Wildwood station is a bus station, and former train station, in
Wildwood, Florida
Wildwood is a city in Sumter County, Florida, United States. The population was 6,709 at the 2010 census. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2018 estimates, the city had a population of 7,024. Due to rapid growth the city had over 33,000 res ...
. It serves
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 ...
's
Thruway Motorcoach
Amtrak Thruway is a system of through-ticketed transportation services to connect passengers with areas not served by Amtrak trains. In most cases these are dedicated motorcoach routes, but can also be non-dedicated intercity bus services, tran ...
bus system and formerly served trains for Amtrak and other rail companies. The station is located on 601 North Main Street (
US 301) in
Wildwood, Florida
Wildwood is a city in Sumter County, Florida, United States. The population was 6,709 at the 2010 census. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2018 estimates, the city had a population of 7,024. Due to rapid growth the city had over 33,000 res ...
. Along with the northern terminus of
Florida's Turnpike
Florida's Turnpike, designated as unsigned State Road 91 (SR 91), is a toll road in the U.S. state of Florida, maintained by Florida's Turnpike Enterprise (FTE). Spanning approximately along a northwest–southeast axis, the turnpike is in two s ...
, the station gave Wildwood a reason to refer to itself as "The Crossroads of Florida."
History
The station was built in 1947 by the
Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) in the
art deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
architectural style, and is located on what is today
CSX
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. ...
's S-Line, which runs along the west side of the building. This segment of the S-Line is officially named the
Wildwood Subdivision
The Wildwood Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in Florida. It runs along CSX's S Line from Baldwin south to Zephyrhills via Ocala and Wildwood for a total of 155.7 miles. The S Line is CSX's designation for the line tha ...
. The station served SAL's ''
Orange Blossom Special,'' ''
Silver Meteor
The ''Silver Meteor'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak between New York City and Miami, Florida. Introduced in 1939 as the first diesel-powered streamliner between New York and Florida, it was the flagship train of the Seaboard Air Line ...
,'' ''
Silver Star
The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against an e ...
,'' ''Sunland'' and ''Palmland''. It was a few miles south of this location at
Coleman that the SAL mainlines split: the main sections, or "east coast" sections of the ''Silver Meteor'', ''Silver Star'', ''Sunland,'' and ''Palmland'' travelled along SAL's mainline to their
station
Station may refer to:
Agriculture
* Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production
* Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle
** Cattle statio ...
in Miami, while the secondary sections, or "west coast" sections of the ''Silver Meteor'', ''Silver Star'', ''Sunland'', and ''Palmland'' travelled along SAL's mainline to their
station
Station may refer to:
Agriculture
* Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production
* Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle
** Cattle statio ...
in Tampa. These "west coast" trains also continued in different sections to
St. Petersburg with a stop in
Clearwater Clearwater or Clear Water may refer to:
Places Canada
* Clear Water Academy, a private Catholic school located in Calgary, Alberta
* Clearwater (provincial electoral district), a former provincial electoral district in Alberta
* Clearwater, Briti ...
, and
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
with stops in
Bradenton and
Sarasota.
In 1967, after the merger of
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) and the SAL into the new
Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, the ''
Florida Special
''Florida Special'' is a 1936 American comedy film directed by Ralph Murphy and written by David Boehm, Marguerite Roberts, Laura Perelman and S. J. Perelman. The film stars Jack Oakie, Sally Eilers, Kent Taylor, Frances Drake, Claude Gillingwat ...
,'' ''Silver Meteor,'' ''Silver Star,'' and ''Palmland'' made stops at the station from 1967 to 1971, while the ''Sunland'' was discontinued by SCL in 1968. On May 1, 1971, Amtrak assumed SCL passenger operations, but opted to not continue the ''Palmland''.
In 1971, most passenger service in the United States was transferred to Amtrak, and the ''Silver Meteor'' retained its stop in Wildwood. Throughout the latter part of the 20th century, Amtrak would move trains off and onto the S-Line. Some of these trains include the ''Silver Meteor'', ''Silver Star'', ''
Floridian'', and ''
Palmetto''. Finally, Amtrak revived the ''
Silver Palm'' along the CSX S-Line in 1996, where it would keep its name, sleepers, and diner until 2002. In 2002, the train would be renamed back to ''Palmetto''.
[Amtrak Timetable effective April 29, 2002, p. 33 http://timetables.org/full.php?group=20020429n&item=0033] Two years later, the ''Palmetto'' was truncated to
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...
on November 1, 2004, prompting Amtrak to revive ''Silver Star'' service to Tampa along the CSX A-Line shared by the current ''
Silver Meteor
The ''Silver Meteor'' is a passenger train operated by Amtrak between New York City and Miami, Florida. Introduced in 1939 as the first diesel-powered streamliner between New York and Florida, it was the flagship train of the Seaboard Air Line ...
'', and part of the suspended ''
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 ...
'', and finally ending passenger service to Wildwood. Today, the station operates as a CSX crew and yard office, and Amtrak's
Thruway Motorcoach
Amtrak Thruway is a system of through-ticketed transportation services to connect passengers with areas not served by Amtrak trains. In most cases these are dedicated motorcoach routes, but can also be non-dedicated intercity bus services, tran ...
bus service between
Jacksonville and
Lakeland still uses the station building. The long-abandoned platforms and canopies were demolished in 2013 to make way for a second
mainline, which was built over the land they once occupied.
Wildwood is also the western terminus of an abandoned SAL
branchline
A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line.
Industrial spur
An industri ...
that once ran to
Orlando through the cities of
Leesburg and
Tavares. This branchline is now owned by the
Florida Midland Railroad, and is in operation between Orlando and Tavares. The tracks past the
wye that allowed access to the branchline from Wildwood used to run as far east as Orange Home along
County Road 44A, and served as home for some abandoned freight cars until the first decade of the 21st Century. However, CSX later pulled up the track in the early 2010's, and now currently uses the approximately 400 feet of track running past the stem of the wye to turn around locomotives.
References
External links
Wildwood Amtrak Station (USA RailGuide – TrainWeb)
Wildwood
Wildwood, Florida
Wildwood is a city in Sumter County, Florida, United States. The population was 6,709 at the 2010 census. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2018 estimates, the city had a population of 7,024. Due to rapid growth the city had over 33,000 res ...
Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach stations in Florida
Wildwood Station
Railway stations closed in 2004
Railway stations in the United States opened in 1947
1947 establishments in Florida
{{Florida-railstation-stub