Brooksville Subdivision

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 (which is now CSX's S Line).[1]

Brooksville Subdivision
to Waldo (abandoned) CSX S Line (Wildwood Subdivision) SR 690.2 Waldo SR 704.0 Gainesville I-75 Florida Northern Railroad fmr. Seaboard Air Line Railroad to Cedar Key SR 730.1 Archer SR 730.1 Williston SR 737.9 Morriston SR 745.0 Early Bird SR 758.7 Dunnellon Withlacoochee River SR 775.8 Inverness fmr. Atlantic Coast Line Railroad to Lakeland SR 788.3 Lake Lindsey SR 789.2 Broco (Lake Stafford) SR 797.8 Brooksville fmr. Florida Southern Railway (ACL) to Pemberton Ferry SR 806.8 Ayers SR 817.0 Fivay SR 823.5 Drexel SR 827.0 Land O' Lakes SR 829.8 Lutz I-275 SR 838.3 Sulphur Springs CSX Clearwater Subdivision
Note: Not to Scale

Brooksville Subdivision as seen from Broad Street Overpass in Brooksville

Currently, the Brooksville Subdivision notably serves a Florida Crushed Stone Company facility in Brooksville along with a Cemex facility.[2][3][4]

History

Sulphur Springs to Brooksville

See also: Tampa Northern Railroad

The line from Brooksville south to Fivay Junction (near the present-day intersection of US 41 and SR 52) was originally built by the Brooksville and Hudson Railroad in 1902. The Brooksville and Hudson Railroad was a logging railroad owned by the Aripeka Sawmills Inc. [5]

In 1907, the Brooksville and Hudson Railroad was bought by the Tampa Northern Railroad. The Tampa Northern then built track from Tampa to Fivay and rebuilt the Brooksville and Hudson Railroad from there to Brooksville.[5] The line was completed in 1908.[6] The Tampa Northern Railroad was bought by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad in 1912.[6]

Brooksville to Waldo

At its greatest extent, the Brooksville Subdivision extended as far north as Waldo. Track from Waldo to Archer was built in 1861 by the Florida Railroad (later the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad) which extended as far as Cedar Key. In 1890, track was built from Archer south to Early Bird. The Seaboard Air Line bought the FC&P network in 1900 and in 1911, the line was extended south of Early Bird to Inverness. The extension from Early Bird to Inverness ran closely parallel the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's High Springs–Lakeland Line.

In 1925, the Brooksville and Inverness Railway, a Seaboard subsidiary, was built connecting Inverness with the former Tampa Northern Railroad in Brooksville. This would create an additional freight route from northern Florida to the Tampa Bay region as an alternative to the Seaboard main line.[7] Around the same time, track from Inverness to Waldo was upgraded with heavier rail, and the Seaboard main line was double-tracked from Waldo north to Baldwin which further increased capacity.[8] After track from Archer to Cedar Key was abandoned in 1932, the full line from Waldo to Sulpher Springs was designated as the Brooksville Subdivision. By 1940, the Seaboard was running a daily through freight train round-trip on the line.[1]

Later years

The Seaboard Air Line became the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad in 1967 after merging with their former rival, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. In the combined network, the full line was largely redundant due to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's nearly parallel route as well as its own main line to Tampa. The Seaboard Coast Line abandoned the Brooksville Subdivision between Waldo and Brooksville in the 1970s (which nearly restored the Tampa Northern Railroad's original terminus ironically). The line now ends near the Broco Quarry just north of Brooksville. Despite the abandonment, the line's SR mileposts numbers remain as they did when the full line was intact.[3]

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.

See also

• List of CSX Transportation lines

References

1. Seaboard Air Line Railroad South Florida Division Timetable (1940)
2. CSX Brooksville Sub
3. CSX Jacksonville Division Timetable
4. Harmon, Danny. "Fire Closes the S-Line". YouTube. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
5. "Railroads". History of Pasco County. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
6. Prince, Richard (2000). Seaboard Air Line Railway: Steam Boats, Locomotives and History. Salt Lake City, UT: Wheelwright Lithographing Company. ISBN 0253336953. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
7. Turner, Gregg (2003). A Short History of Florida Railroads. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-2421-4.
8. Turner, Gregg M. (2005). Florida Railroads in the 1920s. Arcadia Publishing.