The story
The Columbia and Sumter Railroad was chartered by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1866, shortly after the American Civil War. It only briefly operated as an independent railroad before it was sold to the Wilmington, Columbia and Augusta Railroad (the successor to the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad) in 1870.
The Wilmington, Columbia and Augusta lasted until 1898 when it was absorbed into the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad operated the line for many years as their Sumter—Columbia Line and they operated both passenger and freight service. Sumter was a major hub for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. By 1902, passenger trains began operating to Columbia's newly-built Union Station along with the Southern Railway.
In the 1950s, the Atlantic Coast Line was operating a daily local passenger train on the line and two daily through freight trains. An additional local freight train also ran the line six days a week at the same time.
The Atlantic Coast Line became the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (SCL) in 1967 after merging with their rival, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL). The Seaboard Coast Line adopted the Seaboard Air Line's method of naming their lines as subdivisions and company gave the line its current designation, the Eastover Subdivision. By 1971, only freight trains were operating on the line.
In 1980, the Seaboard Coast Line's parent company merged with the Chessie System, creating the CSX Corporation. The CSX Corporation initially operated the Chessie and Seaboard Systems separately until 1986, when they were merged into CSX Transportation.
From Wikipedia’s article on Columbia and Sumter Railroad, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3