page_title: Tampa Southern Railroad
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Tampa Southern Railroad / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Former Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Sarasota depot. This is an image of a place or building that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the United States of America. Its reference number is 84000957
context_page_description: The Tampa Southern Railroad was a subsidiary of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad originally running from Uceta Yard in Tampa south to Palmetto, Bradenton, and Sarasota with a later extension southeast to Fort Ogden in the Peace River valley built shortly after. It was one of many rail lines completed during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. Most of the remaining trackage now serves as CSX Transportation's Palmetto Subdivision. Another short portion just east of Sarasota also remains that is now operated by Seminole Gulf Railway.
context_section_description: The Tampa Southern Railroad was chartered on January 31, 1917, and incorporated on March 5, 1917, as a subsidiary of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL).  The officers of the new company were all ACL officers, and were reelected at several subsequent shareholders meetings. It principally competed with the Seaboard Air Line Railroad's parallel route (largely built by their Florida West Shore Railway subsidiary) that ran from Durant to Venice which was completed earlier in 1911. The Tampa Southern's crews began work soon after incorporation and the company's leadership projected that trains could be running by the start of 1918. Bradenton granted a right-of-way through its city and land for a station and other supporting structures there in early January 1918. The first train from Tampa to Palmetto ran on December 5, 1918. The railroad reached Bradenton and used it as its terminus, carrying through Pullman sleepers from connecting Atlantic Coast Line trains. The tracks were completed to Sarasota by May 1924, and the first passenger train arrived in Sarasota in December of that year.
  The Tampa Southern began at the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's Uceta Yard in Tampa and ran south, paralleling the east shore of Tampa Bay.  Just northeast of Palmetto, a loop was constructed through Ellenton to serve agricultural growers.  Known as the "Ellenton Belt Line", the now abandoned loop branched off the main line near Rubonia and ran in a roughly rectangular trajectory through Ellenton before returning to the main line in Palmetto.  A short spur to Terra Ceia, which is now abandoned, also existed near this area.
  South of Palmetto, the tracks crossed the Manatee River on a bascule bridge into Bradenton, with Bradenton's passenger depot (which still stands today and serves as a medical clinic) built just south of the bridge.  The tracks then turned southeast for a short distance and crossed the Seaboard line before turning south again and into Sarasota near Fruitville.  A spur to the Payne Terminal at Hog Creek existed just north of the Sarasota passenger depot (which was located at Main Street and School Avenue).
caption: former Sarasota depot
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