East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia

Company History: The ETV&G was born from the 1869 merger of the East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad and the East Tennessee & Georgia Railroad. At that point, the line (which was 5’ gauge) ran from Bristol, Tennessee southwest to Knoxville (where the two predecessors connected) and on southwest to Dalton, Georgia. Over the next two decades, the ETV&G built and acquired there way into a 1,800 mile system that ran from the original line west to Chattanooga then Memphis, southwest to Mobile, Alabama and Meridian, Mississippi, and southeast to the port of Brunswick, Georgia and connections to Savannah and Jacksonville, Florida. The line was standard gauged in 1886. J.P. Morgan founded the Southern Railway and in 1894 consolidated the ETV&G and the Richmond & Danville Railroad into the new company. At the time of the consolidation, ETV&G had 272 locomotives, 192 passenger cars, and 9,560 freight cars with nearly 1,600 more under lease. Most of the routes of the ETV&G operate today as part of Norfolk Southern.

Text courtesy of Bluford Shops