I would greatly appreciate help in nailing down when the SAL used various names. Many of the secondary sources I have looked at seem to use the terms "railroad" and "railway" interchangeably. As best as I can determine "SAL Railroad" was used before 1900, "SAL Railway" from 1900 to 1915 and "SAL Railway Company" until 1967 when it became part of the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. Thanks for your help.

-- CAS Smith (cleome48@hotmail.com), December 14, 2004

Answers

In wandering in and out of receivership, one of the objectives was to keep the reporting marks the same. Waybills, consists, wheel reports, interchange reports were some examples of how the reporting marks are paramount to car accounting, car repair bills, division of rates, and more. When Seaboard Railway emerged as Seaboard Railroad, the reporting marks remained the same. Norfolk Southern changed names so often that in 1910, the Norfolk -&- Southern Railway became the Norfolk Southern Railroad (no ampersand). The ampersand that had appeared in the company symbol was cleverly replaced with a diamond. As planned, the merger of ACL and SAL was to create the Atlantic Seaboard System. But then someone realized what the reporting marks would be.

-- Harry Bundy (Y6B@aol.com), December 14, 2004.

To add to Larry's answer -

The Seaboard Airline RAILWAY was incorporated in 1900, and that was the official name until August 1947 when the company emerged from receivership, ie bankruptcy (sp?). When companies emerge from receivership, they are considered "new" entities, and as such they change the name of the company, and issue new stock as the old stock is then deemed worthless. In this case, it was from Seaboard Airline RAILWAY to Seaboard Airline RAILROAD.

-- Bill Parks (bparks_43@yahoo.com), December 14, 2004.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaboard_Air_Line_Railroad it was Railway until 1946, when it reorganized as Railroad. http://www.montevue.co.nz/chorina/mainline/seaboardsys_box.pdf agrees, and shows that the company was formed in 1900, with various names including Seaboard for its subsidiaries.

-- SPUI (drspui@gmail.com), December 14, 2004.

The terms "railroad" and "railway" are usually interchangeable when making a general reference to the industry rather than a specific company, although "railway" is more common in Britain. But each specific railroad company either had "railroad" or "railway" as part of its official corporate name, again with most U.S. companies using "railroad." In Seaboard's case, it used both at different times in its history, with the change coming on occasions when the company was corporately reorganized. I don't have source materials in front of me so can't speak to the change that occurred around 1915. (Before 1900, by the way, there was no separate SAL company as such, but rather an association of several other companies under the SAL marketing label.) While in bankruptcy in the 1930s and 40s, SAL was "Railway," and was changed to "Railroad" when it emerged from bankruptcy in 1946. It remained "Railroad" until merged into SCL in 1967.

-- Larry Goolsby (lgoolsby@aphsa.org), December 14, 2004.