Valrico Subdivision
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The Valrico Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. State of Florida. The line runs from Valrico, Florida to Bowling Green, Florida for a total of 47.0 miles. At its north end it continues south from the Yeoman Subdivision and at its south end it continues south where the track comes to an end. It junctions with the Plant City Subdivision at Welcome, Florida, the Brewster Subdivision at Edison and the Achan Subdivision at South Mulberry.[1][2]
Today, the Valrico Subdivision is CSX's busiest rail line thorough Bone Valley.[3]
History
The 47 miles of track that are today the Valrico Subdivision were built incrementally from the late 1800s and early 20th century as the phosphate industry in Bone Valley began expanding.
The Seaboard Air Line Railroad built track from Welcome to Nichols around 1905. Seaboard extended the line east to Mulberry and Bartow in 1912. The line connected to the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway (currently CSX's Achan Subdivision) in Mulberry which at the time went to Port Boca Grande where a vast majority of phosphate was shipped in the early 20th century. By 1916, Seaboard would extend the line east from Bartow to Lake Wales, though track east of Bartow has since been abandoned.
The Valrico Cutoff, which provided a more direct route from Tampa to Welcome via Durant, was built by Seaboard in 1925, which today is the westernmost trackage of the Valrico Subdivision. The Valrico Cutoff was primarily built for Seaboard's passenger trains travelling from Tampa to West Lake Wales (where they would continue south to Miami)
The oldest trackage of the Varico Subdivision is from just south of Bartow near Homeland south to Fort Meade and Bowling Green. This segment was built in 1886 by the Florida Southern Railroad (which later became part of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad). It is a segment of track that historically extended from Lakeland south to Naples.[4] The line was abandoned south of Bowling Green to Arcadia in the 1980s.
See also
References
- ↑ http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/VL-Valrico_Sub CSX Valrico Sub
- ↑ CSX Jacksonville Division Timetable
- ↑ "Florida's Bone Valley Part 1: The Mainline". Trainorders.com. Retrieved 29 October 2016.
- ↑ Turner, Gregg (2003). A Short History of Florida Railroads. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-2421-4.