Tampa Northern Railroad

Tampa Northern Railroad

Abandonded Tampa Northern Railroad Tower just east of Ybor City. It was built in 1959 replacing an earlier wooden tower. The towers were built to govern the crossing of the Tampa Northern Railroad and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad mainline. It has become obsolete due to more advanced rail signalling. The tower was abandoned around 1984 but still stands.[1]
Reporting mark	TN
Dates of operation	1908–1913
Successor	Seaboard Air Line Railroad
Track gauge	4 ft 8 ^1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The Tampa Northern Railroad was a historic railroad line running from just east of downtown Tampa north to the city of Brooksville in Hernando County. The line continues to operate today and is under the ownership of CSX Transportation.^[2][3]

The Tampa Northern Railroad began just southeast of downtown Tampa at Hooker's Point, where it had its own terminal facilities. From there it proceeded north, crossing the main lines of both the Seaboard Air Line Railroad and Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in Gary, just east of Ybor City. Continuing north, the line goes through Sulpher Springs, Lutz, Land O' Lakes, and Masaryktown and into Brooksville.^[4]

History

Tampa Northern Railroad was one of the three original users of Tampa Union Station along with the Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line Railroads

Tampa Northern Railroad (CSX's Brooksville/Clearwater Subdivisions)
Legend former SAL to Archer SR 789.2 Broco SR 797.8 Brooksville former ACL to Pemberton Ferry SR 806.8 Ayers SR 817.0 Fivay Brooksville Subdivision Clearwater Subdivision Clearwater Subdivision west SY 848.6 Sulphur Springs I-4 CSX A-Line TN Tower SY 843.5 Gary Tampa Terminal Subdivision to Hooker's Point

The Tampa Northern Railroad was incorporated on April 7, 1906 by Henry M. Atkinson of Atlanta. Atkinson intended for the line to evenually extend to Thomasville, Georgia and connect with his Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic Railroad, which would create a direct rail route between Tampa and Atlanta, which never happened. The line was completed in 1908.^[5] In Brooksville, the Tampa Northern connected to a now abandoned Atlantic Coast Line Railroad branch from Pemberton Ferry (known today as Croom).^[6]

The Tampa Northern Railroad was one of three railroad that served Tampa Union Station when it was first built in 1912, along with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and the Seaboard Air Line. The Tampa Northern was bought out by Seaboard later that year. Seaboard would extend tracks from Archer and Inverness south to connect with the Tampa Northern line in Brooksville in 1925, creating a through route to northern Florida (though, track north of Brooksville was abandoned in the late 1980s). The line today ends just north of Brooksville in Broco.^[7]

Both Seaboard and the Atlantic Coast Line are today part of CSX Transportation, who continues to operate the former Tampa Northern line. It is CSX's Brooksville Subdivision from Sulphur Springs to the northern terminus in Brooksville. From Sulphur Springs south to Downtown Tampa, it is CSX's Clearwater Subdivision, which also continues east from Sulphur Springs to Clearwater and St. Petersburg along the former Tampa and Gulf Coast Railroad. The spur south to Hooker's Point is today discontinuous from the rest of the Tampa Northern Line, but is part of CSX's Tampa Terminal Subdivision.

In 2015, CSX proposed to sell both the Clearwater and Brooksville subdivisions (which would include the entire former Tampa Northern line) to the Florida Department of Transportation for potential use as commuter rail. FDOT is currently studying this possibility. Similar transactions between FDOT and CSX have taken place in the Miami and Orlando areas for tracks that today run the Tri-Rail and SunRail commuter lines respectively.^[8]

References

1. Tampa's original wood frame TN Tower
2. http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/B2-Brooksville_Sub CSX Brooksville Sub
3. CSX Jacksonville Division Timetable
4. "First Railroads in Tampa". Tampa Bay Trains. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
5. Prince, Richard (2000). Seaboard Air Line Railway: Steam Boats, Locomotives and History. Salt Lake City, UT: Wheelwright Lithographing Company. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
6. Turner, Gregg (2003). A Short History of Florida Railroads. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-2421-4.
7. Turner, Gregg M. (2005). Florida Railroads in the 1920s. Arcadia Publishing.
8. Johnston, Caitlin. "CSX's offer finally opens the door to commuter rail in Tampa Bay". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 24 October 2016.