I just spent the last few hours researching the various subsidiaries and mergers that the Southern Railway ran through over the years as my knowledge was not where it should have been in knowing the history. Muchof the history among the larger railroads was documented, but much of it is very sparse...at least online. All dates are not guaranteed to be accurate, but I pulled charter dates, subsidiary dates with SOU (or CofG in one instance), and merger dates of 14 different railroads that made up the Southern Railway. Of course there were many more Class 2 and shortlines that made up the SOU, but space, time, and lack of complete interest limited to what you will see in a minute.
What caused my spark of curiosity? I am looking to build a GP18 unit for my road, where the dozen or so units that were a part of the SOU were from the CofG and NS mergers. One has to know their history here...due to my time frame, I am going to have to letter my first black-tux CofG unit, as it was a subsidiary of SOU,but neither CofG or NS merged with SOU until 1971 and 1974 respectively.
Anywho, here is the timeline I quickly put together. One would have thought this existed already on the internet,but it did not...at least like this. Perhaps it will help other modelers with their 60s/70s modeling. Regardless, always refer to a prototype photo for modeling
Note: Clicking on image will provide legible view.
