Overview | |
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Locale | North Central Florida and the Florida Panhandle |
Dates of operation | 1837–1900 |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
The Florida Central and Western Railroad was a rail line built in the late 1800s that ran from Jacksonville west across North Central Florida and the part Florida Panhandle through Lake City and Tallahassee before coming to an end at Chattahoochee. The line was later part of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad network from 1903 to 1967, and was primarily their Tallahassee Subdivision. The full line is still in service today and is now part of the Florida Gulf and Atlantic Railroad.
From Jacksonville west to Lake City, the Florida Central and Western Railroad was first built by the Florida, Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroad (not to be confused with the Florida Gulf and Atlantic Railroad, the current operator of the line). [1] The Florida, Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroad (FA&GC) was chartered on January 24, 1851 by Abel Seymour Baldwin (the namesake of Baldwin, Florida) and construction began at Lake City in 1857. [2] : 21 During the Civil War, the railroad figured in the Battle of Olustee when Union Brigadier General Truman Seymour led troops west toward Lake City along the line, destroying the junction at Baldwin, and then engaging Confederate troops near Olustee Station. The tracks and junction were rebuilt after the war, but the railroad defaulted on its payments to the Florida Internal Improvement Fund. [2] : 37
From Lake City to Tallahassee, the Florida Central and Western was built by the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad (P&G). [3] The Pensacola and Georgia Railroad was chartered in January 1853, and was to be built east from Pensacola, Florida, but instead started at Tallahassee and was built east. [4] : 61 It reached Lake City, Florida in 1860 where it connected to the Florida, Atlantic and Gulf Central. The P&G also built a short branch from Drifton north to Monticello. In 1855, the P&G also took over the Tallahassee Railroad, which ran south from Tallahassee to the port at St. Marks, Florida on the Gulf of Mexico. The P&G then built from Tallahassee west to four miles (6 km) short of Quincy, stopping in 1863 in the middle of the American Civil War.
George W. Swepson, a notorious scalawag, purchased both the P&G and the FA&GC in 1868. After renaming the FA&GC the Florida Central Railroad, set his carpetbagger protégé, Milton S. Littlefield, a former Union general known as the "Prince of Carpetbaggers", loose in Tallahassee to buy, cheat, and otherwise defraud Florida legislators in order to obtain a new charter for a railroad that Littlefield promised would be extended west from Quincy to Pensacola. [4] : 97–100
Backed by $6 million in capitalization, the P&G was reorganized as the Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile Railroad in June 1869 with Littlefield as president. [4] : 100 The original charter did not consolidate the Florida Central Railroad into the JP&M; this did not occur until the Florida legislature amended the charter in 1870. [4] : 101 Littlefield and Swepson then launched a major swindle, personally enriching themselves from the sales of company bonds to unwitting investors. [4] : 101–102 Due to the embezzling of such funds, the company was unable to extend the line to Pensacola, reaching only an additional 20 miles to Chattahoochee instead. By 1879, the U.S. Supreme Court had a lien placed on the railroad's assets. [4] : 103
In 1882, the JP&M and the Florida Central were both acquired by Sir Edward Reed, and were renamed together as the Florida Central and Western Railroad. [4] : 114 Two years later, Reed brought the Florida Central and Western and several other Florida railroads he had purchased under the umbrella of what was named the Florida Railway and Navigation Company, which was renamed the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad (FC&P) in 1888. [4] : 116–117 In 1900, a year after purchasing the majority of FC&P stock, the newly organized Seaboard Air Line Railway leased the FC&P and, in 1903, acquired it outright. [4] : 146
Tallahassee Subdivision | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Overview | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Status | Still operating under successor company | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Owner | Seaboard Air Line Railroad | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Termini | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technical | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Line length | 189.4 mi (304.8 km) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Electrification | No | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Signalling | Centralized traffic control east of Tallahassee | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The line would become an important route for the Seaboard Air Line. The easternmost 17 miles of the line from Jacksonville to Baldwin became part if the Seaboard's main line. The rest of the line from Baldwin to Chattahoochee became the Seaboard's Tallahassee Subdivision. The branch to Monticello became the Monticello Subdivision, while track from Tallahassee to St. Marks became the Wakulla Subdivision. [5]
The Tallahassee Subdivision was notably used by the Seaboard Air Line for passenger service from Jacksonville to New Orleans, which was operated jointly with the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. This daily passenger service was known as the New Orleans-Florida Express and the New Orleans-Florida Limited before being renamed the Gulf Wind in 1949.
In addition to passenger service, the line also carried two daily Red Ball freight trains and a local freight train six days a week round-trip from Baldwin to Tallahassee in the 1950s. A through freight train also ran from Tallahassee to Chattahoochee daily at the time. The line was busy enough in the 1950s to warrant the installation of Centralized traffic control along the Tallahassee Subdivision from Baldwin to a point just west of Tallahassee. [6]
In 1967, the Seaboard Air Line merged with their long-time rival, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL). The Tallahassee Subdivision crossed or connected with ACL branch lines in Jacksonville, Mattox, Live Oak, Drifton, and Chattahoochee. [5] After the merger was complete, the company was named the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (SCL). 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. [2] : 12
The Gulf Wind continued to operate on the Tallahassee Subdivision under the Seaboard Coast Line until 1971, when passenger service was taken over by Amtrak. [7] This left the line without passenger service until 1993, when the Amtrak extended the Sunset Limited to Miami via Jacksonville. [8] The Sunset Limited ran the line until late 2005 due to damage as a result of Hurricane Katrina further west. The Sunset Limited has terminated in New Orleans ever since.
The Florida Gulf and Atlantic Railroad took over operation of the former Florida Central and Western Railroad on June 1, 2019, after its parent company, RailUSA, acquired the line from CSX Transportation. As part of the deal, the Florida Gulf and Atlantic also took over the former Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad west to Pensacola, and track from Tallahassee north to Attapulgus, Georgia. [9]
Milepost | City/Location | Station [5] [10] | Connections and notes |
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SP 635.4 | Jacksonville | Jacksonville | junction with:
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West Jacksonville | |||
SP 641.6 | Marietta | ||
SP 652.5 | Baldwin | Baldwin | junction with Florida Railroad (FC&P/SAL) |
SP 656.3 | Mattox | junction with Jacksonville and Southwestern Railroad (ACL) | |
SP 661.4 | Macclenny | Macclenny | known as Darbyville prior to 1890 |
SP 663.8 | Glen St. Mary | Glen St. Mary | |
Drake | |||
Taliaferros Junction | |||
SP 670.7 | Sanderson | Sanderson | |
Woodstock | |||
Mann's Spur | |||
SP 680.6 | Olustee | Olustee | |
SP 685.1 | Mount Carrie | ||
SP 690.7 | Watertown | Watertown | |
SP 693.1 | Lake City | Lake City | junction with:
|
Ogden | |||
McKinley | |||
SP 704.5 | Wellborn | Wellborn | |
SP 709.9 | Houston | Houston | |
SP 715.3 | Live Oak | Live Oak | junction with: |
SP 721.5 | Dickert | ||
Falmouth | Falmouth | ||
SP 728.7 | Ellaville | Ellaville | |
SP 736.3 | Lee | Lee | |
West Farm | |||
SP 743.7 | Madison | Madison | |
Champaign | |||
SP 757.4 | Greenville | Greenville | |
SP 764.9 | Aucilla | Aucilla | |
SP 772.3 | Drifton | Drifton [11] | junction with:
|
SPB 776.5 | Monticello | Monticello | located on Monticello Branch |
Braswell | |||
SP 781.2 | Lloyd | Lloyd | |
Capitola | Capitola | ||
SP 787.8 | Chaires | Chaires | |
SP 799.3 | Tallahassee | Tallahassee | junction with: |
Ocklocknee | |||
Lawrence | |||
SP 811.4 | Midway | Midway | |
SP 823.3 | Quincy | Quincy | |
SP 828.7 | Gretna | Gretna | |
SP 832.0 | Mount Pleasant | Mount Pleasant | |
Jamieson | |||
Chattahoochee | Chattahoochee | ||
SP 841.9 | River Junction | junction with:
| |
Baldwin is a town in Duval County, Florida, United States. When the majority of communities in Duval County were consolidated with the city of Jacksonville in 1968, Baldwin, along with Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach and Neptune Beach, remained partly independent. Like the other towns, it maintains its own municipal government, but its residents vote in the Jacksonville mayoral election and vote for the Jacksonville City Council; unlike the others, Baldwin no longer supports its own police force. The population was 1,396 at the 2020 census.
The South Florida Railroad was a railroad from Sanford, Florida, to Tampa, Florida, becoming part of the Plant System in 1893 and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1902. It served as the southernmost segment of the Atlantic Coast Line's main line. The line remains in service today and is now part of the Central Florida Rail Corridor in the Orlando metro area. The rest of the line remains under the ownership of CSX Transportation as part of their A Line.
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.
The Plant System, named after its owner, Henry B. Plant, was a system of railroads and steamboats in the U.S. South, taken over by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1902. The original line of the system was the Savannah, Florida and Western Railway, running across southern Georgia. The Plant Investment Company was formed in 1882 to lease and buy other railroads and expand the system. Other major lines incorporated into the system include the Savannah and Charleston Railroad and the Brunswick and Western Railroad.
Tallahassee station, also known as the Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile Railroad Company Freight Depot, is a historic train station in Tallahassee, Florida. It was built in 1858 and was served by various railways until 2005, when Amtrak suspended service due to Hurricane Katrina. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.
The Gulf Wind was a streamlined passenger train inaugurated on July 31, 1949, as a joint operation by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. The Gulf Wind replaced the heavyweight New Orleans - Florida Express on this routing. The Gulf Wind was a limited stops train and offered amenities such as dining cars and Pullman service. The train left Jacksonville at night and arrived in New Orleans in the evening, as the Express had done.
The Florida Railroad was the first railroad to connect the east and west coasts of Florida, running from Fernandina to Cedar Key. The line later became part of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, and, where still in use, is operated by CSX Transportation and the First Coast Railroad. The highway corridor of SR 24, US 301, and SR A1A/SR 200 closely parallels the former Florida Railroad.
The Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad (P&A) was a company incorporated by an act of the Florida Legislature on March 4, 1881, to run from Pensacola to the Apalachicola River near Chattahoochee, a distance of about 160 miles (260 km). No railroad had ever been built across the sparsely populated panhandle of Florida, which left Pensacola isolated from the rest of the state. William D. Chipley and Frederick R. De Funiak, both of whom are commemorated in the names of towns later built along the P&A line, were among the founding officers of the railroad company.
The Jacksonville & Southwestern Railroad (J&SW) was a railroad that served Florida from 1899 to 1904. It was purchased by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1904. The Atlantic Coast Line would extend the line further west and it would become their Jacksonville—Wilcox Line. Some of the original right-of-way was converted to a recreational path in the rails to trails program in the 1990s.
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.
The Jacksonville Terminal Subdivision is a group of railroad lines owned by CSX Transportation in and around Jacksonville, which was historically a major railroad hub. The Jacksonville Terminal Subdivision includes about 13.0 miles of track.
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 PD Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in Florida and Alabama. The line runs from Pensacola, Florida, north to Flomaton, Alabama, for a total of 41.0 miles (66.0 km). At its south end it connects to the Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad and at its north end it continues north as the M&M Subdivision.
The Florida Gulf and Atlantic Railroad is a Class III railroad owned and operated by RailUSA in the Florida Panhandle. The line consists of 430 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 provided a shortcut through the Big Bend of Florida 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 Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's DuPont—Lakeland Line was a historic rail line in southern Georgia and the northern west coast of Florida. On employee timetables, the line was actually divided into the DuPont—High Springs Line and the High Springs—Lakeland Line. The line was primarily used for freight, though some passenger services ran on parts of it in Florida. While parts of the line were built as early as 1863, the full line was not complete until 1913. Parts of the line in Florida are still active today.
The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's Waycross—Montgomery Line was one of the company's secondary main lines running from Waycross, Georgia west to Montgomery, Alabama, a distance of over 300 miles. It was built in the late 1800s by the Atlantic Coast Line's predecessor companies. The line is still in service today and is now the Thomasville Subdivision and Dothan Subdivision of CSX Transportation, the Atlantic Coast Line's successor company through various mergers.