CSX Transportation's Valrico Subdivision is a railroad line in Central Florida. It serves as CSX's main route through a region of Central Florida known as the

Bone Valley The Bone Valley is a region of central Florida, encompassing portions of present-day Hardee, Hillsborough, Manatee, and Polk counties, in which phosphate is mined for use in the production of agricultural fertilizer. Florida currently contains ...

, which contains the largest known deposits of phosphate in the United States.V. E. McKelvey and others
"Domestic Phosphate Deposits"
US Geological Survey, Open-File Report 53-165, 1953. The 47-mile line runs from Valrico east to Bartow and south to

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

.CSX Jacksonville Division Timetable
/ref> Much of the Valrico Subdivision dates back to the early 1900s and was originally operated under the same name 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 ...

, a CSX predecessor.Seaboard Air Line Railroad South Florida Division Timetable (1940) Though, southernmost 12 miles of the line from Homeland to Bowling Green was previously operated by 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 ...

, another CSX predecessor.Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Southern Division Timetable (1949)
/ref>

Route description

The Valrico Subdivision begins at a junction with CSX's

S Line S, or s, is the nineteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and other latin alphabets worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''. ...

( Yeoman Subdivision) in the community of Valrico. From Valrico, it runs in a straight line southeast to

Welcome A welcome is a kind of greeting designed to introduce a person to a new place or situation, and to make them feel at ease. The term can similarly be used to describe the feeling of being accepted on the part of the new person. Overview In ...

Junction, where it connects to the Plant City Subdivision. It continues east and comes to Edison Junction 1.5 miles later. At Edison Junction, the Brewster Subdivision splits from the line southeast while the Valrico Subdivision continues northeast to Nichols and east to

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 ...

. As the Valrico Subdivision enters Mulberry, it passes Mulberry Yard which is accessed via a wye across State Road 60. In the middle of Mulberry, it crosses the Bone Valley Subdivision at a crossing located in the median of State Road 37. On the east side of Mulberry, it connects with the Achan Subdivision at a wye to the south. The Valrico Subdivision leaves Mulberry and continues east, paralleling State Road 60 to Bartow passing just to the north of Downtown Bartow. East of Bartow at Pembroke Junction, the Valrico Subdivision turns south and runs along

U.S. Route 17 U.S. Route 17 or U.S. Highway 17 (US 17), also known as the Coastal Highway, is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that spans in the Southeastern United States. It runs close to the East Coast of the United States, At ...

Homeland A homeland is a place where a national or ethnic identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethnic natio ...

and

Fort Meade Fort George G. Meade is a United States Army installation located in Maryland, that includes the Defense Information School, the Defense Media Activity, the United States military bands#Army Field Band, United States Army Field Band, and the head ...

, before terminating in

. The Valrico Subdivision historically continued east of Pembroke Junction to

Lake Wales Lake Wales is a city in Polk County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Lakeland-Winter Haven, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 16,361 at the 2020 census. History Early history A survey by W.A. Williams and J ...

, Alcoma, and Walinwa.Seaboard Air Line Railroad South Florida Division Timetable (1951)
/ref>

Operation

The Valrico Subdivision is currently CSX's busiest rail line thorough

and carries large amounts of phosphate traffic, its main commodity. The line is mostly dispatched by

Track Warrant Control 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 ...

, though there is a small Centralized Traffic Control signal system around

between IMC and Ridgewood. The line serves 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 ...

, which was created in 2004 after the merger of

Cargill Cargill, Incorporated is an American multinational food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865 by William Wallace Cargill, it is the largest privately held c ...

Inc. and

IMC Global IMC Global (also known as International Minerals and Chemical Corporation and Imcera) was a mining and production company, formerly listed on the S&P MidCap 400. It was founded in 1909 as International Agricultural Corporation. In 2004, IMC Glo ...

. Mosaic's South Fort Meade Mine is located near the end of the Valrico Subdivision between Fort Meade and Bowling Green. The line also serves Mosaic's processing facility at Ridgewood and previously served the Bonnie Mine just southeast of Mulberry. Both raw and processed phosphate from these facilities (as well as facilities on CSX's Brewster Subdivision and Bone Valley Subdivision) are transported on the line to Valrico, where they continue on the

west to Tampa and then transferred to ships at Rockport Yard in Tampa. Phosphate is also sent north from Mulberry to Winston Yard (on the Bone Valley Subdivision) to be sent via rail throughout the country.

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.

Valrico to Bartow and Homeland

The

built the segment of the line from Welcome Junction to Nichols around 1905. It was built as an extension of the

Plant City, Arcadia, and Gulf Railroad The Plant City, Arcadia, and Gulf Railroad was a railroad line that once operated from Plant City, Florida, south to Welcome, Florida, Welcome, a distance of about 13 miles. The line remains in service today and is owned by CSX Transportation, whi ...

(which is today the Plant City Subdivision), which Seaboard had bought earlier that year. Seaboard extended the line east to Mulberry and Bartow in 1912. In 1914, the Seaboard Air Line built track from just east of Bartow (at a point known historically as Pembroke Junction) south through

to the now-defunct Coronet Pembroke Mine. This segment would become known as the Pembroke Spur. By 1916, Seaboard would extend the line from Bartow (Pembroke Junction) east to

, Alcoma, Hesperides, and Walinwa. At Walinwa, the line connected to the Kissimmee River Railway which continued east to Nalaca where it served a

turpentine Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthine, terebenthene, terebinthine and, colloquially, turps) is a fluid obtainable by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Principall ...

mill. Due to this extension, the junction at the main line in Plant City was named Lake Wales Junction (which the junction is still named today). Seaboard built the Valrico Cutoff in 1925 which connected the Seaboard main line at Valrico with the track at Welcome Junction. The Valrico Cutoff was built to shorten the distance from Mulberry to

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

. Seaboard then designated the line as the Valrico Subdivision. The Valrico Cutoff also crossed Seaboard's Sarasota Subdivision at Durant which also shortened the distance from Tampa to

Sarasota Sarasota () is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Tampa Bay area, and north of Fort Myers and Punta Gorda. Its official limits include Sarasota Ba ...

. The original track north to

Plant City Plant City is an incorporated city in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States, approximately midway between Brandon and Lakeland along Interstate 4. It is part of the Tampa Bay area. The population was 39,764 at the 2020 census. Despite ma ...

was later considered a branch of the Valrico Subdivision. Passenger service would also operate on the Valrico Subdivision. Seaboard would operate the ''Cross Florida Limited'' over the line, which was one of the first rail services to connect Tampa and Miami directly. The ''Cross Florida Limited'' ran from Tampa ran to Plant City before turning south to Welcome Junction. It then ran the Valrico Subdivision to West Lake Wales, where it continued down the

Miami Subdivision The Seaboard Air Line Railroad's Miami Subdivision was a railroad line in Florida connecting the network to the city of Miami, Florida, Miami. Officially beginning in Wildwood, Florida, Wildwood on the company's Main Line (Seaboard Air Line Rail ...

(which was built in the 1920s). The ''Cross Florida Limited'' would also have passenger stops in Mulberry and Bartow. The Mulberry depot still stands and is now a phosphate museum.

Mergers

In 1967, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad merged with the

to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. In the Seaboard Coast Line era, the Valrico Subdivision continued to be designated on the line from Valrico east through Bartow and West Lake Wales. Track east of West Lake Wales was redesignated as the Lake Wales Subdivision. Track was removed between Bartow and West Lake Wales by 1982.Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Jacksonville Division and Tampa Division Timetable (1982)
/ref> Remaining track east of West Lake Wales is now operated by the Florida Midland Railroad. 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

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 ...

Homeland to Bowling Green

Track from the Pembroke Spur in Homeland south to

became part of the Valrico Subdivision in the 1980s. This segment was previously part of the

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 ...

(later known as the Fort Myers Subdivision after the merger). This segment was built in 1886 by Atlantic Coast Line predecessor, the

Florida Southern Railway The Florida Southern Railway was a railway that operated in Florida in the late 1800s. It was one of Florida's three notable narrow gauge railways when it was built along with the South Florida Railway and the Orange Belt Railway. The Florida ...

, making it the oldest trackage of the current Valrico Subdivision. The Fort Myers Subdivision was abandoned north of Homeland and south of Bowling Green in the late 1980s with the remaining segment being annexed to the Valrico Subdivision. The Atlantic Coast Line's former passenger depot in Fort Meade still stands along the line, and the Bowling Green depot stands about a hundred yards south of the end of the track.

Milepost numbers

Despite being a continuous line today, the milepost numbers on the Valrico Subdivision are not continuous throughout and remain as they originally were under predecessor companies (the Atlantic Coast Line and the Seaboard Air Line). The segment from Valrico to Welcome Junction (the Valrico Cutoff) is numbered independently from the rest of the line since that was the last track segment to be built. It is numbered SZ 0.0 through SZ 11.8. From Welcome Junction east to Bartow, the mileposts are numbered SV 834.2 through SV 851.1 (numbering which continues from the Plant City Subdivision). When the line turns south on to the former Seaboard Pembroke Mine spur in Bartow, the numbering continues with the prefix SVE since the SV prefix continued along the former east continuation to West Lake Wales. In Homeland, where the line transitions to the former Atlantic Coast Line track, the mileposts abruptly change at approximately SVE 857.3 to AX 870.8 reflecting the Atlantic Coast Line numbering. The end of the line today is at milepost AX 882.7 in Bowling Green.

Historic Seaboard Air Line stations

References

{{Reflist CSX Transportation lines Seaboard Air Line Railroad Transportation in Hillsborough County, Florida Transportation in Polk County, Florida Transportation in Hardee County, Florida