Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad
The Pensacola and Atlantic Railroad (P&A) was an American railroad company in the freight traffic. The company was founded on March 4, 1881. Two years later, they opened the approximately 260 km long railway line from Pensacola eastwards to the Apalachicola River near Chattahoochee . The founders of the company were William D. Chipley and Frederick DeFuniak ; two towns along the route ( Chipley and DeFuniak Springs ) were named after them in their honor. In 1891 the P&A was taken over by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N).
history
The line opened up the Florida Panhandle for the first time and, together with the Florida, Atlantic and Gulf Central Railroad (FA&G) opened in 1860 and the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad (P&G) built in 1863, created a connection from Pensacola to the Atlantic coast , from which the name of the company is derived .
William Chipley was the managing director of Pensacola Railroad prior to founding P&A . Their predecessor companies were the Pensacola and Louisville Railroad and originally the Alabama and Florida Railroad (A&F). In 1861 the A&F opened a 71 km long connection from Pensacola northwards to Pollard in Alabama , which was largely funded by Chipley , where a connection to the L&N was made. On October 20, 1880, the Pensacola Railroad became a subsidiary of L&N, whose managing director was Frederick DeFuniak.
When P&A was founded, DeFuniak became its President and Chipley became its Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. On May 9, 1881, L&N acquired the majority of the capital shares in the company and finally took it over completely in 1891.
Construction on the Pensacola to Apalachicola River stretch officially began on June 1, 1881 and was completed within 22 months. For this purpose, the building material and locomotives were transported to two places: on the one hand via the Pensacola Bay and the Blackwater River to Milton and on the other hand via the Choctawhatchee River to today's Caryville . In the meantime, the progress of construction was hampered by the outbreak of malaria. Another general problem was the difficult supply of construction workers in the extremely sparsely populated area. On August 22, 1882, the longest bridge structure on the route, a 4-kilometer trestle bridge over Escambia Bay , was inaugurated.
In February 1883 the route to the west bank of the Apalachicola River was completed and in April a bridge to Chattahoochee on the east bank was finally opened. By the time the bridge was opened, ferry services across the river had been set up for passengers.
The line was originally built as a broad-gauge railway (1524 mm) and converted ten years later into standard gauge (1435 mm).
Line operation
Operations on the route from Pensacola via Tallahassee to Chattahoochee (until 1941: River Junction) began in the first week of May 1883. A branch from River Junction to Climax , Georgia was opened in 1882 by the Savannah, Florida and Western Railroad , creating a link between the P&A and the Plant System . On the P&A mainline, direct connections from Pensacola to Jacksonville on the east coast of Florida were established from the start. The existing route of the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad and its predecessor companies were used between Chattahoochee and Jacksonville .
The average speed on the Pensacola - Chattahoochee route in 1885 was 42 km / h eastwards and 51 km / h westwards, which meant a journey time of about six hours.
In 1882 the Pensacola and Fort Barrancas Railroad , which had operated a branch from Pensacola to Fort Barrancas since 1870 , became part of the P&A.
Further development
In 1894, the Yellow River Railroad (which became part of the L&N in 1906) opened a branch from Crestview to Florala , Alabama . Other links were made with the Atlanta and St. Andrew's Bay Railway , with the Apalachicola Northern Railroad and with the Marianna and Blountstown Railroad .
The Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad (section Chattahoochee - Jacksonville) became part of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) in 1903 , which in turn merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL) to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (SCL) in 1967 . The SCL finally merged with L&N in 1982 to form Seaboard System Railroad , which was now the owner of the entire line from Pensacola to Jacksonville.
In 1952 a branch to Eglin Air Force Base was built. A planned route from Crestview to Shalimar was not realized.
From 1949 to 1971 the line was operated by the long-distance train Gulf Wind from L&N and from 1993 to 2005 by the Sunset Limited of the Amtrak railway company . The latter originally ran from Orlando , Florida to Los Angeles , California . However, after the effects of Hurricane Katrina , the line was shortened to the New Orleans - Los Angeles route. The only rail transport on the route of the former P&A has since consisted of goods transports, which are carried out by the railway company (and owner of the route) CSX Transportation .
Interstate 10 and US Highway 90 run parallel to the railway line, sometimes within sight .
literature
- Gregg Turner: A Short History of Florida Railroads. Arcadia Publishing , Mount Pleasant 2014, ISBN 978-1-439642-54-2 .