What's in a name...(letter)?

[florida581]

Throughout the NS system, there's an "alphabet" of railroad lines.  These lines are known by a single letter,  sometimes two.  A few examples: The P line is the former CofG from Birmingham, AL to Macon, GA.  The S line is the former SOU from Morristown, TN to Salisbury, NC.  The R line is former SOU from Charlotte, NC to Columbia, SC. 

Can anyone provide a list of all of those "alphabet lines", what cities they run between, and perhaps how they got their name...(letter)?

[chipallen16]

W is former SOU from Columbia to Asheville via Saluda.

-Chip 

[Railroadguy]

M line FT. Valley-Coulmbus
H line Ooltewah- Brunswick, and Albany
G line Macon, GA- Jacksonville, FL

[NSMoWandS]

The Lurgan Branch from Harrisburg, PA to Hagerstown, MD is also called the H-Line. I think it was from former Conrail people. The two cities both start with H. Between Manassas, VA and Front Royal, VA is the Washington District B-Line. During Southern's time, at Manassas the mainline continued to DC and the B-Line went across the N&W at Front Royal and continued to Edinburg and Harrisonburg where there was an interchange with N&W. I heard(no firm answer) that the B-Line name came from the fact that the less popular song on 45's were called B Tracks or B Sides. Dan

[ARandall70]

There are at least three H-lines. Another runs from H0.0 at Elm in Greensboro, NC to H130 at Goldsboro, NC

I can offer a few:

The Southern Railway mainline Washington-Atlanta has no milepost prefix

NS-line: Not sure if there is another NS-line on the system. This one is the Original Norfolk Southern mainline. The only sections still operated by NS are from Phosphate Junction to Chocowinity, NC, Raleigh North(NS228.0) to NS253.0, and from NS264.0 to Cumnock North at MP279.9. From Chocowinity to Raleigh North was leased to the Carolina Coastal Railway in 2007, and the section from NS253.0 to NS264.0 was taken out of service in 2009.

VF-line: Original Norfolk Southern from Varina to Fayetteville, NC

EC-Line: Former Atlantic and East Carolina Railway from Goldsboro to Morehead City, NC

NB-Line: Original Norfolk Southern from Chocowinity to New Bern, NC

WL-Line: Original Norfolk Southern from Phosphate Junction to PCS Phosphate Mine at Aroura, NC

CL-Line: Camp LeJeune branch line from Havelock to Jacksonville, NC

D-Line: Former Southern Railway from Durham to Oxford, NC

J-Line: The University Railroad, serving the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, running between Glenn and Carrboro, NC

M-Line: Former Southern Railway between Asheboro and High Point, NC

K-Line: Greensboro, NC to Rural Hall, NC(Winston-Salem-Rural Hall is now the Yadkin Valley RR)

CF-Line: Original Atlantic and Yadkin Railway, later part of the Southern Railway, between Cumnock North and Greensboro, NC.

L-Line: Former Southern Railway between Winston-Salem and Mooresville, NC

O-Line: Former Southern Railway between Mooresville and Charlotte, NC

N-line: Former Southern Railway between Yadkin Junction(Salisbury) and Halls Ferry, NC

[nsrlink]

A lot of the prefixes (R-Line, H-Line, whatever line) are used repeatedly throughout the system on many divisions.

Something I've found interesting:
related to Randall's post about the Southern mainline between DC & Atlanta is that it is the only line in NS's computer system which does not use a prefix or suffix of any form for stations.  Whatever the milepost is, that's what the station / reporting location is.

Example:  Linwood, NC = MP / Station 323
Greenville, SC = MP / Station 484
Manassas, VA = MP / Station 33

While everything else has some letter or line numbering within the station:
Altoona = PT236
Harrisburg = HP113
Knoxville = 123A
Norfolk = 10000
Roanoke = 10254
Williamson - 10354
etc. etc.

[chipallen16]

I'd go as far as to say that's a mixture of pride and the fact that the Southern computers stayed around. Anyway, the Southern IDs didn't change much once NS took over. Several of the same trains run here now as they did in the 1920s.

-Chip 

[Trainman24210]

I appreciate the fact that someone asked this question.  Up until about ten years ago I had never heard of Alphabet Lines and suddenly everybody's saying R-line, S-line etc. and when I asked the question the answer I seemed to always get was "Well it just is."  It must be primarily a Southern Railway expression that migrated.  I don't have one handy but I think N&W mileposts in my area of Virginia have an "N" on them indicating distance from Norfolk. The old Abingdon Branch has a "A" but was never referred to as the "A-line".  I guess my frustration as a railfan & photographer is seeing others of my ilk refer to these lines and being unable to find a reference for, "where the hell is that".  It's all well and good if you are communicating with someone familiar with that line but worthless to someone who doesn't have a reference.  I haven't even railroad publications that refer to lines in that manner, though They do put letter prefixes on the MP numbers.  Is it just a railfan/Southern Ry thing?

Sid

[NSMoWandS]

I appreciate the fact that someone asked this question.  Up until about ten years ago I had never heard of Alphabet Lines and suddenly everybody's saying R-line, S-line etc. and when I asked the question the answer I seemed to always get was "Well it just is."  It must be primarily a Southern Railway expression that migrated.  I don't have one handy but I think N&W mileposts in my area of Virginia have an "N" on them indicating distance from Norfolk. The old Abingdon Branch has a "A" but was never referred to as the "A-line".  I guess my frustration as a railfan & photographer is seeing others of my ilk refer to these lines and being unable to find a reference for, "where the hell is that".  It's all well and good if you are communicating with someone familiar with that line but worthless to someone who doesn't have a reference.  I haven't even railroad publications that refer to lines in that manner, though They do put letter prefixes on the MP numbers.  Is it just a railfan/Southern Ry thing?

Sid

That would make sense. The Christianburg District to Bluefield, WV has a "N" prefix. The old VGN has a "V" prefix... and the Pulaski District from WALTON to BRISTOL has a "NB"(Norfolk to Bristol) prefix. Dan

[lwjabo]

Yep it was Southern. The letter were behind the numbers but as Southern ran out I guess and then put some in front. I worked on the H line. It starts at Ooltewah but at the 15 mp and the I line that runs from Cleveland tn to Cohutta Ga. The old M line that ran from McDonough to Columbus Ga. The part between McDonough and Dundee near Griffin was not used. I also ran on the FV line. It went at one time from Atlanta to Fort Valley but the part between Atlanta and Williamson was abandoned before I was born. We ran from Williamson over to Zebullon about once a month till it was abandoned.

[chipallen16]

I just remembered, the NE-Line is the Commerce Branch from Lula, GA to Center, GA. In Athens, it used to connect to the CofG's line to Madison and Augusta.

-Chip