According to information contained in “Railroading”, right here in “Trains.com”, N&W became a subsidiary of Southern Railway in 1990. The Southern then changed its name to Norfork Southern. Is this correct? Comments?
Be careful what you believe on any list unless it is from an actual official source.
The last I heard, NS was formed from a merger of N&W and Southern with the chosen name of the new railroad to be a combination of both names, Norfolk Southern (there was a Norfolk Southern years ago). In every merger, someone is a winner and someone is a loser. In this case, more Southern management moved into top positions than did N&W. Thus Southern came out on top with operational HQ in Florida.
I have a copy of a piece that a Southern man wrote at the time of the merger and it was obvious that he was looking at the end of the Southern. He was right. The new railroad is neither N&W or Southern. IMHO, it would have been much better if it had been N&W on top.
Next question. 
Roger
Why would it have been better if N&W had been on top?
SOUTHERN compeated good with trucks.NW cried about trucks.
Remember that this is only my opinion. From what I saw of N&W when it took the Wabash and NKP, it rolled them over into a solid performing railroad. In other words, they knew how to keep up track and move trains. They made money as a transportation unit and they created the roadrailer operation that took trucks off of the road (to answer the next poster) rather than add TO the trucks on the highway.
They had a solid PR department that knew that running specials were a great aid to shipper and railfan.
I could go on, but I am sure that someone out there can come up with 75 reasons that the Southern (who knew nothing about running trains in the Northeast) is by far the better railroad.
Roger
If you look on the Norfolk Southern corporate Web site, you will find the word “consolidation” used to describe the joining of the two companies. If I remember, there was a lot more than meets the eye to this. I’m not so sure that the information on “trains.com” is inaccurate from a technical standpoint. The original Norfolk Southern was joined into Southern RR in 1974.
SOUTHERN had machines that done track work while NW done it the old fashion way BY HAND.
I wonder why some people apparently dislike Southern? After all, it’s a railroad- not a truckline. I like all railroads, even though Southern runs through my area. Is it because Southern was and NS still is a conservative outfit, not given to flights of fancy in new paint schemes, overpowered engines, etc.? Not so colorful, perhaps, but still in the business, atleast for now.