The Florida Central and Western Railroad was a rail line built in the late 1800s that ran from Jacksonville west across

North Central Florida North Central Florida is a region of the U.S. state of Florida which comprises the north-central part of the state and encompasses the North Florida counties of Alachua, Marion, Putnam, Bradford, Columbia, Dixie, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Lafa ...

and the part

Florida Panhandle The Florida Panhandle (also West Florida and Northwest Florida) is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida; it is a Salient (geography), salient roughly long and wide, lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia (U. ...

through Lake City and

Tallahassee Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...

before coming to an end at

Chattahoochee The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida - Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the con ...

. The line was later part of the

Seaboard Air Line Railroad 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, t ...

network from 1903 to 1967, and was primarily their Tallahassee Subdivision. The full line is still in service today and is now part of the Florida Gulf and Atlantic Railroad.

History

Construction and early years

From Jacksonville west to Lake City, the Florida Central and Western Railroad was first built by the Florida, Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroad (not to be confused with the Florida Gulf and Atlantic Railroad, the current operator of the line). The Florida, Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroad (FA&GC) was chartered on January 24, 1851 by Abel Seymour Baldwin (the namesake of

Baldwin, Florida Baldwin is a town in Duval County, Florida, United States. When the majority of communities in Duval County were consolidated with the city of Jacksonville in 1968, Baldwin, along with Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach and Neptune Beach, rema ...

) and construction began at Lake City in 1857. During the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, the railroad figured in the

Battle of Olustee The Battle of Olustee or Battle of Ocean Pond was fought in Baker County, Florida on February 20, 1864, during the American Civil War. It was the largest battle fought in Florida during the war. Union General Truman Seymour had landed troops a ...

when Union Brigadier General

Truman Seymour Truman Seymour (September 24, 1824 – October 30, 1891) was a career soldier and an accomplished painter. He served in the Union Army during the American Civil War, rising to the rank of major general. He was present at the Battle of Fort S ...

led troops west toward Lake City along the line, destroying the junction at Baldwin, and then engaging Confederate troops near Olustee Station. The tracks and junction were rebuilt after the war, but the railroad defaulted on its payments to the Florida

Internal Improvement Public works are a broad category of infrastructure projects, financed and constructed by the government, for recreational, employment, and health and safety uses in the greater community. They include public buildings ( municipal buildings, s ...

Fund.

From Lake City to Tallahassee, the Florida Central and Western was built by the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad (P&G). The Pensacola and Georgia Railroad was chartered in January 1853, and was to be built east from

Pensacola, Florida Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ...

, but instead started at Tallahassee and was built east. It reached

Lake City, Florida Lake City is a city in northern Florida. It is the county seat of Columbia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 12,329. It is the principal city of the Lake City Micropolitan Statistical Area, which ...

in 1860 where it connected to the Florida, Atlantic and Gulf Central. The P&G also built a short branch from Drifton north to

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary plantation of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who began designing Monticello after inheriting land from his father at age 26. Located just outside Charlottesville, V ...

. In 1855, the P&G also took over the

Tallahassee Railroad The Tallahassee Railroad, headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida, was one of the first two railroads in Florida, starting operations in 1836 or 1837. It did not successfully use steam locomotives until 1855, with trains being pulled by mules for mo ...

, which ran south from Tallahassee to the port at St. Marks, Florida on the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

. The P&G then built from Tallahassee west to four miles (6 km) short of Quincy, stopping in 1863 in the middle of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. George W. Swepson, a notorious

scalawag In United States history, the term scalawag (sometimes spelled scallawag or scallywag) referred to white Southerners who supported Reconstruction policies and efforts after the conclusion of the American Civil War. As with the term '' carpetb ...

, purchased both the P&G and the FA&GC in 1868. After renaming the FA&GC the Florida Central Railroad, set his carpetbagger protégé, Milton S. Littlefield, a former Union general known as the "Prince of Carpetbaggers", loose in Tallahassee to buy, cheat, and otherwise defraud Florida legislators in order to obtain a new charter for a railroad that Littlefield promised would be extended west from Quincy to

Pensacola Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ci ...

. Backed by $6 million in capitalization, the P&G was reorganized as the Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile Railroad in June 1869 with Littlefield as president. The original charter did not consolidate the Florida Central Railroad into the JP&M; this did not occur until the Florida legislature amended the charter in 1870. Littlefield and Swepson then launched a major swindle, personally enriching themselves from the sales of company bonds to unwitting investors. Due to the embezzling of such funds, the company was unable to extend the line to Pensacola, reaching only an additional 20 miles to

instead. By 1879, the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

had a lien placed on the railroad's assets. In 1882, the JP&M and the Florida Central were both acquired by

Sir Edward Reed Sir Edward James Reed, KCB, FRS (20 September 1830 – 30 November 1906) was a British naval architect, author, politician, and railroad magnate. He was the Chief Constructor of the Royal Navy from 1863 until 1870. He was a Liberal politicia ...

, and were renamed together as the Florida Central and Western Railroad. Two years later, Reed brought the Florida Central and Western and several other Florida railroads he had purchased under the umbrella of what was named the Florida Railway and Navigation Company, which was renamed the

Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad The Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad was the final name of a system of railroads throughout Florida, becoming part of the Seaboard Air Line Railway in 1900. The system, including some of the first railroads in Florida, stretched from Jacks ...

(FC&P) in 1888. In 1900, a year after purchasing the majority of FC&P stock, the newly organized

Seaboard Air Line Railway 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, t ...

leased the FC&P and, in 1903, acquired it outright.

Seaboard Air Line ownership

The line would become an important route for the Seaboard Air Line. The easternmost 17 miles of the line from Jacksonville to Baldwin became part if the Seaboard's

main line Mainline, ''Main line'', or ''Main Line'' may refer to: Transportation Railway * Main line (railway), the principal artery of a railway system * Main line railway preservation, the practice of operating preserved trains on an operational railw ...

. The rest of the line from Baldwin to Chattahoochee was became the Seaboard's Tallahassee Subdivision. The branch to Monticello became the Monticello Subdivision, while track from Tallahassee to St. Marks became the Wakulla Subdivision.Seaboard Air Line Railroad North Florida Division Timetable (1949) The Tallahassee Subdivision was notably used by the Seaboard Air Line for passenger service from Jacksonville to

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, which was operated jointly with the

Louisville and Nashville Railroad The Louisville and Nashville Railroad , commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850, the road grew into one of the ...

. This daily passenger service was known as the ''New Orleans-Florida Express'' and the ''New Orleans-Florida Limited'' before being renamed the ''

Gulf Wind The ''Gulf Wind'' was a streamlined passenger train inaugurated on July 31, 1949, as a joint operation by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad and the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (Seaboard Coast Line after merger with the Atlantic Coast Line ...

'' in 1949. In addition to passenger service, the line also carried two daily Red Ball freight trains and a local freight train six days a week round-trip from Baldwin to Tallahassee in the 1950s. A through freight train also ran from Tallahassee to Chattahoochee daily at the time. The line was busy enough in the 1950s to warrant the installation of

Centralized traffic control Centralized traffic control (CTC) is a form of railway signalling that originated in North America. CTC consolidates train routing decisions that were previously carried out by local signal operators or the train crews themselves. The system con ...

along the Tallahassee Subdivision from Baldwin to a point just west of Tallahassee.

Later years

In 1967, the Seaboard Air Line merged with their long-time rival, the

Atlantic Coast Line Railroad The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad was a United States Class I railroad formed in 1900, though predecessor railroads had used the ACL brand since 1871. In 1967 it merged with long-time rival Seaboard Air Line Railroad to form the Seaboard Coast L ...

(ACL). The Tallahassee Subdivision crossed or connected with ACL branch lines in

Jacksonville Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

, Mattox,

Live Oak Live oak or evergreen oak is any of a number of oaks in several different sections of the genus ''Quercus'' that share the characteristic of evergreen foliage. These oaks are not more closely related to each other than they are to other oaks. ...

, Drifton, and

. After the merger was complete, the company was named the

Seaboard Coast Line Railroad The Seaboard Coast Line Railroad was a Class I railroad company operating in the Southeastern United States beginning in 1967. Its passenger operations were taken over by Amtrak in 1971. Eventually, the railroad was merged with its affiliate lin ...

(SCL). In 1980, the Seaboard Coast Line's parent company merged with the

Chessie System Chessie System, Inc. was a holding company that owned the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), the Western Maryland Railway (WM), and Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad (B&OCT). Trains operated und ...

, creating the

CSX Corporation CSX Corporation is an American holding company focused on rail transportation and real estate in North America, among other industries. The company was established in 1980 as part of the Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries merger. T ...

. The CSX Corporation initially operated the Chessie and Seaboard Systems separately until 1986, when they were merged into

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

. The ''Gulf Wind'' continued to operate on the Tallahassee Subdivision under the Seaboard Coast Line until 1971, when passenger service was taken over by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

. This left the line without passenger service until 1993, when the Amtrak extended the ''

Sunset Limited The ''Sunset Limited'' is an Amtrak passenger train that for most of its history has operated between New Orleans and Los Angeles, over the nation's second transcontinental route. However, up until Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it operated betwe ...

'' to Miami via Jacksonville. The ''Sunset Limited'' ran the line until late 2005 due to damage as a result of

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

further west. The ''Sunset Limited'' has terminated in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

ever since.

Current operations

The Florida Gulf and Atlantic Railroad took over operation of the former Florida Central and Western Railroad on June 1, 2019, after its parent company, RailUSA, acquired the line from

. As part of the deal, the Florida Gulf and Atlantic also took over the former

Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad The Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad (P&A) was a company incorporated by an act of the Florida Legislature on March 4, 1881, to run from Pensacola to the Apalachicola River near Chattahoochee, a distance of about . No railroad had ever been built ...

west to Pensacola, and track from Tallahassee north to

Attapulgus, Georgia Attapulgus is a city in Decatur County, Georgia, Decatur County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 454. The town's name is an Indian word meaning "Dogwood"; ...

Historic stations

References

{{Reflist Defunct Florida railroads Predecessors of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad Railway companies established in 1882 Railway companies disestablished in 1884 5 ft gauge railways in the United States 1882 establishments in Florida