Related Research Articles
Columbia County is a county located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 69,698, up from 67,531 at the 2010 census. Its county seat is Lake City.
The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida, currently owned by Grupo México.
The Seaboard Air Line Railroad, which styled itself "The Route of Courteous Service," was an American railroad which existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime rival, to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. Predecessor railroads dated from the 1830s and reorganized extensively to rebuild after the American Civil War. The company was headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, until 1958, when its main offices were relocated to Richmond, Virginia. The Seaboard Air Line Railway Building in Norfolk's historic Freemason District still stands and has been converted into apartments.
The Atlantic, Suwannee River and Gulf Railroad Company was a railroad that ran westward from Starke, Florida, eventually terminating at Wannee, Florida, on the Suwannee River. It was later absorbed by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad becoming their Wannee Subdivision.
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 Midland Railroad Company, Inc. is one of several short line railroads operated by Regional Rail, LLC in Florida. The Florida Midland Railroad operates two former CSX Transportation railroad lines including their former Lake Wales Subdivision, and their former Bartow Subdivision. It once had a third line from Wildwood to Leesburg that is now mostly abandoned. Florida Midland Railroad began operating the lines in 1987 and uses locomotives branded for the Florida Central Railroad, its sister railroad.
South Central Florida Express, Inc. is a common carrier shortline railroad in southern Florida run by U.S. Sugar Corporation. Its trains operate from Sebring to Fort Pierce via Clewiston around the southern perimeter of Lake Okeechobee, and serves customers at 26 locations. With 171 miles (275 km) of track, the SCXF is the largest private agricultural railroad in the U.S.
Pennichaw is a rural unincorporated community located in south Volusia County, Florida, United States. It located on Lake Harney Road, approximately 1.8 miles south of Maytown Road.
The Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway is a historic railroad line that at its greatest extent serviced Gasparilla Island in Charlotte Harbor and a major shipping port that once operated there. The railroad's principal purpose was to transport phosphate mined along the Peace River and in the Bone Valley region of Central Florida to the port to be shipped. It also brought passengers to the island community of Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island, and is largely responsible for making Boca Grande the popular tourist destination it is today. Part of the line remains in service today between Mulberry and Arcadia, which is now owned and operated by CSX Transportation. Today, it makes up CSX's Achan Subdivision and part of their Brewster Subdivision.
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.
Willow is a ghost town in Manatee County, Florida, United States.
Lake Weohyakapka is a lake in Polk County, Florida, in the United States. The name is derived from the Creek language, most likely meaning "walking on water". The turpentine settlement of Walinwa was once located by the lake and was connected to other logging, sawmill, and turpentine industry towns by the Kissimmee River Railway, a Seaboard Air Line Railway subsidiary operated by the then nationalized railroad operator.
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.
Sumica, alternatively written as SUMICA, was a mill town in Polk County, Florida. The ghost town is commemorated by a historical marker off S.R. 60. There is also a Southwest Florida Water Management District preserve in the area named for the former logging settlement and mill town. Goods from a company store in the town could be purchased with company issued currency, including 25 cent and 5 cent scrip.
Kissimmee River Railway was an American single-track standard gauge steam rail line in Polk County, Florida stretching 7.26 miles from Walinwa to Nalaca, an area that developed with logging, sawmill, and turpentine industries. The rail line extended from the Seaboard Airline Railway branch line connecting Plant City and Walinwa. It also served the logging and mill town of Sumica and the turpentine settlement of Nalaka, Florida. Kissimmee River Railway was incorporated December 3, 1917. It was operated by the United States Railroad Administration.
Nalaka, sometimes written Nalaca, was a Highlands County, Florida settlement that sprang up as a turpentine industry town in the early 20th century, founded around 1918 and ceasing to exist by 1929.
Florinda was a named place in Florida in 1930. A rail line connected 26.6 miles from Lake Wales through Grove, Florida, Templeton, Florida, Hesperides, Florida, Walinwa, Florida, Sumica, Florida, and Florinda, Florida to Nalaca, Florida. The area took its name from the Florinda Mill & Planing Mill Co. The area's post office was established at Sumica. In 1922 the Florinda company budgeted $100,000 for new sawmill equipment including planers, saws, and matchers for a daily output of about 35,000 ft. The purchase replaced equipment destroyed in a fire.
The Georgia, Florida and Alabama Railroad, known as the Sumatra Leaf Route, and colloquially as the Gopher, Frog & Alligator was a 180 miles (290 km)-long railroad from Richland, Georgia to Carrabelle, Florida. It was founded in 1895 as a logging railroad, the Georgia Pine Railway.
The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's Haines City Branch was a railroad line running from their main line in Haines City, Florida south through southern Central Florida. The line notably ran through Lake Wales, Avon Park, Sebring, and Immokalee and would stretch as far south as Everglades City upon its completion in 1928. Everglades City would be the southernmost point the entire Atlantic Coast Line Railroad system would ever reach. The Haines City Branch was one of the Atlantic Coast Line's major additions to its Florida network, much of which was previously part of the Plant System.
The Florida Gulf and 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.
References
- ↑ Prince, Richard E. (20 July 2018). Seaboard Air Line Railway: Steam Boats, Locomotives, and History. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0253336958 – via Google Books.
- ↑ A Short History of Florida Railroads page 102
- ↑ "Sumica - Florida Historical Markers on Waymarking.com". www.waymarking.com.
- ↑ "Walk-in-the-Water WMA". myfwc.com. Retrieved 28 December 2017.