The Achan Subdivision is a short railroad line operated by

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

located in

Polk County, Florida Polk County () is a County (United States), county located in the Central Florida, central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. The county population was 725,046, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, and estimated to be 818,330, as ...

in a region known as the Bone Valley. The seven-mile line links central

Mulberry, Florida Mulberry is a city in Polk County, Florida, Polk County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Lakeland, Florida, Lakeland–Winter Haven, Florida, Winter Haven Lakeland–Winter Haven metropolitan area, Metropolitan Statistical Area, with p ...

with CSX's Bone Valley network to the south.

Route description

The Achan Subdivision at a wye with the Valrico Subdivision just east of Downtown

Mulberry ''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of 19 species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 subordinat ...

. It heads south seven miles to Bradley Junction, where it connects with the Brewster Subdivision and the Agricola Spur. It also connects with the Bone Valley Subdivision in Achan (about half way between Mulberry and Bradley Junction).

History

The Achan Subdivision was built around 1912 as the northernmost extension of 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 (estuary), Charlotte Harbor and a major shipping port that once operated there. The railroad's princip ...

, which extended from Bradley Junction south to Boca Grande on

Gasparilla Island Gasparilla Island is a barrier island in southwest Florida, United States, straddling the border of Charlotte and Lee counties. Its largest town is Boca Grande, and it is the location of the Gasparilla Island State Park. The island has been a ...

. The extension north to Mulberry allowed the Charlotte Harbor and Northern to serve more phosphate facilities in Mulberry. It also served the now defunct town of Pierce, a town built to house workers of the American Agricultural Chemicals Company, which built and owned the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway. Pierce was also the location of a phosphate drying plant. Pierce Historical Marker

The Seaboard Air Line Railroad bought the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway in 1926. In the 1940s, the Seaboard Air Line designated the line from Mulberry to Bradley Junction and from there to Agricola as the Agricola Subdivision.Seaboard Air Line Railroad South Florida Division Timetable (1940) By the 1950s, it was renamed the Achan Subdivision as it is today and the segment from Bradley Junction to Agricola was downgraded to spur status.Seaboard Air Line Railroad South Florida Division Timetable (1951)
/ref> In 1967, the Seaboard Air Line and the Atlantic Coast Line merged to form 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 ...

.Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Jacksonville Division and Tampa Division Timetable (1977)
/ref> 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 u ...

, 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 merge ...

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

Historic Seaboard Air Line stations

References

{{reflist CSX Transportation lines Seaboard Air Line Railroad Rail infrastructure in Florida Transportation in Polk County, Florida