Franklin & Carolina

Company History: The F&C was established in 1944 by Camp Manufacturing Company to convert an old Dismal Swamp logging railroad into a common carrier. It would connect the parent company’s sawmill and paper mill in Franklin, Virginia to a connection with the Atlantic Coast Line at Franklin Junction. F&C also had connections at Franklin with Seaboard Air Line and Atlantic & Danville. The F&C moved coal, chemicals, logs, pulpwood and oil into the mill complex and shipped lumber, paper, tall oil and wood pulp. Operation began with a 2-6-2, a 4-6-0 and a pair of Whitcomb 60-ton diesels picked up secondhand from the U.S. Army. The two steam locomotives were scrapped in the early 50s. Camp decided to get out of the railroad business in 1958 and sold the line to Atlantic Coast Line. After the Seaboard Coast Line merger of 1967, this route became redundant since the SAL already served Franklin. The route of the F&C was pulled up in 1972.

Successor/Parent History: ACL’s roots go back to the Petersburg Railroad in 1830. By the 1870s, their successors and some affiliated lines began using Atlantic Coast Line as a nickname and through a number of consolidations Atlantic Coast Line became the official name by 1900. Atlantic Coast Line funneled traffic from northern Virginia (and its connections to the northeastern trunk lines via the RF&P) down through the Carolinas, Georgia and into Florida as far as Naples on the Gulf Coast. Acquisitions after the war added routes from Columbia and Spartanburg, South Carolina to the coast and lines linking Atlanta, Birmingham and Montgomery to southern Georgia and Florida.

At that point, the Atlantic Coast Line boasted 5,743 miles of railroad, 629 locomotives, 361 passenger cars, and 31,284 freight cars. To put that into perspective for you western guys, that's four times the size of Western Pacific.

ACL was the premier route for New York to Florida passenger traffic. The ACL's "Champion" left New York on the Pennsy, was handed off to the RF&P from Washington to Richmond, ran on the ACL to Jacksonville, FL and was then handed off to Florida East Coast for the ride to Miami. The "West Coast Champion" skipped the FEC as ACL went all the way to Tampa on Florida's Gulf Coast on its own rails. ACL also forwarded some Chicago to Florida trains via connections. Much of the system was relatively flat, allowing ACL to use 4-6-2’s in fast freight service (one of the few railroads to do this.)

ACL is best known for its purple and silver diesels. This scheme was used on freight, passenger, and switcher power until 1957. By that time, it became clear that these colors were difficult to maintain, so the ACL switched to racing stallion black with yellow “tack.” The Atlantic Coast Line merged with the Seaboard Air Line Railroad in 1967 to form the Seaboard Coast Line.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.