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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 Steam2011-07-17s-L 1919 0-6-0T H. K. Porter Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal Railway Static display
104 Cummer-train-104-828x466 1920 2-6-2 Baldwin Locomotive Works Cummer & Sons Cypress Company Static display
3749 180830RRMUSEUM6 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 Florida-rr-museum-02-390x219 US Navy GE 44-ton switcher General Electric Out of service
1633 Alco rs3 Seaboard Air Line RS-3 American Locomotive Company Out of service
1822 22floridarr61 Sunny Point Military Ocean Terminal GP-7 Electro-Motive Diesel Stored
1835 246371032 4839045786113595 7756302975124452676 n Sunny Point Military Ocean Terminal GP-7 Electro-Motive Diesel In service
204 Maxresdefault204 Santa Fe CF7 Electro-Motive Diesel In service
251 92526457 3161292363888954 7067084521941762048 n International Minerals & Chemicals Company S-2M American Locomotive Company In service
61 Images-17 Cargill Corporation NW5 Electro-Motive Diesel Static display
8330 Dsc03042 Illinois Central Railroad GP-10 Electro-Motive Diesel Back In service
8604 4049271787 5cace3ebba z Pennsylvania Railroad RS-3 American Locomotive Company Stored
904 34517406426229082513922202545627n 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.
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