The Nahunta Subdivision is a

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

line owned by

CSX Transportation 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. ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

. The line runs along CSX's A Line from Ogeechee, Georgia, to Dinsmore, Florida, for a total of . At its north end it continues south from the Savannah Subdivision and at its south end it continues south as the Jacksonville Terminal Subdivision A-Line. The line is double-tracked from

Folkston, Georgia Folkston is a city in and the county seat of Charlton County, Georgia, United States. Folkston is in the Jacksonville Metropolitan Area. The population was 2,502 as of the 2010 census, up from 2,178 in 2000, largely due to the extension of the c ...

south. All of

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

's Florida service also traverses the line. The segment of the line from Folkston to

Callahan, Florida Callahan is a town in Nassau County, Florida, United States, adjacent to Duval County. The population was 1,123 at the 2010 census. It is one location of the Northeast Florida Fair. The Battle of Alligator Bridge took place around Callahan on J ...

, is sometimes informally known as the Folkston Funnel by rail enthusiasts since nearly all of CSX's traffic from the midwest and the northeast to Florida converge on that segment, which carries roughly 40–45 trains a day. The

Folkston Railfan Platform The Folkston Railfan Platform is located in Folkston, Georgia along CSX Transportation's Nahunta Subdivision, and provides a location where railfans can safely view and photograph trains. With the help of a $30,000 state grant, the city built the ...

was built in 2001 by the city for viewing trains.

History

The segment of the Nahunta Subdivision north of

Jesup, Georgia Jesup is a city in Wayne County, Georgia, United States. The population was 9,809 at the 2020 census. The city is the county seat of Wayne County. History By February 1869, Willis Clary had begun building a two-story hotel near the junction ...

, was originally part of the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad, which was chartered in 1856 (five years before the start of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

). The Atlantic and Gulf Railroad went bankrupt in 1877 and was bought by Henry B. Plant two years later. Plant incorporated it into his Savannah, Florida, and Western Railway (the main line of the

Plant System The Plant System named after its owner, Henry B. Plant, was a system of railroads and steamboats in the U.S. South, taken over by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1902. The original line of the system was the Savannah, Florida and Wester ...

). From

, south to

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

, the line was part of the Waycross and Florida Railway and the East Florida Railway. Those two lines, which were chartered by Henry Plant in 1880, began service in 1881. The middle segment of the Nahunta Subdivision was built as the Plant System's Folkston Cutoff in 1901. It was built to provide a shortcut and bypass to

Waycross, Georgia Waycross is the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Ware County in the U.S. state of Georgia. The population was 14,725 at the 2010 Census and dropped to 13,942 in the 2020 census. Waycross includes two historic districts ( Downtow ...

. In 1902, the Plant System became part of 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 Coas ...

, with what is now the Nahunta Subdivision becoming part of the Coast Line's main line. Though Atlantic Coast Line became part of

through various mergers from 1967 to 1986. The Nahunta Subdivision continues to be part of CSX's A Line (the designation for the former Atlantic Coast Line main line).

References

CSX Transportation lines Rail infrastructure in Florida Rail infrastructure in Georgia (U.S. state) {{US-rail-transport-stub

History

See also

References