The Queen and Crescent Route was a cooperative railroad route in the

Southeastern U.S. The Southeastern United States, also known as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States located in the eastern portion of the Southern United States and the southern portion of the Eastern Uni ...

, connecting

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

(the "Queen City") with

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

(the "Crescent City") and

Shreveport Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, Lo ...

. Inaugurated in the 1880s, the name was retained by Southern Railway when they consolidated ownership of the entire route in 1926, and given to their named passenger train for the route through 1949.

Layout

As of 1909, the line consisted of five segments: *

Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway The Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway (abbreviated: CNO&TP; ) is a railroad that owns the Cincinnati Southern Railway from Cincinnati, Ohio, south to Chattanooga, Tennessee, and leases it to the Norfolk Southern Railway system. T ...

, 337 miles of line between Cincinnati and

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...

(controlled by the

Alabama Great Southern Railroad The Alabama Great Southern Railroad is a railroad in the U.S. states of Alabama, Georgia (U.S.), Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. It is an operating subsidiary of the Norfolk Southern Corporation (NS), running southwest from Chatt ...

operating company and two other companies) * the

between Chattanooga and

Meridian, Mississippi Meridian is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, eighth most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, with a population of 35,052 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the county seat of Lauderdale County, Mississippi, ...

* the

New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad The New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad was a Class I railroad in Louisiana and Mississippi in the United States. The railroad operated of road from its completion in 1883 until it was absorbed by the Alabama Great Southern Railroad subsidia ...

, 196 miles of line between Meridian and

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

(controlled by Emile Erlanger's English holding company Alabama, New Orleans, Texas and Pacific Junction Railways Company) * the Alabama & Vicksburg Railway, 143 miles of line from Meridian westward to Vicksburg (also controlled by Erlanger) * and the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Pacific Railway, west from Vicksburg to

Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the List of municipalities in Louisiana, third-most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Baton Rouge. The bulk of Shreveport is in Caddo Parish, Lo ...

(controlled by Erlanger)

History

Investor Emile Erlanger & Co. gained control of the newly-constructed

in 1881. Vintage marketing advertises the Queen & Crescent Route as "Established Nov. 18, 1883", which refers to the date of first scheduled passenger service on the NO&NE. Erlanger then expanded the lines under his control to encompass the entire route, held through a complex corporate structure of two English corporations. In 1895 the Q&C route, along with the entire Erlanger consortium, was acquired by Southern Railway, one relatively small merger in the vast consolidation engineered by Samuel Spencer. Eventually the main line to New Orleans was retained by the Southern Railway, and is still part of the

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

system, while the

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the Central United States. Its primary routes connected Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, and thus, ...

acquired the two segments west of

Meridian Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to Science * Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon * ...

to Shreveport through its subsidiary

Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad The Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad (Y&MV) was incorporated in 1882 and was part of the Illinois Central Railroad system (IC). Construction began in Jackson, Mississippi, and continued to Yazoo City, Mississippi. The line was later expand ...

. This line was later sold to

MidSouth Rail Corporation The MidSouth Rail Corporation is a railroad line operated by Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS) as a result of the January 1, 1994, acquisition; KCS began operating over MidSouth's line on January 11, 1994. The line ran from Shreveport, Louisian ...

, which was acquired Kansas City Southern in 1993. In 2005, KCS formed a joint venture with Norfolk Southern to create the

Meridian Speedway The Meridian Speedway is a span of railroad track between Shreveport, Louisiana and Meridian, Mississippi. An important rail link between the Southeastern and Southwestern United States, it is operated as a joint venture of Canadian Pacific ...

, an upgraded freight route between Meridian and Shreveport.

Queen and Crescent Limited

Southern Railway inaugurated a named passenger train for the route, the

Queen and Crescent Limited The ''Queen and Crescent Limited'' was a named passenger train operated by the Southern Railway in the United States of America. It was operated over a historic route that had been established in the late 1800s called the Queen and Crescent Rou ...

, in 1926. Never a financial success, the train carried both coaches and Pullman sleepers and a dining car. The train was discontinued in 1949.

Notes

{{reflist Predecessors of the Southern Railway (U.S.) Railway companies established in 1884 Railway companies disestablished in 1926