CSX Transportation's Valrico Subdivision is a railroad line in
Central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
Florida. It serves as CSX's main route through a region of Central Florida known as the
Bone Valley
The Bone Valley is a region of central Florida, encompassing portions of present-day Hardee, Hillsborough, Manatee, and Polk counties, in which phosphate is mined for use in the production of agricultural fertilizer. Florida currently contains t ...
, which contains the largest known deposits of phosphate in the United States.
[V. E. McKelvey and others]
"Domestic Phosphate Deposits"
US Geological Survey, Open-File Report 53-165, 1953.
The Valrico Subdivision runs from a junction with CSX's
S Line
S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''.
Histor ...
in
Valrico east to
Mulberry
''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of diverse species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 identif ...
and
Bartow before turning south to
Fort Meade
Fort George G. Meade is a United States Army installation located in Maryland, that includes the Defense Information School, the Defense Media Activity, the United States Army Field Band, and the headquarters of United States Cyber Command, the N ...
and
Bowling Green
A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls.
Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep on ...
for a total of 47 miles.
[CSX Jacksonville Division Timetable](_blank)
/ref>
Much of the Valrico Subdivision dates back to the early 1900s and was originally operated under the same name by 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 ...
, a CSX predecessor.[Seaboard Air Line Railroad South Florida Division Timetable (1940)] Though track to Bowling Green was previously operated by 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 ...
, another CSX predecessor.[Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Southern Division Timetable (1949)](_blank)
/ref>
Operation
The Valrico Subdivision is currently CSX's busiest rail line thorough Bone Valley
The Bone Valley is a region of central Florida, encompassing portions of present-day Hardee, Hillsborough, Manatee, and Polk counties, in which phosphate is mined for use in the production of agricultural fertilizer. Florida currently contains t ...
and carries large amounts of phosphate traffic, its main commodity. The line is mostly dispatched by Track Warrant Control
A track warrant is a set of instructions issued to a train crew authorizing specific train movements. The system is widely used in North America. The warrant is issued by the train dispatcher and delivered to the train crew via radio. The train cr ...
, though there is a small 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 ...
signal system around Mulberry
''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of diverse species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 identif ...
between IMC and Ridgewood.
The line serves phosphate facilities operated by The Mosaic Company
The Mosaic Company is a Fortune 500 company based in Tampa, Florida which mines phosphate, potash, and collects urea for fertilizer, through various international distribution networks, and Mosaic Fertilizantes. It is the largest U.S. producer of ...
, which was created in 2004 after the merger of Cargill
Cargill, Incorporated, is a privately held American global food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865, it is the largest privately held corporation in the United States in ter ...
Inc. and IMC Global
IMC Global (also known as International Minerals and Chemical Corporation and Imcera) was a mining and production company, formerly listed on the S&P MidCap 400. It was founded in 1909 as International Agricultural Corporation. In 2004, IMC Global ...
. Mosaic's South Fort Meade Mine is located near the end of the Valrico Subdivision between Fort Meade and Bowling Green. The line also serves Mosaic's processing facility at Ridgewood and previously served the Bonnie Mine just southeast of Mulberry.
Both raw and processed phosphate from these facilities (as well as facilities on CSX's Brewster Subdivision
The Brewster Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in Florida. The line runs from the Valrico Subdivision at Edison Junction south through Bradley Junction to Arcadia for a total of 47.2 miles. It junctions with the Achan ...
and Bone Valley Subdivision) are transported on the line to Valrico, where they continue on the S Line
S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''.
Histor ...
west to Tampa and then transferred to ships at Rockport Yard in Tampa. Phosphate is also sent north from Mulberry to Winston Yard (on the Bone Valley Subdivision) to be sent via rail throughout the country.
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.
Valrico to Bartow and Homeland
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 ...
built the segment of the line from Welcome Junction to Nichols around 1905. It was built as an extension of the Plant City, Arcadia, and Gulf Railroad (which is today the Plant City Subdivision), which Seaboard had bought earlier that year. Seaboard extended the line east to Mulberry and Bartow in 1912. At the same time, Seaboard also built track from Edison Junction southeast to Bradley Junction to connect with the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway
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 transpor ...
.
The Valrico Subdivision crossed 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 ...
's Bone Valley Branch (now the Bone Valley Subdivision) in Mulberry. The junction of these two lines is today located in the median of State Road 37 and the lines are connected through Mulberry Yard. The line also connected to the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway
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 transpor ...
(now the Achan Subdivision) in Mulberry which at the time went as far as 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
Lake Wales is a city in Polk County, Florida. The population was 14,225 at the 2010 census. , the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 16,759. It is part of the Lakeland– Winter Haven Metropolitan Statistical Area. Lake Wales is ...
, Alcoma, Hesperides, and Walinwa. At Walinwa, the line connected to the Kissimmee River Railway which continued east to Nalaca where it served a turpentine
Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthene, terebinthine and (colloquially) turps) is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Mainly used as a special ...
mill. Track from just east of Bartow (at a point known historically as Pembroke Junction) south to Homeland was part of a Seaboard spur built in 1914 to the now-defunct Coronet Pembroke Mine. Track east of Bartow to Lake Wales was abandoned in the early 1980s (the junction where the Plant City Subdivision meets the CSX S Line in Plant City is still known today as Lake Wales Junction because of this extension).
Seaboard built the Valrico Cutoff in 1925 which connected the Seaboard 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 ...
(CSX's S Line
S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''.
Histor ...
) at Valrico with the track at Welcome Junction. This is today is the westernmost trackage of the line and it was built to shorten the distance from Mulberry to Tampa
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...
. Seaboard designated the line as the Valrico Subdivision. The Valrico Cutoff also crossed Seaboard's Sarasota Subdivision at Durant which also shortened the distance from Tampa to Sarasota
Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sout ...
.
Passenger service would also operate on the Valrico Subdivision. Seaboard would operate the ''Cross Florida Limited'' over the line, which was one of the first rail services to connect Tampa and Miami directly. Trains accessed Miami through the Seaboard's Miami Subdivision
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at the ...
in West Lake Wales (which was also completed in the 1920s). The ''Cross Florida Limited'' would also have passenger stops in Mulberry and Bartow. The Mulberry depot still stands and is now a phosphate museum.
Homeland to Bowling Green
The oldest trackage of the current Varico Subdivision is its south-easternmost trackage from Homeland
A homeland is a place where a cultural, national, or racial identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethni ...
(just south of Bartow) to Fort Meade
Fort George G. Meade is a United States Army installation located in Maryland, that includes the Defense Information School, the Defense Media Activity, the United States Army Field Band, and the headquarters of United States Cyber Command, the N ...
and Bowling Green
A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls.
Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep on ...
. This segment was built in 1886 by the 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 Rail ...
as their Charlotte Harbor Division (which later became 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 ...
's Lakeland–Fort Myers Line). Today, this segment of the Valrico Subdivision ends less than a mile south of the Polk
Polk may refer to:
People
* James K. Polk, 11th president of the United States
* Polk (name), other people with the name
Places
*Polk (CTA), a train station in Chicago, Illinois
* Polk, Illinois, an unincorporated community
* Polk, Missouri ...
/Hardee County
Hardee County is a county located in the Florida Heartland, Central Florida region U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 25,327. Its county seat is Wauchula.
Hardee County comprises the Wauchula, FL Micropolitan St ...
line in Bowling Green (just south of the South Fort Meade Mine). The line was abandoned north of Homeland and south of Bowling Green in the late 1980s. The Atlantic Coast Line's former passenger depot in Fort Meade still stands along the line, and the Bowling Green depot stands about a hundred yards south of the end of the track.
Later years
The Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line Railroads merged in 1967 to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, which brought all of the track under a single owner. In the Seaboard Coast Line era, the Valrico Subdivision designation continued to cover the line from Valrico east through Bartow and West Lake Wales, which was still in service at the time. Track east of West Lake Wales was redesignated as the Lake Wales Subdivision. Track was removed between Bartow and West Lake Wales by 1982. Remaining track east of West Lake Wales is now operated by the Florida Midland Railroad.
The track from Homeland to Bowling Green (which still ran from Lakeland to Fort Myers in the years after the merger) was part of the Fort Myers Subdivision.Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Jacksonville Division and Tampa Division Timetable (1977)
/ref> When the Fort Myers Subdivision was abandoned north of Homeland and south of Bowling Green in the late 1980s, the remaining track was annexed to the Valrico Subdivision (CSX's CH Spur and the Seminole Gulf Railway
The Seminole Gulf Railway is a short line freight and passenger excursion railroad headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida, that operates two former CSX Transportation railroad lines in Southwest Florida. The company's Fort Myers Division, which ...
south of Arcadia are discontinuous segments of this line).
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. ...
.
Milepost numbers
Despite being a continuous line today, the milepost numbers on the Valrico Subdivision are not continuous throughout and remain as they originally were under predecessor companies (the Atlantic Coast Line and the Seaboard Air Line).
The segment from Valrico to Welcome Junction (the Valrico Cutoff) is numbered independently from the rest of the line since that was the last track segment to be built. It is numbered SZ 0.0 through SZ 11.8.
From Welcome Junction east to Bartow, the mileposts are numbered SV 834.2 through SV 851.1 (numbering which continues from the Plant City Subdivision
Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclude ...
). When the line turns south on to the former Seaboard Pembroke Mine spur in Bartow, the numbering continues with the prefix SVE since the SV prefix continued along the former east continuation to West Lake Wales.
In Homeland, where the line transitions to the former Atlantic Coast Line track, the mileposts abruptly change at approximately SVE 857.3 to AX 870.8 reflecting the Atlantic Coast Line numbering. The end of the line today is at milepost AX 882.7 in Bowling Green.
Historic Seaboard Air Line stations
See also
* List of CSX Transportation lines
CSX Transportation owns and operates a vast network of rail lines in the United States east of the Mississippi River. In addition to the major systems which merged to form CSX – the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroa ...
* Main Line (Seaboard Air Line Railroad)
The Seaboard Air Line Railroad’s Main Line was the backbone of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad's network in the southeastern United States. The main line ran from Richmond, Virginia to Tampa, Florida, a distance of over 800 miles. Along its ro ...
* Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway
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 transpor ...
References
{{Attached KML
CSX Transportation lines
Seaboard Air Line Railroad
Transportation in Hillsborough County, Florida
Transportation in Polk County, Florida
Transportation in Hardee County, Florida