Tampa and Gulf Coast Railroad

Tampa and Gulf Coast Railroad
CSX train operating on the former Tampa and Gulf Coast Railroad though Safety Harbor in 1992.
Reporting mark T&G
Dates of operation 1909–1927
Successor Seaboard Air Line Railroad
Track gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The Tampa and Gulf Coast Railroad was a railroad company in the Tampa Bay Area of Florida in the United States. It initially built and operated a line that ran from the Tampa Northern Railroad main line in Lutz (just north of Tampa) west to Tarpon Springs and into Pasco County. Additional track starting from Sulphur Springs running west towards Clearwater and south to St. Petersburg was built shortly after. The railroad was informally known as the "Tug n' Grunt".[1]

History

Depot built in 1924 by the Tampa and Gulf Coast Railroad in Sulphur Springs, Florida. It is currently located at Heritage Village in Largo, Florida.[2]

After being incorporated in 1909, the first segment of the Tampa and Gulf Coast Railroad was built in 1910 from Lutz, where it connected to the main line of the Tampa Northern Railroad, west to Tarpon Springs.[3] In 1914, a second line was built south of the first line from Sulphur Springs, also on the Tampa Northern Railroad main line, west through what is now Oldsmar, across Tampa Bay, and through Safety Harbor to Clearwater. In Clearwater, it crossed an Atlantic Coast Line Railroad track that was once the Orange Belt Railway and headed south. A branch to Indian Rocks Beach also existed at one point. From Clearwater, the line ran south to the southeast part of the Pinellas Peninsula near Seminole. It then crossed Long Bayou and south to South Pasedena before turning east to St. Petersburg. A passenger depot existed in St. Petersburg at Ninth Street and Second Avenue.[1] During this time, a branch line was also built to connect the two T&G lines from Tarpon Springs Junction in Rocky Creek on the line leading to Clearwater to Lake Fern on the line leading to Tarpon Springs, which allowed the T&G to abandon the segment of line between Lake Fern and Lutz.[3]

The Tampa and Gulf Coast Railroad only briefly operated as an independent company. In 1915, it was bought out by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (Seaboard bought the Tampa Northern Railroad two years prior) and continued to operate as a separate rail line until it was fully integrated with the SAL network in 1927.[4] Seaboard would go on to merge with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, who operated a competing route through Pinellas County, in 1967. The resulting company after the merger was the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, who connected the two Pinellas County routes where they crossed south of downtown Clearwater. Seaboard Coast Line would become the CSX Corporation in 1980.[1]

In 1986, CSX consolidated the two lines and abandoned the original Tampa and Gulf Coast Railroad between Clearwater and St. Petersburg. This segment is now part of the Pinellas Trail (which also continues north from Clearwater along the former Orange Belt/Atlantic Coast Line route). CSX continues to operate the remaining tracks of the Tampa and Gulf Coast Railroad, which is now part of their Clearwater Subdivision.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Luisi, Vincent (2010). Railroading in Pinellas County. Arcadia Publishing.
  2. ↑ "Sulphur Springs Train Depot and Caboose" (PDF). University of South Florida Digital Archive. Retrieved December 25, 2016.
  3. 1 2 "History of Pasco County – Railroads". Retrieved December 27, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Tampa Gulf Coast Railroad Co. v. Commissioner". Casetext, Inc. 1971. Retrieved December 25, 2016.
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