to give Southern the old Monon routes and the old Atlantic Coast Line route from Jacksonville to Tampa by way of Orlando among other properties as a condition of the I.C.C.'s approval of the Seaboard Coast Line – Chessie System merger in 1979. While the request was supported by the I.C.C.'s Enforcement Bureau, it was ultimately unsuccessful. Becoming part of the Norfolk Southern Corporation In response to the creation of the CSX Corporation in November 1980, the Southern Railway joined forces with the Norfolk and Western Railway and formed the Norfolk Southern Corporation in 1980 which began operations in 1982, further consolidating railroads in the eastern half of the United States. The Southern Railway was renamed Norfolk Southern Railway as the Norfolk and Western Railway became a subsidiary to its system on June 1, 1982. The railroad then acquired more than half of Conrail on June 1, 1999. Notable features Southern and its predecessors were responsible for many firsts in the industry. Starting in 1833, its predecessor, the South Carolina Canal and Rail Road, was the first to carry passengers, U.S. troops and mail on steam-powered trains and experimented with railroad lighting. They had a pine log fire on a flatcar, covered in sand, to provide light at night before inexpensive kerosene was invented for lamps. In 1941, the Southern Railway went under dieselization and became the first major railroad in the United States to be fully converted from steam to diesel-powered locomotives in 1953. On January 20, 1953, the last steam-powered passenger train arrived in Knoxville, Tennessee. On June 17, 1953, the railroad's last steam-powered freight train arrived in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Although a handful of 63 steam locomotives were still in the Southern's employ in 1954 according to Southern Railway System, Steam Locomotives and Boats by Richard E. Prince. The Southern Railway was active in mechanization, used bank engines, is widely credited with inventing unit trains for coal and new freight cars, and understood the power of marketing using the promotional phrase "Southern Gives a Green Light to Innovation". In 1966, a popular steam locomotive excursion program was instituted under the presidency of W. Graham Claytor Jr., and included Southern veteran locomotives No. 630, No. 722, No. 4501, and Savannah & Atlanta No. 750 along with non-Southern locomotives such as Texas & Pacific No. 610, Canadian Pacific No. 2839, and Chesapeake & Ohio No. 2716. The steam program continued