[1] The railroad had $1.2 billion in assets and revenue with a 54% market share of rail service in the Southeast, facing competition primarily from the Southern.

The first expansion for the Seaboard Coast Line came in 1969 with the acquisition of the Piedmont and Northern Railway, which operated about 128 miles (206 km) in North and South Carolina.

[5] SCL would buy out the remaining shares and gain control of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N) in 1971, and also bought the Durham and Southern Railway from the Duke family in 1979.

[6][7] In May of that year, then-SCL president Prime Osborn III personally called off the merger, but SCL still sold some of their stock to the SP.

[6][7] On November 1, 1980, CSX Corporation was created as a holding company for the Family Lines and Chessie System Railroad.

In the past, the Juice Trains have been the focus of efficiency studies and awards as examples of how modern rail transportation can compete successfully against trucking and other modes to carry perishable products.

The vast majority of the ACL roster contained EMD (Electro-Motive Division of General Motors) locomotives in addition to some General Electric (GE) and Alco models as well as Baldwin switchers, while the SAL rostered mainly EMD and Alco diesels in addition to some GE models and Baldwin switchers.

Some U18B models contained a shorter, and therefore lighter, fuel tank which proved ideal for light density lines.

In the years leading up to the creation of the Seaboard System in 1983, SCL began acquiring the next generation of locomotives from EMD and GE.