High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Southern Railway (reporting mark SOU) is a former United States railroad. It was the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894. It was placed under control of the Norfolk Southern Corporation, along with the Norfolk and Western Railway (N W), in 1982, and was renamed Norfolk Southern Railway in 1990. (The N W continued to exist as a subsidiary until 1997.)