v t e Brooksville Subdivision
Legend
Milepost to Waldo (abandoned) CSX S Line (Wildwood Subdivision) SR 690.2 Waldo SR 704.0 Gainesville I-75 Florida Northern Railroad fmr.Seaboard Air Line Railroad toCedar Key SR 730.1 Archer SR 730.1 Williston SR 737.9 Morriston SR 745.0 Early Bird SR 758.7 Dunnellon Withlacoochee River SR 775.8 Inverness fmr.Atlantic Coast Line Railroad toLakeland SR 788.3 Lake Lindsey SR 789.2 Broco (Lake Stafford) SR 797.8 Brooksville fmr.Florida Southern Railway (ACL) toPemberton Ferry SR 806.8 Ayers SR 817.0 Fivay SR 823.5 Drexel SR 827.0 Land o' Lakes SR 829.8 Lutz I-275 SR 838.3 Sulphur Springs CSX Clearwater Subdivision
Note: Not to Scale

CSX Transportation'sBrooksville Subdivision is arailroad line in theTampa Bay region ofFlorida. Today, the line runs from theClearwater Subdivision inSulphur Springs, Florida north to a point just north ofBrooksville, a distance of 49.1 miles. Historically, the Brooksville Subdivision was owned and operated by CSX predecessor, theSeaboard Air Line Railroad. Under Seaboard ownership, the Brooksville Subdivision continued north as far asWaldo.^[1]

The Brooksville Subdivision begins inSulpher Springs just 5 miles north ofTampa. It branches off of theClearwater Subdivision, which continues south to Downtown Tampa and west toClearwater andSt. Petersburg.

From Sulphur Springs, the Brooksville Subdivision runs north parallelingU.S. Route 41, passing throughLutz,Land o' Lakes, andMasaryktown to Brooksville. The Brooksville Subdivision terminates near the Broco Quarry, less than two miles north of Brooksville.^[2][3]

Historically, the Brooksville Subdivision continued north from Brooksville throughInverness,Dunnellon, andWilliston toArcher. In Archer, it turned northeast and passed throughGainesville to its historic northern terminus inWaldo, where it connected to what is now CSX’sS Line.^[1]

Currently, the Brooksville Subdivision is only used for local freight trains with various customers along the line.^[4] It notably serves a Florida Crushed Stone Company facility in Brooksville along with aCemex facility.^[5]

Brooksville Subdivision
Overview
Owner	Seaboard Air Line Railroad
Termini	Waldo, Florida Sulphur Springs, Florida
Technical
Line length	148.1 mi (238.3 km)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)standard gauge
Electrification	No
Route map Brooksville Subdivision at its greatest extent (click to enlarge)

The line from Brooksville south toFivay Junction (near the present-day intersection ofUS 41 andSR 52) was originally built by the Brooksville and Hudson Railroad in 1902. The Brooksville and Hudson Railroad was a logging railroad owned by the Aripeka Sawmills Inc.^[6]

In 1907, the Brooksville and Hudson Railroad was bought by theTampa Northern Railroad. The Tampa Northern then built the track from Tampa to Fivay and rebuilt the Brooksville and Hudson Railroad from there to Brooksville.^[6] The line was completed in 1908.^[7] The Tampa Northern Railroad was bought by theSeaboard Air Line Railroad in 1912.^[7]

At its greatest extent, the Brooksville Subdivision extended as far north asWaldo. Track from Waldo to Archer was built in 1861 by theFlorida Railroad (later theFlorida Central and Peninsular Railroad) which also continued from Archer toCedar Key at the time. In 1890, track was built from Archer south to Early Bird as a branch track. The Seaboard Air Line bought the FC&P network in 1900, with track from Waldo to Cedar Key becoming their Cedar Key Branch.^[8] In 1911, track was extended south of Early Bird toInverness. The extension from Early Bird to Inverness ran closely parallel theAtlantic Coast Line Railroad'sHigh Springs–Lakeland Line.

In 1925, theBrooksville and Inverness Railway, a Seaboard subsidiary, was built connectingInverness with the formerTampa Northern Railroad in Brooksville. This would create an additional freight route from northern Florida to theTampa Bay region as an alternative to the Seaboard main line.^[9] Around the same time, track from Inverness to Waldo was upgraded with heavier rail, and the Seaboard main line was double-tracked from Waldo north toBaldwin which further increased capacity.^[10][11] The remaining Cedar Key Branch from Archer to Cedar Key was abandoned in 1932, the full line from Waldo to Sulpher Springs was designated as the Brooksville Subdivision. By 1940, the Seaboard was running a daily through freight train round-trip on the line.^[12]

The Seaboard Air Line became theSeaboard Coast Line Railroad in 1967 after merging with their former rival, theAtlantic Coast Line Railroad. The line initially remained intact after the merger.^[13] The Seaboard Coast Line abandoned the Brooksville Subdivision between Waldo and Brooksville in the 1970s (which nearly restored theTampa Northern Railroad's original terminus ironically) as it was largely redundant as a through route due to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's nearly parallel route as well as its own main line to Tampa. The line now ends near the Broco Quarry just north of Brooksville. Despite the abandonment, the line's SR mileposts numbers remain as they did when the full line was intact.^[3]

In 1980, the Seaboard Coast Line's parent company merged with theChessie System, creating theCSX Corporation. The CSX Corporation initially operated the Chessie and Seaboard Systems separately until 1986, when they were merged intoCSX Transportation.

• List of CSX Transportation lines
• Main Line (Seaboard Air Line Railroad)
• Clearwater Subdivision

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• Seaboard Air Line Railroad
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