I was looking at some recent Satelite images of the Bradenton Florida area. and to my surprise the Old SAL/SCL Station depot was gone!! I know CSX was using it for Crew Office/Signal Dept…ect a few years back. but what happen to it?
Also like to know if the Seminole Gulf travels to the Tropicana Yard to Interchange or if a switcher goes south to Sarasota or Ft, Myers if so where is the SGRR interchange point with CSX is it a Siding in Sarasota…?
Thanks in Advance
spent many of times as a 12yr old in the Bradenton area in the early 70’s watching 100’s of trains, Cab rides and Juice trian Action.
I drove past it this March while hoping to see a juice train. It is now some sort of private business. The name slips my mind. Never did see the juice train either, maybe next year.
You mention the SAL/SCL station in Bradenton but I believe you really meant the former ACL station which was located just north of Manatee Ave. at the south end of the Manatee River trestle. It’s been about 10 years since I was last down that way and the building was still standing then but no longer served as a RR station and, as I recall, was occupied by a private business. I don’t know its status today.
The SAL crossed the Manatee River on their own trestle about 2/3 mile east of the ACL’s. The SAL station was a brick building about 2 blocks south of Manatee Ave. Just south of the station a stub track ran west for about a mile and ended at the SAL freight house which was located 2-3 blocks south of the Manatee County Court House. Shortly after the two roads merged to become the SCL, the former SAL trestle was demolished though segments of the ex-SAL line both north and south of the Manatee River remained in operation to serve local customers.
Today the CSX operates on former ACL trackage from Tampa to Oneco (just south of Bradenton) where the Tropicana juice trains originate. The Seminole Gulf interchanges with the CSX at Oneco and runs south from there over a combination of former ACL and SAL trackag
The Seminole Gulf no longer goes to Venice…the trestle burned several years ago and was never replaced (there were only 2 customers and they moved their unloading operations, and truck their supplies to their plants). All trackage south of the trestle has been taken up, with the exception of a small segment in front of the Venice depot (which has been refurbished and is now the hub of the county bus system)
Thanks for the replys Im actually a Engineer for CSX up here in Massachusetts On the Albany Service Lane. I started with Conrail and shortly after the Merger was promoted to engineer.
I even worked for the Bay Colony the Sister Railroad of the SGRR on the Trash Train up here for a year before moving on to the New England Central and then got the call to go to Conrail.
Would the trestle that burned be the one just north of Nokomis? My old OG’s show the following SAL MP’s; Sarasota - 68.4, Bee Ridge - 75.0, Osprey - 79.9, Nokomis - 86.3 and Venice - 87.6. Does the SG still operate south of Sarasota and if so to which of the above points?
I recall that the SAL once had a stub that ran west from the “main line” crossing US 41 around 7th St. in Palmetto. This ran to what was maybe a 4-6 track yard on the west edge of Palmetto where they stored empty reefers that would be pulled out as needed and delivered to the many packing houses up and down their line to be loaded with citrus and vegetables. Do you have any knowledge of that stub line and when it and the little yard it served was abandoned? I’d guess it was sometime in the 50’s when the shipment of produce largely went from rail to truck. I remember my aunt who lived in Bradenton telling of the time in the 30’s when she and my uncle almost got hit at that crossing while driving through Palmetto on US 41. It never had anything but a grade crossing sign and train crews were supposed to flag over the crossing. My uncle who was driving was a pretty heaver drinker and may well have had a snoot full at the time and either failed to see or heed the flagman.