Seaboard Air Line

DESCRIPTION: "Seaboard Air Line Never on time; At half past nine Your headlight shines; In all my dreams Your whistle screams; You are the idol of my heart, Seaboard Air Line."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: train love
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 238, "Seaboard Air Line" (1 short text)
Roud #15773
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sweet Adeline" (tune)
NOTES [143 words]: According to Aaron E. Klein, Encyclopedia of North American Railroads, Bison Books, 1985 (I use the 1987 printing), although the ancestor of the Seaboard Air Lie was founded in 1832, that line was known as the Portsmouth and Roanoake. By 1900 the line extended from Portsmouth, Virginia, through Weldon, North Carolina, on to Atlanta, Georgia, and was informally known as the Seaboard Air Line. In 1900, the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad was added to the network, and the name "Seaboard Air Line" became official. The line went bankrupt some decades later, but survived, and after a series of mergers, the line became the Seaboard Coast Line in 1967. In the early 1980s, the company became part of the CSX Corporation, and the "Seaboard" name disappeared, at least as a corporate title; a "Seaboard System Railroad" still existed after that. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Br3238

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