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.[1][2]
The Seaboard Air Line bought the Plant City, Arcadia, and Gulf Railroad in 1905. They rebuilt the line and made it their Plant City Branch.[4] The line notably served Coronet Industries phosphate processing plant. Seaboard would also build a line from Welcome Junction east to Mulberry and Bartow in 1912. The line would be extended to Lake Wales by 1916. Track south of Welcome Junction to Welcome is now abandoned.
In 1925, Seaboard built the Valrico Cutoff which connected the line at Welcome Junction with the Seaboard's main line (CSX's S Line) at Valrico. This connection provided a shorter route from the Bone Valley to Tampa. The Valrico Cutoff and track east of Welcome Junction became Seaboard's Valrico Subdivision.[5]
From 1926 to the 1940s, the Seaboard would designate the former Plant City, Arcadia, and Gulf Railroad as the northernmost segment of their Fort Myers Subdivision (which would overlap the Valrico Subdivision from Welcome Junction a short distance to Edison Junction, where Seaboard's track continued south and connected to Fort Myers at the time).[6] The line was later classified as a branch of the Valrico Subdivision as traffic to Fort Myers declined.[5][7]
By 1940, the line would be used by Seaboard's local passenger trains to Boca Grande as well as their Cross Florida Limited (which ran from Tampa to Miami).[6][5]
Through many mergers, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad network became part of CSX Transportation in 1980.[8] Today, the former Plant City, Arcadia, and Gulf Railroad operates as CSX's Plant City Subdivision and still runs from Plant City to Welcome Junction.[2]
At the north end, the Plant City Subdivision connects with CSX's S Line (former Seaboard main line) just south of Plant City Interlocking (where the S Line and A Line cross). The junction with the S Line towards Tampa is still known today as Lake Wales Junction (which references that this was once the Seaboard Air Line's access to Lake Wales despite the fact that the track no longer continues there). The Plant City Subdivision’s connection to the S Line in the northbound direction (which was relocated north of the A Line in the 1990s) is known as Sandler Junction.
Today the only scheduled train on this line is a Local Switcher. South of Coronet the line is mostly unused. While trains once could run the line at 40 miles per hour, its speed limit has been reduced to 25 miles per hour to reduce maintenance costs.
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