Homestead Subdivision | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Note: Not to Scale | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Homestead Subdivision is a CSX railroad line in South Florida. Running from a junction with the South Florida Rail Corridor in Hialeah near Miami International Airport south to Homestead, the line is the southernmost railroad line in the continental United States. [1]
The line begins just east of Miami International Airport where it branches off the state-owned South Florida Rail Corridor (CSX's former Miami Subdivision). The line heads southwest around the airport's Runway 9/27 to Oleander Junction, where the Lehigh Spur to Doral and Sweetwater branches off to the west. The Florida East Coast Railway's Little River Branch also connects to the Homestead Subdivision at Oleander Junction. [2]
From Oleander Junction, the line heads south into southern Miami-Dade County. It passes just west of Little Havana and Coral Gables before reaching Kendall. In Kendall, the line turns southwest and parallels the Don Shula Expressway. It later passes the Gold Coast Railroad Museum and passes though Richmond West and Redland before reaching Homestead. In Homestead, the line turns south and ends at a wye just south of the abandoned Homestead Seaboard Air Line Railway Station.
The line's milepost numbers continue from the South Florida Rail Corridor, though the numbers are subtracted from 1000 for simplicity.
The southern half of the line only sees sporadic freight service, and the southernmost 12 miles of the line (south of the Gold Coast Railroad Museum) are currently out of service. [3]
The Homestead Subdivision was originally built in 1927 as the southern extension of the Seaboard-All Florida Railway, a subsidiary of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. It was built parallel the now-abandoned southern segment of the Florida East Coast Railway that led up to the Overseas Railroad to Key West. [4] The line became freight-only after the Seaboard Air Line discontinued passenger service in 1929, the same year as the Wall Street Crash of 1929. [5]
When first built, the north end Homestead Subdivision ran though the middle of what is now Miami International Airport. Seaboard's Hialeah yard was located at the east end of the current Runway 8R/26L at the time. [6] [7] Prior to 1949, the airport was actually two separate air fields on either side of the tracks, with Miami Army Airfield to the south and Pan American Field (later known as the 36th Street Airport) to the north. In 1949, the Dade County Port Authority merged the two air fields and was officially named Miami International Airport. The Dade County Port Authority paid $3 million to relocate Seaboard's yard further north and to realign the Homestead Subdivision between LeJeune Road and Oleander Junction to its current route south of the airport along the Tamiami Canal. [7] [4]
In 1958, the Lehigh Spur was built from the Homestead Subdivision at Oleander Junction. It was built to serve a cement plant in western Miami-Dade County built by the Lehigh Portland Cement Company. [8]
In 1967, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad became the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad after merging with its rival, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. 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. [4]
After the abandonment of the adjacent Florida East Coast Railway main line through Florida City in 1989, the Homestead Subdivision became the southernmost railroad track in the continental United States. [1]
There have been proposals in the past to extend Tri-Rail commuter service down the line to Homestead but the idea has never made it past the proposal stage. [9]
In March 2019, CSX officially classified the southernmost 12 miles of the line as out of service. [3]
The Florida Central Railroad Company is one of several short line railroads run by Regional Rail, LLC. It runs from downtown Orlando northwest to Apopka and Tavares with a branch from Toronto to Ocoee and Winter Garden and branches from Tavares to Umatilla and Sorrento. The Florida Central connects with the Central Florida Rail Corridor in downtown Orlando, Florida and has trackage rights on the CFRC from there south to Taft Yard where they interchange with CSX Transportation. The railroad is based out of the Plymouth freight station.
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 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.
The Seaboard–All Florida Railway was a subsidiary of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad that oversaw two major extensions of the system in the early 1920s to southern Florida on each coast during the land boom. One line extended the Seaboard's tracks on the east coast from West Palm Beach down to Fort Lauderdale and Miami, while the other extension on the west coast extended the tracks from Fort Ogden south to Fort Myers and Naples, with branches from Fort Myers to LaBelle and Punta Rassa. These two extensions were heavily championed by Seaboard president S. Davies Warfield, and were constructed by Foley Brothers railroad contractors. Both extensions also allowed the Seaboard to better compete with the Florida East Coast Railway and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, who already served the lower east and west coasts of Florida respectively.
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 Miami Subdivision is a short CSX rail line operating just northwest of West Palm Beach, Florida. The line officially runs from a point near the North Palm Beach County General Aviation Airport southeast through Riviera Beach to Mangonia Park, Florida. At the northwest end, the line is a continuation of the Auburndale Subdivision, and at the southeast end, it continues as the state-owned South Florida Rail Corridor. The South Florida Rail Corridor was part of the Miami Subdivision prior to 1988, when CSX sold that segment of the line to the Florida Department of Transportation for $264 million to support the Tri-Rail commuter service.
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 Brewster Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in Florida. The line runs from the Valrico Subdivision at Edison Junction south through Bradley Junction to Arcadia for a total of 47.2 miles. It junctions with the Achan Subdivision and the Agricola Spur at Bradley Junction, and connects to the Seminole Gulf Railway in Arcadia.
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 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 Norlina Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. State of North Carolina. The line currently runs from Norlina, North Carolina to Raleigh, North Carolina for a total of 51.2 miles. At its north end the line comes to an end and at its south end the line continues north from the Aberdeen Subdivision. While the current line dates back to 1840, it has been known as the Norlina Subdivision since the 1970s. Under CSX's predecessor, the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, the Norlina Subdivision continued north to Collier Yard near Petersburg, Virginia.
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 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.
The Richmond, Petersburg and Carolina Railroad was a railroad built in the early 1900s. As its name suggests, it ran from Richmond, Virginia south through Petersburg into northern North Carolina. It was a key part of the network of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad.
The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad’s Main Line was the backbone of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's network in the southeastern United States. The main line ran from Richmond, Virginia to Port Tampa just southwest of Tampa, Florida, a distance of nearly 900 miles. Along its route it passed through Petersburg, Rocky Mount, Florence, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, and Orlando. With the exception of a short 61-mile segment in Greater Orlando, the entire line is still owned by the Atlantic Coast Line's successor, CSX Transportation, and is still in service as their A Line.
The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's DuPont—Lakeland Line was a historic rail line in southern Georgia and the northern west coast of Florida. It began at the Atlantic Coast Line's Waycross—Thomasville Line and proceeded south into Florida and passing through Live Oak, High Springs, Newberry, Williston, Dunnellon, Inverness, and Dade City before coming to an end just south of their Lakeland Yard at Lakeland Junction, where it connected with the Atlantic Coast Line's main line. On employee timetables, the line was actually divided into the DuPont—High Springs Line and the High Springs—Lakeland Line which were centered around the company's busy High Springs Yard. 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 Seaboard Air Line Railroad’s Main Line was the backbone of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad's network in the southeastern United States. The main line ran from Richmond, Virginia to Tampa, Florida, a distance of over 800 miles. Along its route it passed through Petersburg, Raleigh, Columbia, Savannah, Jacksonville, and Ocala, Florida. While some segments of the line have been abandoned as of 2022, most of the line is still in service and is owned by the Seaboard Air Line's successor, CSX Transportation as their S Line.
