On November 21, 1986, the newly-formed Florida Central Railroad Company, Incorporated leased the following lines from CSX Transportation (in three separate lease agreements):
milepost ASD-821.69 in Tavares to ASD-818.15 in EustisUmatilla Subdivision
milepost ATA-786.39 in Tavares to ATA-797.4 in SorrentoUmatilla Subdivision
milepost ST-797.5 in Tavares to ST-806.3 in TorontoOrlando Subdivision
milepost AT-785.0 in Forest City to milepost AT-799.43 in Winter GardenGroveland Subdivision and DR Subdivision (the short track south from downtown Ocoee)
milepost AT-799.43 in Winter Garden to valuation station 1501+24 in the lead to "Diamond R Fertilizer" (east of the Hennis Road crossing on the line north of Plant Street) Groveland Subdivision?
milepost ASD-818.15 in Eustis to milepost ASD-815.66 Umatilla Subdivision
milepost ASC-815.82 to milepost 819.05 in UmatillaUmatilla Subdivision
This gave them railroads going from Toronto northeast to Forest City, northwest to Tavares, where the line splits to Sorrento and Umatilla, and southwest to Winter Garden, plus a line northeast from Winter Garden to Diamond R Fertilizer. The line from Toronto southeast to Orlando was still run by CSX.
On September 28, 1990, the Florida Central Railroad leased the following line from CSX:
milepost ST-814.65 in Orlando to milepost ST-806.30 in Toronto Orlando Subdivision
On October 1, 1998, an agreement was signed between the railroad and other affected parties to abandon the line between Ocoee and Winter Garden west of Boyd Street, and the line to Diamond R Fertilizer west of 9th St, and build a new connector east of Winter Garden. This would eliminate grade crossings in downtown Winter Garden; trains had to go to the west end of downtown and then reverse direction along the other track to reach Diamond R Fertilizer. It would also allow Orange County to contruct the West Orange Trail along part of the former line to Diamond R Fertilizer.
On November 24, 2003, the Florida Central Railroad was granted an easement for a new connector track in the northwest corner at Toronto. Once this was built, the track crossing the mainline was removed, in preparation for abandoning the Forest City Branch (which is still connected via the original connector track in the southeast corner).
Currently, under the South Florida Initiative of the Ecosystem Program, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey are studying the paleoecologic changes taking place in Florida Bay in hopes of understanding the physical environment and restoring the region to a a more pristine, natural state.
Cores collected from Florida Bay are first sampled for pollen, dinoflagellates and diatoms, washed through a seive stack to remove fine-grained mud, and analyzed for bottom-dwelling, or benthic, organisms, such as mollusks, foraminifera, and ostracodes.
The railroad, built between 1905 and 1912, has significantly impacted Florida Bay by cutting off the flow of water between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.
The Illinois Central (AAR reporting mark IC), sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, was a railroad carrier in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois with New Orleans, Louisiana and Birmingham, Alabama.
The Illinois Central was officially chartered by the Illinois General Assembly on February 10, 1851.Steamtown National Historic Site, Illinois CentralRailroad number 790.
On August 10, 1972 the Illinois CentralRailroad merged with the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad to form the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad.
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