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The Callahan Subdivision is a CSX Transportation railroad subdivision within the Jacksonville Division on the former Seaboard Air Line Railroad. The sub extends northward 20 miles from Baldwin, Florida, where the Jacksonville Terminal Subdivision's S Line and Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad meet just north of Baldwin Yard, a classification yard. According to Jacksonville Division Timetable Number 4 published in 2005, [1] the sub runs from milepost SM 0.18 to milepost SM 20.0, where it joins the Nahunta Subdivision, a former Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, in Callahan, Florida. The line serves as a bypass to Jacksonville.
The sub has three direct traffic control blocks (DTC), double tracks on its full entire route and two defect detector locations over its length. The first defect detector is at milepost SM 1.3 and the first siding, Fouraker, at a length of 6,690 feet (2,040 m), extends from milepost SM 3.5 to SM 5.0. The second defect detector is found at milepost SM 12.3 and the second siding, Crawford, a 10,900-foot (3,300 m) siding, runs from milepost SM 13.3 to SM 15.4. The three DTC blocks are Baldwin from milepost SM 0.18 to SM 5.0 followed by Fouraker from the SM 5.0 to SM 15.4 and last is Crawford from SM 15.4 to SM 20.0.
The sub crosses the Norfolk Southern Railway at milepost SM 15.5.
The subdivision's dispatcher is known as the JE Dispatcher on channel 14 and 32: 160.320 MHz and 160.590 MHz respectively. [2]
The line was originally built by the Florida Railroad as part of a line that ran from Fernandina Beach to Cedar Key. The first train ran in 1861. The Florida Railroad would be acquired by the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad by 1899. [3] The line would later become part of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, who acquired the FC&P, in 1903. [4]
In 1925, the Seaboard Air Line built the Gross Cutoff which ran from northeast from the line in Callahan to Gross. The line was then designated as the Gross Subdivision from Gross to Baldwin. [5] [6] The Seaboard Air Line became the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad in 1967. 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.
Track east of Callahan to Yulee was abandoned in 1954, and the Gross Cutoff was abandoned in 1985. The remaining Gross Subdivision from Callahan to Baldwin was then renamed the Callahan Subdivision as it is today. [7] [8]
The Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad was the final name of a system of railroads throughout Florida, becoming part of the Seaboard Air Line Railway in 1900. The system, including some of the first railroads in Florida, stretched from Jacksonville west through Tallahassee and south to Tampa. Much of the FC&P network is still in service under the ownership of CSX Transportation.
Most CSX railroad lines are given lettered prefixes before milepost numbers. These prefixes are one to three letters long with the first letter usually refer to the former company. For instance, prefixes beginning with "S" were part of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. Some of these company prefixes include the following:
The Florida Western and Northern Railroad was a railroad line built and operated by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad running from Coleman, Florida, all the way to West Palm Beach via Auburndale and Sebring, a distance of 204 miles. Part of the line remains today from Auburndale to West Palm Beach and is now operated by CSX Transportation as their Auburndale Subdivision and Miami Subdivision.
The Palmetto Subdivision is a CSX Transportation rail line in the Tampa Bay region of Florida. It runs from East Tampa and roughly parallels U.S. Route 41 south through Ruskin to Palmetto and Bradenton. The Palmetto Subdivision ends just south of Tropicana Yard in Oneco, where it connects with the Seminole Gulf Railway, a shortline that continues south into Sarasota.
The Achan Subdivision is a short railroad line operated by CSX Transportation located in Polk County, Florida in a region known as the Bone Valley. The seven-mile line runs from a wye with the Valrico Subdivision in Mulberry south to the Brewster Subdivision in Bradley Junction. It also crosses the Bone Valley Subdivision in Achan.
The Brooker Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in Florida. The line runs from the CSX S Line at Wannee Junction in Starke to Newberry for a total of 39.6 miles. At its north end it continues south from the Wildwood Subdivision and at its south end it junctions at a wye with the Florida Northern Railroad.
CSX Transportation's Brooksville Subdivision is a railroad line in the Tampa Bay region of Florida. Today, the line runs from the Clearwater Subdivision in Sulphur Springs, Florida north to a point just north of Brooksville, a distance of 49.1 miles. Historically, the Brooksville Subdivision was owned and operated by CSX predecessor, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. Under Seaboard ownership, the Brooksville Subdivision continued north as far as Waldo, where it intercepted the Seaboard Air Line main line.
The Jacksonville Terminal Subdivision is a group of railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in and around Jacksonville. The Jacksonville Terminal Subdivision includes the S Line, which runs from Jacksonville at Beaver Street near Moncrief Yard west to Baldwin Junction, for a total of 17.8 miles. At the south end it continues south as the Wildwood Subdivision and west as the Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad. The A Line runs from just north of Jacksonville Amtrak Station south through Moncrief Yard to St. Johns, for a total of 13.0 miles. At its north end, the A Line continues south from the Nahunta Subdivision and at its south end it continues south as the Sanford Subdivision.
The Kingsland Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in Northeast Florida. The line begins in Jacksonville at a junction with the A Line near Moncrief Yard. From there, it heads east and then turns north near Panama Park. From Panama Park, the Kingsland Subdivision heads north to Yulee on a discontinuous piece of CSX's S Line. In Yulee, the line connects with the First Coast Railroad, which operates north to Seals, Georgia, on tracks that were previously part of the Kingsland Subdivision prior to 2005.
CSX Transportation's Valrico Subdivision is a railroad line in Central Florida. It serves as CSX's main route through a region of Central Florida known as the Bone Valley, which contains the largest known deposits of phosphate in the United States.
The Wildwood Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in Florida. It runs along CSX's S Line from Baldwin south to Zephyrhills via Ocala and Wildwood for a total of 155.7 miles. The S Line is CSX's designation for the line that was the Seaboard Air Line Railroad main line from 1903 to 1967.
The Charleston Subdivision is a railroad territory owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of South Carolina and Georgia. The line from Florence, South Carolina, to Savannah, Georgia, for a total of 195.8 miles. At its north end it continues south from the South End Subdivision and at its south end it continues south as the Savannah Subdivision of the Jacksonville Division.
The Plant City, Arcadia, and Gulf Railroad was a railroad line that once operated from Plant City, Florida, south to Welcome, a distance of about 13 miles. The line remains in service today and is owned by CSX Transportation, which it operates as their Plant City Subdivision.
The Florida West Shore Railway was a subsidiary of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad that expanded their rail system south to Palmetto, Bradenton, and Sarasota in the early 1900s. The Seaboard would go on to extend this line further south to Venice in 1911.
The Winston and Bone Valley Railroad was a railroad line running the Bone Valley region of Central Florida. It connected to the South Florida Railroad main line near Lakeland. A vast majority of the line remains in service by CSX Transportation, who operates it today as their Bone Valley Subdivision.
The Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad is a Class III railroad owned and operated by RailUSA in the Florida Panhandle. The line consists of 373 miles of track running from Baldwin, Florida west through Tallahassee to Pensacola. The line also has a short branch from Tallahassee north to Attapulgus, Georgia. The line connects to CSX lines in Baldwin, Pensacola, and Attapulgus.
The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's Perry Cutoff was a historic rail line in northern Florida running from Monticello southeast to Perry. The line was notable for the fact that it provided a significant shortcut for rail traffic running between the Midwest and the Tampa Bay area by providing a more direct route and a bypass for the busy rail hub in Jacksonville. It was completed in 1928 to reduce travel times for its passenger trains to the west coast, or Gulf Coast, of Florida during the Florida land boom of the 1920s.
The Gross Cutoff was a rail line built by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad in northern Florida. It ran from the Seaboard Air Line Railroad’s main line at a point known as Gross to Callahan connecting two pre-existing tracks.
The Waycross Short Line was the unofficial name of a railroad line built by Henry B. Plant that ran from Waycross, Georgia to Jacksonville, Florida on the St. Johns River. The line through Georgia was chartered by Plant as the Waycross and Florida Railroad and the Florida segment was chartered as the East Florida Railway. The line crossed the Georgia/Florida border just south of Folkston, Georgia at the St. Marys River.
The Folkston Cutoff is a railroad line in southern Georgia. It runs from Jesup southwest to Folkston, a distance of 54 miles. It was built in 1901 by the Plant System to allow trains from the northeast to Florida to bypass their busy terminal in Waycross.