Locked Branch Line Designations


Tracey Green
 

I feel like I've seen this information referenced before, either in this group (though I couldn't find it in a search) or elsewhere, but what system did SOU use to designate branch lines with letter designations? Thanks in advance for any info!

Tracey Green


Michael Young
 

Tracey, just from studying old ETTs it seemed like sometimes there was a reason for a certain designation but most times there wasn't. For example, the Lockhart Branch was the LB-Line, and the former SCRR main line between Charleston and Columbia is the SC-Line, while the two SCRR branch lines were the SA-Line from Branchville to Augusta and the SB-Line from Kingville to (ultimately) Rock Hill and Marion NC, which junctioned with the Atlanta-Washington Main Line at Blacksburg NC, but that might have been just a coincidence. The old Columbia-Hardeeville/ACL connection to Florida was designated the C-Line, which could be a reference to the operating subsidiary Southern first established to build it, the Carolina Central RR. Some other branch lines had letters that seemed to clearly reference their end points, I think the Climax-Ramseur NC branch was the CR-Line. I'm sure there were others, but many of the secondary main lines didn't seem to me to be referencing anything in particular. 

On Mon, Jan 16, 2023 at 12:24 PM, Tracey Green
<tracey.c.green@...> wrote:
I feel like I've seen this information referenced before, either in this group (though I couldn't find it in a search) or elsewhere, but what system did SOU use to designate branch lines with letter designations? Thanks in advance for any info!

Tracey Green


Tracey Green
 

Thanks, Michael. I haven’t been able to discern a consistent pattern but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. I was looking at the O line in NC and wondered if that was a reference to the AT&O that once owned it, but then have no idea about the basis for the L line there. 


On Jan 16, 2023, at 1:21 PM, Michael Young via groups.io <michaeljy@...> wrote:

Tracey, just from studying old ETTs it seemed like sometimes there was a reason for a certain designation but most times there wasn't. For example, the Lockhart Branch was the LB-Line, and the former SCRR main line between Charleston and Columbia is the SC-Line, while the two SCRR branch lines were the SA-Line from Branchville to Augusta and the SB-Line from Kingville to (ultimately) Rock Hill and Marion NC, which junctioned with the Atlanta-Washington Main Line at Blacksburg NC, but that might have been just a coincidence. The old Columbia-Hardeeville/ACL connection to Florida was designated the C-Line, which could be a reference to the operating subsidiary Southern first established to build it, the Carolina Central RR. Some other branch lines had letters that seemed to clearly reference their end points, I think the Climax-Ramseur NC branch was the CR-Line. I'm sure there were others, but many of the secondary main lines didn't seem to me to be referencing anything in particular. 

Mike Young 


On Mon, Jan 16, 2023 at 12:24 PM, Tracey Green
<tracey.c.green@...> wrote:
I feel like I've seen this information referenced before, either in this group (though I couldn't find it in a search) or elsewhere, but what system did SOU use to designate branch lines with letter designations? Thanks in advance for any info!

Tracey Green