Cumberland Southern Lines

Incorporated 1870

Corporate History

Cumberland Southern Lines is the parent company of four railroads, the Cumberland Southern Railway, the Tennessee And Eastern Railroad, the Ohio Midland Company, and The New River Electric Railway And Lighting Co. It also operates a car leasing company, Cumberland Southern Refrigerator Express, and an air freight company, Cumberland Southern Air Express.

It has roots dating back to May 1, 1858 when the Cumberland and Gulf Railroad was chartered at Cumberland, Virginia. Construction soon began, with the eventual goal of completing a narrow gauge railroad to New Orleans. About 45 miles of track were laid and operation began in 1860, but most of the right of way and equipment were destroyed during the Civil War. This, and an unfortunate decision to invest heavily in Confederate war bonds, drove the company into bankruptcy by 1862, when it disbanded.

After the war, a group of investors, largely made up of Yankee carpetbaggers, noting the completion of the transcontinental railroad a year earlier, concluded that perhaps railroads might have a place in the future along side canals and riverboats, and thus acquired the assets of the Cumberland and Gulf Railroad, incorporating as the Cumberland Southern Railway on April 1, 1870. The remains of the original line were rebuilt as a standard gauge line over the next 16 years, eventually reaching Knoxville, Tennessee in 1886. A further expansion extended the mainline on to Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1901, which is the southern terminus today. Cumberland Southern Railway uses CS as its reporting marks.

In 1930, controlling interest in the Tennessee And Eastern Railroad was acquired when that line went into receivership during the Great Depression. It extends from its interchange point with the Cumberland Southern at Knoxville, southeast to Columbia, South Carolina. This line has its origins in a number of smaller lines in Tennessee and North Carolina, and was pieced together from these during the period of Reconstruction that followed the Civil War, incorporating in 1871. It was run as an independent operation for the next several years, although the paint scheme and operating practices of the Cumberland Southern Railway were soon adopted. It ceased to exist as a separate entity in 1952 when it was merged into Cumberland Southern Railway.

The Ohio Midland Company was originally built and operated by a central Ohio electric utility and existed as an electric traction line running between Lancaster and Grove city, Ohio. It ceased operations in March of 1937, and was acquired by Cumberland Southern Railway at a sheriff’s tax sale later that year. The trolley wires soon came down and the line was extended at both ends to link Columbus and Youngstown. Thru buying up other bankrupt electric interurbans and unwanted branches of steam roads it soon reached Erie, Pennsylvania, and eventually Buffalo, New York. Part of Cumberland Southern Railway since being acquired, it soon adopted the paint scheme, and operating practices, of the Cumberland Southern Railway.

The New River Electric Railroad & Lighting Co was originally an electric interurban line built by a Tennessee rural electric utility in 1894. Box motors and steeple cabs handled freight trains over the line and large interurbans offered passenger service. There was also a streetcar operation in Middletown, with small wooden streetcars operating over the streets of Middletown. This line operated on the brink of bankruptcy for several years and was finally acquired by Cumberland Southern Lines in March of 1955. Since this was a fairly recent addition to the Cumberland Southern operation, there has not been much assimilation of this property into the parent company, so most of the New River units still are in their original paint scheme. Also, given that this property operated a rather eclectic mix of motive power, the parent company has most of it up for sale, and thus has been rather disinclined to paint much of it. In the meantime, these units tend to congregate in obscurity on some of Cumberland Southern's lightly traveled branch lines.

Trackage rights over The New York Central and the Louisville and Nashville allow operation of thru trains across all three company properties.

Cumberland Southern Refrigerator Express (reporting marks CSRE) was founded as a car leasing company in 1915. It supplies refrigerator cars to common carriers and private shippers and also operates a less than car load express package delivery service.

Cumberland Southern Air Express got its start in 1939 as a logical evolution of Cumberland Southern Refrigerator Express’s package delivery service. It owns and operates the world’s largest fleet of Ford Tri-Motor aircraft.

Cumberland Southern Lines was chartered in January 1957 as a holding company for the above 6 companies in order to achieve consistency of management, to consolidate certain administrative functions, and to better defend against potential takeover attempts by other regional carriers in the area. Corporate headquarters remains in Cumberland, Virginia.

Cumberland Southern Lines is well on its way to becoming a completely modern diesel powered operation, although a number of steam locomotives are still on the property, and are primarily in use on the coal branch lines of Virginia.

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