The Brewster Subdivision is a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

line owned 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 ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. The line runs at Edison Junction (just west of

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 ...

south through Bradley Junction to a point just north of Arcadia for a total of 47.2 miles.CSX Jacksonville Division Timetable
/ref> Prior to 1981, the line was known as the Boca Grande Subdivision when the line continued beyond Arcadia as far as Port Boca Grande on the south end of

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 ...

.Seaboard Air Line Railroad South Florida Division Timetable (1951)
/ref>

Route description

The Brewster Subdivision begins at Edison Junction near the community of Keysville at a wye that branches off the company's Valrico Subdivision. From Edison, it proceeds southeast to Bradley Junction. At Bradley Junction, the line connects with the Achan Subdivision to the north and the Agricola Spur to the east., and connects to the

Seminole Gulf Railway The Seminole Gulf Railway is a short line railroad, 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 M ...

in Arcadia. The Brewster Subdivision continues south from Bradley Junction through Agrock, Fort Green Springs, and Ona before coming to its southern terminus at point just north of Arcadia. Track from the terminus south into Arcadia is now owned by

, a shortline that continues south from Arcadia to Punta Gorda and

Fort Myers A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Lati ...

on 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 ...

's former

Lakeland—Fort Myers Line The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's Lakeland—Fort Myers Line was one of the railroad company's secondary main lines in Central and Southwest Florida. It was built incrementally between its namesake cities in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The ...

. Historically, the line continued southwest from Arcadia along the

Peace River The Peace River () is a river in Canada that originates in the Rocky Mountains of northern British Columbia and flows to the northeast through northern Alberta. The Peace River joins the Athabasca River in the Peace-Athabasca Delta to form the ...

to a point near Fort Ogden where it crossed the river. From here, it continued southwest through Port Charlotte, El Jobean, and

Placida ''Placida'' is a genus of very small or minute sea slugs, marine opisthobranch gastropod mollusks in the family Limapontiidae.

Operation

The Brewster Subdivision is CSX's second busiest line through the Bone Valley after the Valrico Subdivision. The line is dispatched through

Track warrant 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 c ...

control. The line serves three phosphate facilities operated by

The Mosaic Company The Mosaic Company is an American chemical 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. pr ...

. Mosaic's New Wales processing plant is located near the north end of the line between Edison and Bradley Junction and is considered by Mosaic to be the world's largest phosphate processing facility. Four Corners Mine is located a short distance behind Agrock yard south of Bradley Junction. Agrock yard is used by Mosaic as a staging area for Four Corners Mine and operates their own locomotives and equipment from the mine to the yard. The southernmost phosphate mine on the line is Mosaic's South Pasture Mine in Fort Green Springs which was previously operated by

CF Industries CF Industries Holdings, Inc. is an American manufacturer and distributor of agricultural fertilizers, including ammonia, urea, and ammonium nitrate products. The company is based in Northbrook, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, and was founded in 1 ...

before it was bought by Mosaic. South Pasture Mine is currently not operating and has been idle since 2018. Though Mosaic plans to reactivate it at some point in the future. When active, South Pasture is the southernmost point of CSX's Bone Valley operations. The only traffic on the Brewster Subdivision that runs south of South Pasture is twice-weekly mixed freight from Winston Yard to Arcadia for interchange with

. This traffic is the only non-phosphate related rail traffic on the Brewster Subdivision.

History

Edison to Agricola

The northern segment of the Brewster Subdivision from present-day Edison to Bradley Junction and east to Agricola was built as a branch line by the

Seaboard Air Line Railroad The Seaboard Air Line Railroad , known colloquially as the Seaboard Railroad during its time, was an American railroad that existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime ri ...

in 1910. It was built to further extend the Seaboard Air Line's network into the Bone Valley's growing phosphate industry.

South of Bradley Junction

The Brewster Subdivision south of Bradley Junction was originally built by 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 ...

(CH&N). The CH&N was built from Boca Grande to Arcadia in 1907 and extended north from Arcadia in 1911. The CH&N's junction with the Seaboard Air Line was named Bradley Junction, which was named after CH&N founder Peter B. Bradley.

Later years

The Seaboard Air Line acquired the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway in 1926. After the acquisition, the Seaboard Air Line promptly built their Fort Myers Subdivision which branched off the line at

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

. By the end of 1926, track from Boca Grande to Hull was designated on employee timetables as the Boca Grande Subdivsion, while track from Hull to Edison Junction was designated as part of the Fort Myers Subdivision.Seaboard Air Line Railway South Florida Division Timetable (1940) Edison Junction was named after inventor

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February11, 1847October18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, ...

due to the line's connection to Fort Myers, where Edison had a winter home (the

Edison and Ford Winter Estates The Edison and Ford Winter Estates contain a historical museum and 21 acre (8.5 ha) botanical garden on the adjacent sites of the winter homes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford beside the Caloosahatchee River in Southwestern Florida. It is locate ...

). Track north of Hull was later redesignated as part of the Boca Grande Subdivision by the late 1940s as traffic to

declined.Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Tampa Division Timetable (1973)
/ref> The Seaboard Air Line operated passenger trains on the line to both Boca Grande and to Fort Myers and Naples (the latter destinations were provided by '' Orange Blossom Special'' and ''West Coast Limited''). Passenger service to Fort Myers ended in 1933 and the Fort Myers Subdivision was completely abandoned by 1952. The Seaboard Air Line generally operated two passenger trains a day to Boca Grande, though passenger service to Boca Grande was discontinued in 1958 shortly after the opening of the Boca Grande Causeway, which was the last passenger service to ever operate on the line. The line once had a spur track to the former Payne Creek Mine east of Agrock Yard. Payne Creek Mine has since been redeveloped by Mosaic into the Streamsong Resort and golf course. 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 ...

. 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

. Track south of Arcadia to Boca Grande was abandoned in 1981 after the closure of Port Boca Grande. The remaining line was subsequently renamed the Brewster Subdivision, which is named for the defunct ghost town of

Brewster Brewster may refer to: People *Brewster (surname) *Brewster Kahle (born 1960), American computer technologist * Brewster H. Shaw (born 1945), American astronaut * Grace Brewster Hopper (born 1906), American computer scientist, mathematician, and ...

that was located just south of Bradley Junction. The town existed from 1910 to 1962 and played a role in the area's phosphate industry. Remnants of the town include a smokestack and a few abandoned buildings.

Historic Seaboard Air Line stations

Notes

References

{{Attached KML CSX Transportation lines 1910 establishments in Florida Rail infrastructure in Florida Transportation in Polk County, Florida Transportation in DeSoto County, Florida