Atlantic Coast Line Railroad

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad came together on April 23, 1900, through the consolidation of railroads that had operated under the Atlantic Coast Line system name. Its roots reached further back, with the ACL name in use from 1871. From Wilmington, North Carolina, the railroad assembled a major southeastern network linking the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, and—most emphatically—Florida.

ACL absorbed the Plant System on July 1, 1902, extending its reach across Florida and the lower Southeast. It became a familiar name on freight cars, depots, timetables, and winter passenger service: a railroad built to move people toward sunshine and move the region’s commerce in the other direction. Nothing says vacation quite like a rigidly scheduled steel machine with a dining car.

The company shifted its corporate center from Wilmington to Jacksonville, Florida, in the late 1950s. Its purpose-built Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Building at 500 Water Street opened in 1960, giving the old-line railroad a crisp mid-century command post on the St. Johns River.

On July 1, 1967, Atlantic Coast Line merged with its longtime rival, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, creating the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. The ACL name left the timetable, but much of its former route structure ultimately became part of today’s CSX network.

Our Atlantic Coast Line Railroad collection celebrates the polished lettering, sunbelt ambition, heavyweight locomotives, and corporate confidence of a railroad that treated the Southeast as its home territory.