SZ 0.0 Valrico SZ 11.8 Welcome SV 837.7 Nichols | SZ 5.2 Durant SV 835.8 Edison SV 842.8 Mulberry | |
The Valrico Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. State of Florida. The line runs from the CSX S-Line in Valrico east and south to Bowling Green for a total of 47.0 miles. It junctions with the Plant City Subdivision at Welcome, the Brewster Subdivision at Edison, and the Achan Subdivision at South Mulberry. Today, the Valrico Subdivision is CSX's busiest rail line thorough Bone Valley.
Contents
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. It was mostly built and operated historically by CSX predecessors Seaboard Air Line Railroad and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.
Valrico to Bartow and Homeland
The Seaboard Air Line Railroad built the segment of the line from Welcome to Nichols around 1905. It was built as an extension of the Plant City, Arcadia, and Gulf Railroad (which is today CSX's Plant City Subdivision), which Seaboard had bought earlier that year. Seaboard extended the line east to Mulberry and Bartow in 1912. The line crossed the Winston and Bone Valley Railroad (which by then was an Atlantic Coast Line branch and is today CSX's Bone Valley Subdivision) in Mulberry. The junction of these two lines is today located in the median of State Road 37. The line also connected to the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway (currently CSX's 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, though track east of Bartow to Lake Wales has since been abandoned (the junction where the Plant City Subdivision meets the CSX S-Line is still known today as Lake Wales Junction because of this extension). Seaboard also built a branch south from Bartow to Pembroke mine in 1914, which is today part of the Valrico Subdivision to a point near Homeland.
Seaboard built the Valrico Cutoff in 1925 which connected the Seaboard main line (CSX's S-Line) at Valrico with the track at Welcome. This is today is the westernmost trackage of the Valrico Subdivision. With the Valrico Cutoff in place, this line became an important route for Seaboard's passenger trains as it provided a direct route from Tampa to Miami (which was accessed through another Seaboard line in Lake Wales).
Homeland to Bowling Green
The oldest trackage of the Varico Subdivision is its south-easternmost trackage from Homeland (just south of Bartow) 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). This segment of the Valrico Subdivision is a segment of track that historically extended from Lakeland south to Naples. (Other discontinuous segments of this historic line include CSX's CH Subdivision near Lakeland and the Seminole Gulf Railway south of Arcadia). Today, this segment of the Valrico Subdivision ends less than a mile south of the Polk/Hardee County line in Bowling Green. The line was abandoned between Bowling Green and Arcadia in the 1980s. Former Atlantic Coast Line depots still stand along the line in Fort Meade and Bowling Green. The Bowling Green depot stands about a hundred yards south of where the track now ends.