Tampa and Gulf Coast Railroad

Depot in New Port Richey

Depot built in 1924 by the Tampa and Gulf Coast Railroad in Sulphur Springs, Florida. It is currently located at Heritage Village in Largo, Florida.[2]

The Tampa and Gulf Coast Railroad was incorporated in 1909. In 1910, it acquired a logging railroad operated by the Gulf Pine Company that ran from Lutz, where it connected to the main line of the Tampa Northern Railroad, west to Gulf Pine via Lake Fern. The T&G then extended this line west to Tarpon Springs, where it terminated less than a block away from the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's Trilby–St. Petersburg Line. The extension connected with another line from Lake Villa north to Elfers and New Port Richey, which the T&G bought from J.M. Weeks and Company in 1912.[3]

In 1914, a second line was built south of the first line from Sulphur Springs, also on the Tampa Northern Railroad main line, west through what is now Oldsmar, across Tampa Bay, and through Safety Harbor to Clearwater. Just south of Clearwater in Belleair, the line crossed an Atlantic Coast Line Railroad track that was once the Orange Belt Railway and headed south. A branch to Indian Rocks Beach also existed at one point. From Belleair, the line ran south to the southeast part of the Pinellas Peninsula near Seminole. It then crossed Long Bayou and south to South Pasadena before turning east to St. Petersburg. A passenger depot existed in St. Petersburg at Ninth Street and Second Avenue.[1] During this time, a branch line was also built to connect the two T&G lines from Tarpon Junction in Rocky Creek on the line leading to Clearwater to Lake Fern on the line leading to Tarpon Springs, which allowed the T&G to abandon the segment of line between Lake Fern and Lutz.[4]

The Tampa and Gulf Coast Railroad only briefly operated as an independent company. In 1915, it was bought out by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (Seaboard bought the Tampa Northern Railroad two years prior) and continued to operate as a separate rail line until it was fully integrated with the SAL network in 1927.[5] The Seaboard Air Line would operate the line as their Tampa Subdivision, with the Tarpon Springs Branch being designated as the Tarpon Springs Subdivision. The Seaboard Air Line would extend a number of their long-distance passenger trains from Tampa to St. Petersburg along the route including the Orange Blossom Special, the Southern States Special, the Florida Sunbeam, and the New York Florida Limited.[6]

Seaboard would go on to merge with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, who operated a competing route through Pinellas County (the former Orange Belt Railway), in 1967. The resulting company after the merger was the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, who connected the two Pinellas County routes where they crossed near Belleair. The line became the westernmost segment of their Yeoman Subdivision. After the merger, passenger service was provided by the Silver Star and the Champion (which was replaced by the Silver Meteor in 1979). Though, passenger service would switch to the former Atlantic Coast Line route near Belleair to reach St. Petersburg.[7] The Tampa and Gulf Coast track from Belleair south was then used for local freight only. Passenger trains were taken over by Amtrak in 1971 and were discontinued between Tampa and St. Petersburg in 1984.

Seaboard Coast Line would become the CSX Corporation in 1980.[1] In 1986, CSX consolidated the two lines and abandoned the original Tampa and Gulf Coast Railroad from just south of Clearwater to just west of St. Petersburg. This segment is now part of the Pinellas Trail (which also continues north from Clearwater along the former Orange Belt/Atlantic Coast Line route). Some track east of 34th Street South in St. Petersburg remained as the South Side Spur until 2008, when it was also removed and became part of the Pinellas Trail.[8]

CSX continues to operate the remaining tracks of the Tampa and Gulf Coast Railroad, which is now part of their Clearwater Subdivision.[1] The Upper Tampa Bay Trail runs along some of the former right of way of the Tarpon Springs Branch.

• Seaboard Coast Line Railroad station (St. Petersburg, Florida)