Florida Southern Railway

The Florida Southern Railway (later known as the Florida Southern Railroad) was a railroad that operated in Florida in the late 1800s. It was one of Florida's three notable narrow gauge railway when it was built along with the South Florida Railroad and the Orange Belt Railway. The Florida Southern was originally chartered to run from Lake City south through central Florida to Charlotte Harbor.^[1] However, with the influence of Henry B. Plant, it operated with two discontinuous segments that would make up the Plant System, which would later become part of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.

History

Original Charter

The Florida Southern Railway was first chartered as the Gainesville, Ocala, and Charlotte Harbor Railroad in 1879, with a planned route from Lake City to Charlotte Harbor with a branch to Palatka. The name was then changed to the Florida Southern Railway in 1881.

The first segment of the line opened on on August 21, 1881 from Gainesville to Palatka. In Palatka, a roundhouse with a turntable was built as well as a wharf in the St. Johns River.

The line was extended from Rochelle just south of Gainesville to Ocala by the end of 1881. Track from Gainesville to Ocala would be the main line and the track from Rochelle to Palatka would be the Palatka Branch.

By 1983, the southern end of the main line reached Leesburg, and the northern end was extended from Gainesville to Hague.

Henry Plant’s involvement

In 1983, Henry B. Plant was in the midst of building his own system of railroads in a similar path. When he learned of the Florida Southern's plans, he invested in the Florida Southern and made an agreement with them to avoid having two competing lines. In the agreement, Plant would not build his railroad, the Live Oak, Tampa and Charlotte Harbor Railroad, past Gainesville. He bought their unfinished line and charter north of Gainesville and would connect his line from the north to the Florida Southern.^[2]

The Florida Southern would then operate the combined network from Gainesville to Pemberton Ferry where it would connect with a branch of the South Florida Railroad, another railroad Plant had invested in. The South Florida would operate from there to Bartow, where the Florida Southern would resume and finish the route to Charlotte Harbor.

Later years

The Florida Southern Railway reached Pemberton Ferry by 1885, and a branch from there to Brooksville was also built.

Construction began on the southern segment of the line, known as the Charlotte Harbor Division, in September of 1885 from Bartow to Arcadia. The Charlotte Harbor division was completed with its first train to Punta Gorda (initially known as Trabue) on July 24, 1886.^[3]

The Florida Southern Railway went into receivership in 1890. It came out of receivership in 1892 and was reorganized as the Florida Southern Railroad. The Charlotte Harbor Division was converted to standard gauge in 1892.^[1]

The Florida Southern was then fully absorbed into the Plant System in 1896. The Plant System was then sold to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1899. The Atlantic Coast Line would eventually evolve into the CSX Corporation through various mergers by 1980.

Current conditions

Much of the Florida Southern’s trackage has been abandoned, though some discontinuous segments remain.

The segment from Alachua to Gainesville remains in service as CSX’s Deerhaven Subdivision. Another segment remains in Northern Florida from Lowell to Candler via Ocala, which is today operated by the Florida Northern Railroad, a shortline operated by Pinsly Railroad Company.^[4]

Two segments of the Charlotte Harbor Division also remain. Trackage from Homeland (just south of Bartow) to Bowling Green is now the southernmost segment of CSX’s Valrico Subdivision. Much of the abandoned right of way between Bowling Green and Arcadia (which was removed in the 1980s) runs parallel to U.S. Route 17. From Arcadia south to Punta Gorda, the line is still in service and is operated today by Seminole Gulf Railway (who also operates the line’s extension to Fort Myers and Bonita Springs that was built after the Atlantic Coast Line acquisition).^[3]

References