Permit me to add a few things, based on memory. There will be a quiz after class (LOL)
1. The railroad name is Norfolk Southern
2. Corporate lineage for NS can get a bit tangled. We'll start with Norfolk and Western (N&W). The "old" N&W was primarily a coal hauling railroad. In the mid 1960's the old N&W decided to expand so it took over the Virginian Railway, the Wabash Railroad and the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (Nickel Plate). All of these lines came under the name Norfolk and Western. It led to some interesting sights around here as we had mixtures of N&W, VGN and NKP coal cars on mine shifters, and Wabash cabeese on the old N&W, etc. Green Frog Production's video on the Wabash will give you good sense of what it was like. One thing I recall quite well is NKP engines (barely painted over) working the yard at Elmore, WV. Some of you out there may remember the "plug in" Trainmaster at Oak Hill, WV.
The N&W ran a holding company for awhile (1968 to 1975) which was called Dereco. Dereco included the Delaware and Hudson, Erie-Lackawanna, Reading and IIRC, the Jersey Central.
Some of these lines came into Conrail which is another staory.
The D&H, out of all of them, is the only one "still standing" and they are not really an indpendent entity today.
Norfolk Southern came about in 1990. Southern led the way here. I refuse to try and explain how the Southern came about as we would run out of space on this forum. Let's just say they combined "lotsa" small roads and a few bigger ones into a still larger system.
N&W did run steam in regular service until 1959-1960; date of final run is still in question.
Later, of course, they participated in Southern's steam program, which gave me a chance to see 611 and 1218 in their "home country." Still recall riding in the observation car behind 611 on a lovely fall day's trip from Bluefield to Iaeger and back. Then there was watching 1218 come up the hill at Christiansburg in a heavy rain. The "hooter" whistle would make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Anybody out there recall riding the "Pocahontas" when it had the Wabash dome car? Coach fare +$10 would get you sleeper space from Cincinnati to Roanoke. Oh well...
Richard Saunders's book, Merging Lines American Railroads 1900-1970 is a good source for additional information. They important thing to remember here is that Penn Central (and attending fallout) changed a lot of things; some for the better and some for the worse. But again, that's something for another time.
Hope this helps.
work safe