Norfolk and Western Railway Company

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Restored Norfolk and Western no. 611 steam locomotive, near Valdosta, Ga., 1992.

James G. Howes

Norfolk and Western Railway Company was an American railroad that originated as an eight-mile single-track line in 1838 to connect Petersburg and City Point (now Hopewell), Virginia.

In 1870 the City Point Rail Road and others were consolidated as the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad. In 1881 the system was reorganized as the Norfolk and Western Railroad, and in 1896 it was incorporated as the Norfolk and Western Railway Company.

The main source of traffic resulted from carrying the immense coal output of the West Virginia coalfields. Other sources of freight revenue were grain, chemicals, and automobiles and automotive parts. The road held out against converting from steam to diesel power for a decade longer than other railroads, but it finally converted in 1960.

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Steam Locomotive no. 611, pulling into Norris Yards, Jefferson County, AL.

Prints and Photographs Division/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Expansion took it to Chicago, west across Missouri, and north to Detroit, Michigan, and Montreal, Quebec, with lines running chiefly east and west to 16 states and two Canadian provinces. The rival Virginian Railroad was absorbed in 1959, and in 1964 it acquired three more lines, including the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad Company (the Nickel Plate).

Norfolk and Western merged with Southern Railway Company in 1982, each becoming a subsidiary of the newly created holding company, Norfolk Southern Corporation. In July 2025, Union Pacific Railroad agreed to acquire Norfolk Southern for $85 billion, pending regulatory approval.