The Portsmouth Charleston & South Western got its start as the grandiosely-named Atlantic Ohio & Pacific Railroad(f), which received a charter in 1869 to build a line from the Chesapeake & Ohio at Hinton,WV up the New River to a connection with the Virginia & Tennessee near Radford,VA. The charter was dormant until 1878, when it was taken over by a syndicate interested in developing the coal fields in the region of Flat Top Mountain. The syndicate began construction of the AO&P at Hinton in 1879 and reached Narrows,VA a year later. The syndicate also financed the New River Virginia & Tennessee(f,1881-91) from Narrows southwest through Tazewell,VA and north into the coal fields south of Flat Top Mountain.
In 1881, the syndicate controlling the AO&P became involved with a scheme to unite it with the Richmond & Alleghany and Ohio Central railroads. To that end, AO&P built west through the New River gorge to the Kanawha & Ohio at Gauley,WV and east into the valley of Sinking Creek and tunneled through a ridge to meet an R&A branch at New Castle,VA. AO&P also built a branch up the Bluestone River to tap the coal fields in the area, and another branch from New Castle south to the Norfolk & Western at Salem, VA. R&A went into receivership in 1883 and soon fell into the hands of Chesapeake & Ohio interests. Finding itself without a friendly eastern outlet, AO&P purchased the franchise of the Valley Railroad from Lexington to Salem and completed the line in 1886 to gain a connection with the Baltimore & Ohio.
AO&P had been hard-pressed to finance its expansion in the 1880s and went into receivership itself in 1887. The receivership was brief but complex, with the NRV&T being used as the vehicle of reorganization. AO&P emerged a year later as the Portsmouth & Charleston Railroad(f) with full control of NRV&T and a goal of securing a coastal terminus. This was done by building from Salem eastward through Farmville,VA to the Richmond,VA area, then southeast to Portsmouth,VA in 1889. NRV&T built lines to the P&C Bluestone branch in 1890, and Washburn,TN on the Knoxville Cumberland Gap & Louisville in 1891.
P&C leased the Lynchburg & Durham (1887-90; Lynchburg,VA-Durham,NC) in 1891. Through NRV&T, P&C acquired control of the Knoxville Cumberland Gap & Louisville in early 1896. P&C also acquired a 7% interest in the Kanawha & Michigan in 1896, and increased its holdings to 15% by 1900. At the end of 1897, all the controlled lines were purchased outright and the combined system was named the Portsmouth Charleston & South Western Railway. PC&SW leased the Salem & Danville (f,1889-90; Salem-Danville,VA) in 1898 as part of an attempt to control the Atlantic & Danville, but A&D was instead leased by Southern.
The Powhatan Hocking Valley & Ohio (f,1884-87), was built west from Powhatan,OH through the coalfields to Cumberland in 1886 and McConnellsville a year later. PHV&O went into receivership in 1894, emerging in 1896. The receivership eliminated any hope of reaching the Hocking Valley coal fields, but PHV&O did develop the fields along its existing route. In 1899, PHV&O acquired control of the Ohio River Railroad (Wheeling-Kenova,WV), which it met across the river from Powhatan. PC&SW leased the PHV&O and Ohio & Little Kanawha in 1901 for access to Ohio and Pittsburgh.
PC&SW purchased a 15% stake in the Hocking Valley in 1902, and a 1/5 interest in the Toledo & Ohio Central in 1903 (Columbus-Toledo,OH; LS&MS, Erie, PCC&StL, and C&O held the other 4/5), which controlled the K&M. PC&SW began construction of lines northeast from Middlesboro in 1902 that reached Hazard in 1904 and Cumberland in 1907. PC&SW leased the Virginia & South Western (Big Stone Gap,VA-Mountain City,TN) in 1906, and purchased the franchise of the Lebanon(VA) & Pound Gap(f) in 1907, completing a line from Cleveland,VA along the Russell Fork and Pound Rivers to an extension of the PC&SW east from Cumberland,KY to Pound in 1908.
PC&SW leased the Lexington & Eastern (Lexington-Maloney,KY) in 1909, and began construction of lines connecting the L&E to Hazard and Louisville,KY. PC&SW acquired control of the Carolina Clinchfield & Ohio (Dante,VA-Spartanburg,SC) and the Chicago Terre Haute & Southeastern in 1912, and purchased a 30% interest in the Western Maryland. PC&SW completed a line from Seymour,IN southeast across the Ohio River near Bethlehem to the Louisville line at Shelbyville,KY in 1913 to connect the CTH&SE to the rest of the system.
That year also saw the beginnings of an ICC investigation into the affairs of the PC&SW, which developed into an antitrust case against PC&SW, C&O, and LS&MS concerning their holdings in the Hocking Valley-Ohio Central system. The decision came in 1916, C&O acquiring the HV, LS&MS the OCL lines north of Columbus and Thurston, and PC&SW the lines south of those points. PC&SW also had to sell the Kenova-Point Pleasant line to C&O to provide that road access to the HV. The grades and tunnels on the L&E hindered operations, and PC&SW chose to electrify the line from Cumberland,KY to Winchester in 1916. World War I and the postwar recession intervened, and the electrification was not completed until 1923. PC&SW leased the Coal & Coke (Charleston-Elkins,WV) in 1917 to provide a connection to the Western Maryland.
Cumberland & Tennessee Coal was built west from Middlesboro,KY to the mines of the Cumberland Coal and Iron Co. in 1904. C&TC was gradually extended to other CC&I properties, reaching to Artemus in 1906 and Stearns in 1913. PC&SW purchased the railroad properties of the Cumberland Coal & Iron Co. in 1920. PC&SW formally merged the Coal & Coke, K&M, and CTH&SE at the beginning of 1921, and began an expansion into the Midwest with the purchase of the old Evansville & Indianapolis (Evansville-Terre Haute,IN) and Chicago & Indiana Coal Railway (Brazil-La Crosse,IN) from the C&EI reorganization. PC&SW began negotiations with the NYC to purchase the Lake Erie & Western in 1922, but was unable to come to terms. PC&SW sold off the C&IC as the Chicago Attica & Southern, purchased the Chicago Peoria & St. Louis (Springfield-East St. Louis,IL) and leased the Cincinnati Indianapolis & Western (Hamilton,OH-Springfield,IL) in 1923. Under pressure from the ICC, PC&SW traded its holdings in the Clinchfield to ACL and L&N in 1924 in return for ACL and L&N stock. The ICC consolidation plan put PC&SW with the Wabash-Seaboard system (N&W went with the ACL-L&N system), but management cheerfully ignored the recommendation.
The Indiana operations were integrated except in name by the early 1930s. PC&SW had acquired a respectable fleet of gas-mechanical and gas-electric railcars in the 1910s and 20s, and continued that trend by dieselizing gradually beginning in 1936. The road worked off its investment in modern steam (last built in 1945), officially retiring the last steam power in late 1960 (the Kentucky electrification was shut down in 1961), just in time for the modern merger era to begin.
The road's second era of expansion began with the purchase of the nearly-bankrupt Atlantic & Danville (West Norfolk-Danville,VA) and the Interstate in 1961. The largest leap came in 1967 with the merger of the SAL and GM&O, and absoption of the Tennessee Central as condition of the ICC. PC&S ("South Western" was combined into one word) merged the Western Maryland at the beginning of 1972 and Durham & Southern in 1973.
The PC&S picked up parts of the Lehigh Valley, Jersey Central, much of the Reading, a 50% stake in P&LE, and the Erie Lackawanna west of Youngstown,OH in 1976 as part of the creation of Conrail to form a second New-York-Chicago line. The road spent the rest of the 1970s and the early 1980s integrating and streamlining its system, merging P&LE and purchasing the IC's Paducah-Louisville line in 1986. The PC&S began to look at expanding west in the mid-1980s, merging the MKT in 1987 and expressing interest in picking up SP from the failed SPSF merger. The economic and regulatory climate of the late 1980s didn't permit that move, so SP went with Rio Grande while PC&S slimmed down its unproductive lines and bided its time. Conditions had changed by the mid-1990s, and PC&S made its bid for SP in 1994. There was a great deal of initial opposition, but the move also opened the door for other coast-to-coast mergers. PC&S finally won approval to merge SP in late 1997, with UP-CSX, BN-NS, and SF-CR also pairing up. PC&S took its time integrating SP into its operations, finally merging the road on January 1, 2000.
Last updated: 7-24-2002
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