page_title: Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
section_title: Later history
hierarchical_section_title: Atlantic Coast Line Railroad / History / Later history
caption_attribution_description: Advertisement for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, found in The Travel Magazine, January 1910, Vol. XV, No. 4, p. 203, at &lt;https://books.google.com/books?id=P3ocAQAAMAAJ&amp;pg=PA163&amp;dq=travel+magazine+january+1910&amp;hl=en&amp;ei=SPa0TYzPBsnB0QGh1PCjCQ&amp;sa=X&amp;oi=book_result&amp;ct=result&amp;resnum=3&amp;ved=0CE0Q6AEwAg&gt;. Published by the Passenger Dept., New York Central and Hudson River Railroad. Image is in the public domain because it was first published before 1923.
context_page_description: The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad is a former U. S. Class I railroad from 1900 until 1967, when it merged with long-time rival Seaboard Air Line Railroad to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. Much of the original ACL network has been part of CSX Transportation since 1986.
  The Atlantic Coast Line served the Southeast, with a concentration of lines in Florida. Numerous named passenger trains were operated by the railroad for Florida-bound tourists, with the Atlantic Coast Line contributing significantly to Florida's economic development in the first half of the 20th century.
  At the end of 1925, ACL operated 4,924 miles of road, not including its flock of subsidiaries; after some merging, mileage at the end of 1960 was 5,570 not including A&WP, CN&L, East Carolina, Georgia, Rockingham, and V&CS. In 1960, ACL reported 10,623 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 490 million passenger-miles.
context_section_description: By the early 1900s the railroad had largely reached its final configuration and began to focus on upgrading its physical plant.  By the 1920s the railroad's main line from Richmond, Virginia to Jacksonville, Florida had been double-tracked, which benefited the railroad during the 1920s when Florida boomed.
  In 1928 the ACL completed a line between Perry, Florida and Drifton, near Monticello, Florida, the last link of the new "Perry Cutoff". This created a more direct route between Chicago and Florida's west coast and bypassing Jacksonville, one which passed through Macon, Albany, and Thomasville, the route followed by ACL's passenger train Southland from December 1928 to 1957 when it was rerouted to Jacksonville.
  During the Great Depression ACL's freight traffic declined by around 60%, but the railroad survived the 1930s without declaring bankruptcy; its success in this regard has been attributed to its leadership and careful financial practices, as well as owning the Louisville and Nashville, which remained strong through the Depression.
  During World War II ACL's passenger traffic increased 200% and freight traffic 150%.  The railroad provided a submarine-proof alternative to coastal shipping, and it also served the fast-emerging military industry in the Southeast.  In 1942 Champion McDowell Davis (nicknamed "Champ") became president of the ACL and immediately began an improvement program that finished in the mid-1950s, including the rebuilding of several hundred miles of track, the installation of modern signalling systems and improvements to freight yards.  The railroad spent at least $268 million in upgrading its physical plant during this period.
  In 1956 the railroad moved its headquarters, which had been sited at and adjacent to Wilmington, North Carolina's Union Station to Jacksonville, Florida. Jacksonville was selected from three candidate cities, the other two being Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina. Construction of the new office complex was finished in July 1960, with the move from Wilmington completed over the following weeks.
caption: 1910 advertisement for ACL trains from New York to Florida
exif: {}