  the southern railway  was a us class 1 railroad. it was the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the southern railway in 1894. it was placed under control of the norfolk southern corporation, along with the norfolk and western railway (n&w), in 1982, and was renamed norfolk southern railway in 1990. (the n&w continued to exist as a subsidiary until 1997.) at the end of 1970 southern operated  of railroad, not including its class i subsidiaries ags (528 miles) cofg (1729 miles) s&a (167 miles) cnotp (415 miles) gs&f (454 miles) and twelve class ii subsidiaries. that year southern itself reported 26111 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 110 million passenger-miles; ags reported 3854 and 11, cofg 3595 and 17, s&a 140 and 0, cnotp 4906 and 0.3, and gs&f 1431 and 0. ==history== thumb|250px|an 1895 system map. thumb|250px|a 1921 system map. the pioneering south carolina canal and rail road company, southern's earliest predecessor line and one of the first railroads in the united states, was chartered in december 1827 and ran the nation's first regularly scheduled steam-powered passenger train &ndash; the wood-burning best friend of charleston &ndash; over a six-mile section out of charleston, south carolina, on december 25, 1830. (the baltimore and ohio railroad ran regular passenger service earlier that year.) by 1833, its 136-mile line to hamburg, south carolina, was the longest in the world.   as railroad fever struck other southern states, networks gradually spread across the south and even across the appalachian mountains. by 1857 the memphis and charleston railroad was completed to link charleston, south carolina, and memphis, tennessee, but rail expansion in the south was halted with the start of the civil war. the battle of shiloh, the siege of corinth and the second battle of corinth in 1862 were motivated by the importance of the memphis and charleston line, the only east-west rail link across the confederacy. the chickamauga campaign for chattanooga, tennessee was also motivated by the im
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