Florida Railroad Museum

The Florida Railroad Museum is a railroad museum located in Parrish, Florida. The museum operates a heritage railroad and offers round-trip tourist excursions along six miles of the former Seaboard Air Line Sarasota Subdivision in Manatee County between Parrish and Willow.
==History==
The museum was founded in 1981 as the Florida Gulf Coast Railroad Museum, and has been operating weekend excursions out of Parrish since 1992. The museum is also active in the ghost town of Willow, where it has maintenance facilities. At Willow, there is a railroad spur that leads east off of the mainline to a Florida Power & Light Company plant. CSX Transportation provides rail service to the plant. The area of Willow is accessible from Willow Road east off of US 301. The museum has a fence around its facilities at Willow and cameras for security. It has constructed a new depot at Willow within this secured property.
The railroad line that the Florida Railroad Museum uses is a very small part of a 55-mile route that was built south from Durant to Manatee County and into Sarasota with construction starting in 1895. It was first incorporated in 1902 as the United States & West Indies Railroad and Steamship Company. It became the Florida West Shore Railway on May 9, 1903. On November 4, 1909 it was acquired by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad Company. In 1967, the merger of the Seaboard Air Line and the Atlantic Coast Line created the Seaboard Coast Line.
It is open Saturdays and Sundays from 10a.m. to 4p.m. year-round. The train departs from Parrish at 11a.m. and 2p.m. on these days, and the excursions from Parrish to Willow last about an hour and a half round trip.
== List of Exhibits ==
Steam Locomotives:
Number	Images	built	Type 	Builder 	Railway 	Status
12 	 	1919 	0-6-0T	H. K. Porter 	Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal Railway 	Static display
104 	 	1920 	2-6-2 	Baldwin Locomotive Works	Cummer & Sons Cypress Company 	Static display
3749 	 	1913 	0-6-0 	Baldwin Locomotive Works	St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad (FRISCO)	Static display
;Diesel Locomotives:
Number	Images 	Heritage 	Type 	Builder 	Status
100 	 	US Navy 	GE 44-ton switcher	General Electric 	Out of service
1633 	 	Seaboard Air Line 	RS-3 	American Locomotive Company	Out of service
1822 	150x150px	Sunny Point Military Ocean Terminal 	GP-7 	Electro-Motive Diesel 	Stored
1835 	 	Sunny Point Military Ocean Terminal 	GP-7 	Electro-Motive Diesel 	In service
204 	 	Santa Fe 	CF7 	Electro-Motive Diesel 	In service
251 	 	International Minerals & Chemicals Company	S-2M 	American Locomotive Company	In service
61 	 	Cargill Corporation 	NW5 	Electro-Motive Diesel 	Static display
8330 	 	Illinois Central Railroad 	GP-10 	Electro-Motive Diesel 	Back In service
8604 	 	Pennsylvania Railroad 	RS-3 	American Locomotive Company	Stored
904 	 	GO Transit 	FP7 	Electro-Motive Diesel 	Stored
==Trivia==
*The Florida Railroad Museum is one of three Official State Railroad Museums in Florida. It became a Florida state railroad museum in 1984 when it received statutory recognition by the Florida Legislature as meeting the following four criteria: its purpose is to preserve railroad history, it is devoted primarily to the history of railroading, it is open to the public, and it operates as a non-profit organization.
*The museum also offers specials events throughout the year such as Day Out With Thomas, Pumpkin Patch Express, and North Pole Express.
*The Seaboard Coast Line would later become a part of the Family Lines System.
*This would lead to the Seaboard System and that would become a part of CSX Transportation in the 1980s, although the segment from Durant to Willow was pulled up in 1986. The line is currently part of the CSX Palmetto Subdivision's Parrish Spur. It is Class I track with jointed, 75-pound rails.
Category:Rail museums
Category:Museums
Category:United States
Category:Florida Railroad Museum