FC&P began construction of a new line running north from a junction near Jacksonville toSavannah, Georgia.[9] The FC&P had that same year already leased theSouth Bound Railroad, which ran north from Savannah toColumbia, South Carolina.[9] Thus, when the FC&P finished construction in late 1893, it had 1,000 miles of rail and a new "air line" extending straight from a connection with theRichmond and Danville Railroad in South Carolina into Jacksonville, resulting in not only a saving of several hours of travel time, but also connecting New York and Tampa.[9][10][11]
This direct entrée into Florida did not escape the notice of John Skelton Williams and his financial backers. In April 1899, only two months after assuming formal control of the various railroads in the Seaboard system, the Williams syndicate purchased a majority stock interest in the FC&P for $3.5 million.[12]
On April 14, 1900, theSeaboard Air Line Railway was incorporated, comprising 19 railroads in which it owned all or most of the capital stock. Williams was the first president of the new corporation, which advertised its north–south route as the "Florida-West India Short Line."James H. Dooley, veteran of several rail mergers in the South, helped organize the SAL and served as chairman of SAL's executive council.[13]
On June 3, 1900, through service fromNew York toTampa, Florida, was inaugurated, with trains operated by thePennsylvania Railroad from New York toWashington, D.C.; by theRichmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad from Washington to Richmond; and by the Seaboard from Richmond to Tampa, an arrangement that lasted until the creation ofAmtrak in 1971. On July 1, 1900, the Seaboard formally assumed operation of the Georgia and Alabama, the FC&P and theAtlantic, Suwannee River and Gulf railroads. In 1903, the FC&P, which had been controlled through stock ownership and operated separately under a lease agreement, was formally consolidated within the Seaboard.[14]
In 1904, Seaboard subsidiaryAtlanta and Birmingham Air Line Railway, purchased the previous year, completed construction and extended the Atlanta route toBirmingham, Alabama, the largest center of iron and steel production in the South, and a valuable endpoint for the Seaboard.
Upon formation, the Seaboard inherited multiple repair shop sites from predecessor railroads, most of which were obsolete. A fire at thePortsmouth, Virginia shops in 1903 resulted in the plant being upgraded and modernized. To serve the southern section of the system, new shops were built on the west side ofJacksonville, Florida in 1907, which became the primary diesel shops after 1948. Rather than build any other heavy back shops, the Seaboard chose to equip several major roundhouse terminals to handle medium repairs in addition to the usual "running" repairs on locomotives.
Unfortunately, the new 2,600-mile railroad did not prosper as expected in its early years. Thomas Fortune Ryan, who had opposed the Williams syndicate when it purchased the controlling interests in the various Seaboard companies, succeeded in assuming control of the railroad in 1904. Ryan's policies, however, proved disastrous for the Seaboard's finances. Following thePanic of 1907, the railroad went into receivership and Ryan was ousted.[15]S. Davies Warfield, a Seaboard director and member of the railroad's executive committee, who had assisted Williams in forming the corporation, was appointed one of the receivers, and was subsequently named chairman. In 1912, Warfield — who was the uncle of the Baltimore-born Wallis Warfield Simpson, the futureDuchess of Windsor – became the majority stock owner of the Seaboard.[16] By 1915, the railroad had recovered. However, along with most other U.S. railroads, the Seaboard wasnationalized during the railroad crisis brought on byWorld War I and was run by theUnited States Railroad Administration from December 28, 1917, to March 1, 1920.
With an influx of tourists traveling to rapidly developing Florida, the Seaboard enjoyed a prosperous decade in the 1920s.[17] In 1924, Warfield, now president and CEO of the railroad, began building a 204-mile extension, called theFlorida Western and Northern Railroad, from the Seaboard mainline inColeman, Florida south toWest Palm Beach, which for almost thirty years had been the exclusive domain of theFlorida East Coast Railway. Some 35 miles northwest of West Palm Beach, the extension ran throughIndiantown, which Warfield planned to make the new southern headquarters of the Seaboard.[18] The extension was constructed in record time, and opened in January 1925.
Later in 1925, Warfield constructed theGross-Callahan Cutoff, which allowed time-sensitive trains to bypass congested Jacksonville, and built theValrico Cutoff, which provided a direct route from Tampa to West Palm Beach. Warfield also leased theCharlotte Harbor and Northern Railway, which ran from central Florida toBoca Grande, as well as theEast and West Coast Railway betweenArcadia andManatee County.
Warfield, however, was not content with what seemed to be a complete Seaboard system in Florida, and at the end of 1925, announced two new extensions, one from West Palm Beach toMiami and another from Arcadia toFort Myers andNaples. Groundbreaking for the Miami extension took place inHialeah in January 1926, and by December 1926, the line was open for freight. From January 7 though January 9, 1927, Warfield took a large faction of dignitaries on a special run of the luxuriousOrange Blossom Special, beginning at Arcadia and proceeding south to Naples, then doubling back over to the east coast and proceeding south from West Palm Beach toMiami.
Warfield had the West Palm Beach architectural firm of Harvey & Clarke, led byGustav Maass, design a series of now historicMediterranean Revival stations inWest Palm Beach, Lake Worth, Boynton Beach,Delray Beach,Deerfield Beach,Fort Lauderdale,Hollywood, andHialeah, as well as inNaples and Fort Myers. In April 1927, Warfield completed a push of the Miami extension even further south toHomestead, and had his architects erect aMediterranean Revival station there as well.
Warfield died in October 1927 and was succeeded by Legh R. Powell, who had worked his way up on the financial side of the railroad.[1] The railroad was in an unfortunate position due to being geographically sandwiched in the South between two well-to-do rivals, theAtlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL) and theSouthern Railway.[1] In addition, Warfield's expansion down the west coast of Florida was seen as an unnecessary extravagance due to the presence of the ACL in the same area.[1] In December 1930, the Seaboard again entered bankruptcy following the collapse of theFlorida land boom and the onset of theGreat Depression. TheUnited States District Court in Norfolk, Virginia—which would oversee the railroad for the next 14½ years—appointed Powell as areceiver.[1]
With loans obtained from the federal government'sReconstruction Finance Corporation, the railroad set about modernizing its equipment with new steam freight locomotives and new and rebuilt passenger cars. In 1942, to cut expenses, the SAL abandoned a 27-mile section of its then only 15-year-old Fort Myers-Naples extension between South Fort Myers and Naples, along with sections of two other little-used branch lines from the extension.[19] By aggressive marketing and technological innovations that drew travelers to the line, such as the highly popularSilver Meteor streamliner, introduced in 1939, Seaboard managed to regain its financial footing. The economic boom ofWorld War II also helped replenish the railroad's coffers. In 1944, theSilver Meteor alone turned a profit of over $8 million, nearly as much as the deficit of the whole railroad had been in the Depression year of 1933.[20]
In May 1945, all of the Seaboard properties were sold under foreclosure at an auction sale to bondholders for $52 million.[1] In 1946, the railroad was reorganized as theSeaboard Air LineRailroad.[1]
Quick to recognize the cost savings ofdiesel power oversteam in the postwar period, the Seaboard dieselized all of its mainline trains by 1953. In the same decade, the railroad installedCTC signaling across most of its system, generating further savings of time and money, as well as improved safety.[17] However, like all American railroads, Seaboard saw a decline in revenues, especially in passenger traffic, from the 1950s into the 1960s, in the face of growing competition from airlines, trucking companies and theInterstate Highway System.[21] In 1960 SAL reported 9910 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 484 million passenger-miles, not including Gainesville Midland and Tavares & Gulf.[citation needed]
As a strategic move to reduce costs and counter the competition of airlines and trucking companies, merger with the parallel system of Seaboard's chief rival,Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL) was first proposed in 1958, but was not approved by theInterstate Commerce Commission until 1967.[5] On July 1 of that year, SAL and ACL merged to formSeaboard Coast Line Railroad (SCL).[22] The seeming redundancy of the name stems from combining the most common short forms of the two railroads' names: the public and the railroads themselves for many years had referred to SAL as "Seaboard" and ACL as "Coast Line."
On May 1, 1971, SCL turned over all its passenger operations to the newly formedAmtrak, which continued to operate the profitableSilver Meteor andSilver Star alongside a former Coast Line streamliner, theChampion, while eliminating others.
By 1972, Seaboard Coast Line and its corporate relativesLouisville and Nashville,Georgia Railroad,Atlanta and West Point Railroad,Western Railway of Alabama andClinchfield Railroad began advertising themselves as theFamily Lines System, and applying the Family Lines logo to theirrolling stock. However, the Family Lines name was merely a marketing strategy, and all the railroads remained separate legal and operating entities.
TheFamily Lines System and theChessie System became subsidiaries of the newly createdCSX Corporation on November 1, 1980, but continued to operate as separate railroads.[23] The Family Lines name and logo were dropped when all of the Family Lines merged on December 29, 1982, to form theSeaboard System.[24]
On July 1, 1986, the Seaboard System's name was changed toCSX Transportation. Subsequently, the Chessie System was merged into CSX Transportation on August 31, 1987.[23]
The"Old Bay Line," as theBaltimore Steam Packet Company was commonly known, operated steamships betweenNorfolk, Virginia, andBaltimore, Maryland, carrying mail and freight as well as passengers and vehicles on the overnight run.[25]
The Seaboard and Roanoke acquired a controlling interest in the steamship company in 1851, providing valuable northward connections from the docks at Norfolk for the railroad's passenger and freight business.[26] Control passed to theRichmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad in 1901, but in 1922, with S. Davies Warfield as its president, the Old Bay Line became a wholly owned subsidiary of the SAL. In that same year, Warfield was named president of the Seaboard as well.[27]
In 1941, the Chesapeake Steamship Company, jointly owned by theAtlantic Coast Line and theSouthern, was merged into the Old Bay Line.[28] Due to the decline of business with the rise of interstate highways and air travel, the steamship company was liquidated in 1962.[25]
The SAL had a cooperative relationship with the Southern Railway for traffic to the western part of the upper South and the Midwest. For example, the Southern's timetables listed SAL routes for train destinations south ofJacksonville Union Station, the gateway hub for trains from the Midwest and the Northeast to Florida destinations, examples being the Southern'sKansas City-Florida Special,Ponce de Leon andRoyal Palm.[29] Additionally, the Southern and the SAL railroads pooled their operations for theFlorida Sunbeam, a wintertime train from Detroit and Cleveland to Florida.[30]
Following is a partial list[20][31] of the many namedpassenger trains that Seaboard operated during the first half of the 20th century, some of which were continued by successorsSeaboard Coast Line (SCL) andAmtrak. Trains originating in New York were handled by thePennsylvania Railroad from New York to Washington; by theRichmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad from Washington to Richmond; and by Seaboard from Richmond to points south.[32]
Prior to the completion of Seaboard's Cross-Florida extension from Coleman to West Palm Beach (1925) and on to Miami (1926), theFlorida East Coast Railway handled SAL trains from Jacksonville to Miami. Thereafter, Seaboard split most major southbound trains atWildwood, just north ofColeman, with one section going to Tampa and west coast points, and the other going to Miami. Northbound, the process was reversed, with west and east coast sections joining at Wildwood to continue their journey.[33]
The termheavyweight refers to trains consisting of passenger cars with all-steel construction, considered a great improvement in safety over the all-wooden or wood-and-steel cars of the 19th century. By 1910, nearly all major railroads were replacing their wooden passenger fleets with cars of heavyweight construction.[citation needed]
Note: The history of train names on various Seaboard routes is complex, with some being temporarily replaced or discontinued for a year or two, then brought back, perhaps on a somewhat different routing (e.g., to both coasts of Florida or to only one); the following is merely a rough guide to the names of some of the major year-round trains Seaboard offered. Consult sources listed at the end of this article for exact details.[citation needed]
Before the Cross-Florida Extension from Coleman to West Palm Beach was completed in 1925 (and extended to Miami in 1927), Seaboard trains for cities on the Atlantic side of Florida were handled by theFlorida East Coast Railway south of Jacksonville.[citation needed]
Although competing railroads in the South were reluctant to make the capital investments needed to streamline their passenger car fleets, Seaboard led the way in 1939 and soon the other roads began to follow. Two of the routes, theSilver Meteor and theSilver Star, are still operating today; they are the sole survivors of the once-vast market of long-distance Florida trains. TheSilver Meteor,Silver Star, andSilver Comet constituted Seaboard's widely advertised and very popular "Silver Fleet" ofstreamliners, with lightweight fluted-sidestainless steel cars pulled by colorfulEMDdiesel locomotives.
As the underdog in its competition with the wealthier Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard often strove to bolster its passenger revenues by offering innovative services. Seaboard was the first Florida railroad to:[20]
In the mid-20th century Seaboard was one of a few railroads that gave names to its main freight trains. Among these were:
Seaboard also had a number of fast, high-priority freight trains calledRed Ball freights between various points on its system.[1]
In 1959 Seaboard inaugurated its high-speedpiggyback service. The best of these trailer-on-flatcar (TOFC) trains was theRazorback, trains TT23 and TT24, running betweenKearny, New Jersey on thePennsylvania Railroad and Hialeah Yard, Miami, covering a distance of over 1,000 miles in less than 30 hours.
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In the late 1890s, Georgia educator and activistSarah Harper Heard met with and persuaded the vice president and general manager of Seaboard Air Line Railroad,Everett St. John,[45] to have the company transport books to every railroad stop; these small libraries came to be called "S.A.L. Magundi Clubs". St. John went on to contactAndrew Carnegie, who donated $1,000 towards the effort.[46] Thus began in 1898 the Seaboard Airline Railway Free Traveling Library System; due to his support, Heard sometimes referred to the program as the "Andrew Carnegie Free Traveling Library".
Heard also traveled toNew York City, where she met withbook editors andpublishing houses to establish business agreements and request donations,[47] and then back to Georgia via theEastern seaboard, recruitinglibrarians across six states along the way.[48] Her overall efforts were so successful that theNew York Daily Tribune noted that the donations "enabled [Heard] to send the boxes in all directions. Quantities of books have been given and the rooms at Rose Hill, which were used as a distributing headquarters, are now overcrowded".[49][46] By the turn of the century, the Seaboard library system boasted a collection of over 2,500 books and attracted so much support that it was able to donate entire libraries to deserving schools. Heard was named Seaboard's Superintendent [of] Traveling Libraries in 1901. By 1910, books were being circulated from Rose Hill to 35 community libraries and 150 school libraries; by 1912, the Seaboard library system comprised 18,000 books and 38,000 magazines.[48] A number of publications came from theUnited States Department of Agriculture.[50]
In a 1901 special edition titled "Free Traveling Libraries", Seaboard's promotional magazineS.A.L. Magundi published an assortment of letters written by notable figures including PresidentWilliam McKinley, the governor of Alabama, Florida governorWilliam Sherman Jennings, Georgia governorAllen D. Candler, North Carolina governorCharles Brantley Aycock, South Carolina governorMiles Benjamin McSweeney, Virginia governorJames Hoge Tyler, andAndrew Carnegie.
Heard worked to establish twelve "McKinley libraries" in 1902, dedicated to "the characteristics and high ideals so exemplified in the life and purposes of [President William] McKinley".[51] The traveling library system won a gold medal award at the 1907Jamestown Exposition in Virginia.
Heard died in 1919, after which her daughter Susan took over management as head librarian until her death on April 7, 1934; Susan's husband James Y. Swift then filled the role.[52]
Seaboard continued to transport books to small towns and libraries in need across the region until 1955, leaving behind new libraries scattered among small communities across the Southeast. The library system never charged fees for late or lost books.[48] Its collection of books was donated to schools across Georgia.[47]
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