And then there were 7 railroads

I normally would not do a one-webpage post, but Richard Parks has put together such an information packed summary of the current railroads that I want to increase the odds that I can find it in the future. He not only has a system map for each of the seven railroads serving USA, he documents the mergers since 1930 that built the railroads. For months I have been thinking about starting the construction of those genealogy charts. I'm so relieved that someone has already done them. I can take that activity of the "todo" list. And having all of the system maps on one page will make it easier to quickly check a map.

As usual, I ended up adding more links than I had in mind when I started the post. I have added links to more detailed maps in case Richard's are not detailed enough to answer a question. For the interactive maps, I recommend changing the basemap to "Imagery with Labels." Many of the non-interactive maps are rather big PDF files. You may not want to poke a link until you are ready to take a coffee break. I have downloaded these PDFs to folders so that I don't stress my browser every time I want to look at one.

There is an interactive map that has all 7 Class I railroads on it. For the Chicago area, the B&OCT map has the details I have needed. [Aug 2020: I have discovered that the csx and r2parks links no longer work. The r2parks merger diagrams were the essence of this post. That is a serious loss! I found this diagram that shows the dates of mergers.]

• BNSF interactive divisions subdivisions chicago weightF coal auto AUTO modal MODAL transload teamtrack carload
• Canadian National interactive weight  intermodal (seems to be broken)
• Canadian Pacific interactive   2018 subdivisions .pdf
• CSX interactive (broken: weight plate double-stack multi-level)    note System and Clearance under maps. Get weight by clicking tonnage on clearance map.    heritage(note other goodies in the sidebar)         A list of the subdivisions (source (derailment photo))
• Kansas City Southern interactive 
• Norfolk Southern .pdf(30 million bytes, (private note: stored as 0Railroads>NS>ns-system-map) interactive layered 
• Union Pacific interactive system weight illinois

Fred Pond commented on a post
Jerry Bauer Burlington Northern Railway was the product of the merger of the GN, NP, SPS, CB&Q (Burlington Route) & CS/FWD in 1971. Later Frisco joined the BN in 1980. In 1995, BN bought the Santa Fe and the railroad became the Burlington Northern Santa FE. Now known as the BNSF Railway. Each one of those railroads were formed over years of mergers of small railroads all over country.Paul Yelk This document by BNSF contains - on the last 2 pages - a very long list of all of BNSF's predecessor railroads: http://www.bnsf.com/.../our.../pdf/History_and_Legacy.pdf Some were very small, but I find this list to be the most comprehensive: http://www.bnsf.com/.../our.../pdf/History_and_Legacy.pdf And then there's this website that have many (for each change in ownership and/or name, there's a date associated with it): http://laurent.aublette.free.fr/histo/bnsf_hist.html

Alan Liesse http://trn.trains.com/.../06/bnsf-railway-merger-family-tree

From Facebook comments to some of my Fallen Flag shares, I learned the following about CSXT.

Dennis DeBruler The C and S of CSX. I read they put the X in as a placeholder until they could think of a better third letter. But since they never did, they had to add Transportation to the name so that the reporting mark, CSXT, would not end with an X. An X at the end indicates it is not a common carrier, it is typically a leasing company or a dedicated industrial lead.

Stephen Neubaum My understanding is that the "X" is also meant as the multipication symbol, that the merger would result in a railroad far better than the sum of the individual roads before the merger.

 But otherwise, yeah, they had to add the "T" as the reporting marks could not end with the letter X, as you said.

Timothy A P Mercer Stephen is correct. The X means that it's more than Chessie and Seaboard. And the name was supposed to be temporary also, they just never renamed it.

Stephen Kellogg -> Toledo Area Railfans

Dennis DeBruler When I saw a Family Lines heritage locomotive in Toledo, I decided it was time to check the historical CSX assets in the area because I was not aware of any FL heritage lines in the Toledo area. I confirmed that there were just Chessie assets, both B&O and C&O. So then I checked when Chessie and FL merged to form CSX. It was 1986. Since this is a 1987 photo, CSX must have extensively mixed power and freight cars between the two after the merger before they got repainted.

Doug Bess Actually in 1986 Seaboard System was renamed CSX Transportation. This left B&O and C&O along with CSXT as subsidiaries of CSX Corp. In March, 1987 B&O was merged into C&O then in August of the same year, C&O was merged into CSXT.

American Rails Facebook

The comment for the photo:

A freshly repainted Seaboard System GP40-2 is nearly ready for service at the South Louisville Shops in Louisville, Kentucky on October 6, 1984. More information from the author: "One of the shortest lived railroad companies of all times was Seaboard System. It lasted from the end of 1982 until the summer of 1986, when it was folded into CSX Transportation---just three and a half years. SBD included the former Seaboard Coast Line, the L&N, the West Point Route, the Georgia, and the Clinchfield. On October 6, 1984---during the very first annual convention of the L&N Historical Society--our group was on a tour of South Louisville Shops, and I grabbed this shot. Ex-L&N GP40-2 6603 is getting her final inspection after refurbishment and a fresh coat of French gray Seaboard System paint. The "Shops" would be closed within three years by CSX, and completely demolished. Today, this spot is occupied by the University of Louisville football stadium. With all due respects to the Cardinals, I think it's a waste of good real estate---a place that was far more appealing when it still served as one of the major railroad shops in the nation." - Ron Flanary

Chris Stivers The Seaboard System was basically a place holder until the final Chessie and Family lines merger was confirmed