Railroads of the Boyd-verse

All of the following railroads are purely fictional. However, they do tie into my revisions to the Esch Cummins Act. So here we go...

The Nashville and South Eastern
The Nashville and South Eastern was established in January 1868 to construct a railroad line between Nashville, TN and Atlanta, GA. It was conceived as a way to compete with the pre-existing Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis by offering a more direct route from Nashville to Chattanooga which stayed entirely in Tennessee. The Southern and Illinois Central each saw this fledgling little company as becoming a thorn in the side of their common rival, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, which owned the NC&StL. The SOU and IC provided funds for the railroad and construction began in the early Spring of 1870. By that fall, the NSE had reached Shelbyville, TN and in the late spring of 1871, the NSE reached Chattanooga.

In July of 1872, the company extended its line to Atlanta by building a line of Chickamauga, GA. Then, it east to Rome, and finally Atlanta.

Up until 1875, the Philadelphia Northern only owned 15 4-4-0 American type steam locomotives of its own and made due mostly with leased power from its two backers. In 1875, the NSE purchased from Rogers Locomotive Works 13 2-6-0 locomotives numbered 20 through 32, and set them to work on freight trains. Several more 4-4-0s and 2-6-0s of similar designs and shared parts were late built by Baldwin for the line.

Passenger and freight service began in earnest after construction of the main line was completed in the summer of 1872 with a large train station built in Nashville. In 1876, the Nashville and South Eastern launched its premiere passenger train dubbed the "Music City Flyer." The following year, they bought the only inside-cylinder steam engines for use in the United States. Them being a group of 0-6-0 switchers for use mainly in Nashville.

In 1883, the NSE constructed its main locomotive and car shops in Shelbyville, TN. Also during the 1880s, the NSE constructed several branchlines to serve the communities of Tennessee, as well as an additional link to some communities south of Nashville. Lastly, they also began sharing a maintenance facility in Chattanooga with the Central of Georgia railroad. Also, the 4-4-0s and 2-6-0s were joined by 4-6-0s for mixed traffic work.

Starting in 1900, the NSE began to replace its wooden passenger car fleet with new steel cars and began to upgrade locomotives and track during a major capital improvement program that lasted throughout the first decade of the 20th Century, during this time most of the 2-6-0s and 4-4-0s were removed from the roster, and replaced with 4-6-2s on passenger work, 2-8-2s for freight, and 4-8-0s on mixed traffic work.

The next big modernization on the NSE occurred in 1917 with the United States Railroad Administration taking over the NSE (and all other US railroads) and bringing in several of the "USRA Standard" locomotives (light 2-8-2s, 4-6-2s, 2-10-2s, 4-8-2s, 0-8-0s and 0-6-0s) and rolling stock. The NSE was privatized once again in 1920.

In 1925, the NSE ordered a series of 4-8-2s from the Lima Locomotive Works for use on fast passenger trains and freights. These engines would proceed to replace the few 4-6-0s that we still in service.

In 1928, the railroad also ordered several 4-8-4s from Lima to use exclusively on its Nashville-Atlanta express trains, demoting most 4-6-2s to mere slower trains. They also ordered from Lima a group of 2-10-4s for heavy freights. These would ultimately turnout to be the last engines they bought.

In 1929, the National Railroad Consolidation Act was passed by Congress. The act was designed to create a group of lines that could enjoy long-term competition with each other. Under this act, the NSE received the half of the Tennessee Central running from Nashville to Hopkinsville, KY.

Shortly after, however, the railroad was absorbed into the Central of Georgia. That said, many of its engines still around (USRA engines, 4-6-2s, 4-8-0s, 2-8-2s, 4-8-2s, 4-8-4s, and 2-10-4s), were continued to be used by the CofG. Almost all of these engine types were once again, still used by the Illinois Central, which took over the CofG in 1948, until that rairload ended its own steam oeprations.

Today, the NSE is still a vital part of the Illinois Central's network. As it is a major source of revenue which lets the IC compete with the Atlantic coast Line and Southern in Midwest-Florida Traffic of both passenger and freight.
 
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The Scranton, Pittsburgh, and Lyons

At the turn of the 20th century, the Fall Brook Railroad merged with several other short lines connecting it's system with Scranton, Berwick and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to form the Scranton, Pittsburgh and Lyons Railroad. The railroad Competed with the PRR's Northern Division in transporting coal and ore to the ports at Sodus Point, New York and Passenger traffic between New York City and Pittsburgh via the Lackawanna railroad. As such, this was a perfect candidate to go with the Baltimore and Ohio along with the DL&W. See here for more details.
 
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It's always good to see a railroad focused AH. Your fictitious lines are really well thought out, better than my own certainly.
 
The National High Speed Rail Craze: 1970-2000
Thanks to the renewal of American railroads thanks to the oil crises of first the early 50s and then the late 70s, passenger rail began to make a dramatic resurgence as it became america's preferred alternative to the automobile. This pro-rail stance common among Americans became even more prominent after and the growing hassle of getting on planes, not to mention weather hazards and more darkly the September 11 attacks.

It was during the early days of the worst air disasters that Americans began to reconsider flocking from the railroads so quickly. At this point, private entrepreneurs began to cash in on the desires of people to get from one place to another quickly. But without having to wait around in poor weather and possibly losing luggage. This was also true in the case of freight rail, which also began to prove its potential at a stronger, better alternative to trucks.

The first of these projects was a collaboration between the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New Haven Railroad. Together they upgraded the NH line from Boston to New York and the PRR from there to Washington DC. This new operation, which became known as the Colonial Express, was inaugurated in 1970, and soon it was considered by many superior to the airlines that operated between the same areas. In no small part due to its superior dining options, clean conditions, and service at reasonably high speeds even in the face of poor weather. Concurrently, the Pennsy also used the same treatment to upgrade the Pittsburgher, its NY-Pittsburgh passenger train, freight rail was naturally included in its plans for faster trains. The end result was the Keystone Corridor, a perfectly speedy rail service from New York to Pittsburgh.

All too soon, the success of this service was noticed in the West by California's Southern Pacific Railroad. They themselves proceeded to make similar upgrades to the route of their Coast Daylight passenger service from San Fransisco to Los Angeles. This line had already been upgraded via the use of EMD diesels and concrete ties in the place of wood ties and steamers. But by 1975, the SP had created a high speed transit operation on par with that of Japan. The SP even went up to 11 in trying to beat the Santa Fe in Chicago- LA traffic. As it took the flatter terrain of the ex-Rock Island line and made similar modifications, thus also upgrading the Golden State passenger train.

In 1973, the Southern Railroad took a note of the Pennsy's book. Then it made heavy conversions to their ex- Florida East Coast mainline and included a new branch to Orlando. The end result of this was Brightline. A successful passenger service which naturally won the hearts of many Floridans fed up with traffic jams and who felt a plane ride between the two cities was absurd.

Eventually, the Chicago area was next to be subject to the new high speed rail craze. But it was the New York Central, the Pennsy's fierce rival, that held most of the cards in the Midwest. They initially started with the James Whitcomb Riley on the Chicago-Indianapolis-Cincinnati mainline in 1975. This newly improved service was a success, and soon, the NYC used the Indianapolis and Louisville Traction line to create another high speed service to Louisville. This was followed shortly after with the upgrading of the lines from Cleveland to Chicago and Cincinnati. But the NYC was not going to stop there. For it expanded the scope of their higher speed rail program, and made the upgrades all the way to Buffalo, NY. By 1988, the NYC had most of their passenger rail lines running at speeds of 125 mph.

The PRR was naturally shocked by the NYC's efforts and success at upstaging them in the high speed rail development. Starting when they began eating at the PRR's profits in the Chicago-Cincinnati/Louisville traffic. As such, the PRR decided to cash in where the NYC hadn't tried to do so, New York- St. Louis. The upgrades began in 1979, and soon, they had reached Columbus, OH. Where the line split again to Cincinnati. However, the PRR got in a financial rut that kept the project from starting again until the 1990s.

Meanwhile in the west, the Milwaukee Road decided to upgrade its famous Hiawatha service from Chicago-Milwaukee-Twin Cities. Later on, they also upgraded the line from Milwaukee to Green Bay. The Union Pacific attempted to do likewise, and they ran their own train between the three cities via Madison, WI.

The Chicago- St. Louis corridor was almost completely dominated by the Illinois Central.

All around, passenger rail in 2018 is in a far better spot than IOTL. With the streamliners of yesteryear being supplemented by some of the fastest trains in the western world in many corridors.
 
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