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Florida East Coast Railway

The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida; in the past, it has been a Class I railroad. The FEC is renowned for building the first railroad bridges to Key West, that have since been rebuilt into road bridges for vehicle traffic and are now known as the Overseas Highway. It was originally known as the Florida Coast and Gulf Railway and then the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railway; for more information and other former railroads merged into the line, see the family tree below.

History

Henry Flagler: Developing Florida's east coast

The Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) was developed by Henry Morrison Flagler, an American tycoon, real estate promoter, railroad developer and John D. Rockefeller's partner in Standard Oil. Formed at Cleveland, Ohio as Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler in 1867, Standard Oil moved its headquarters in 1877 to New York City. Flagler and his family relocated there as well. He was joined by Henry H. Rogers, another leader of Standard Oil who also became involved in the development of America's railroads, including those on nearby Staten Island, the Union Pacific, and later in West Virginia, where he eventually built the remarkable Virginian Railway to transport coal to Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Henry Flagler's non-Standard Oil interests went in a different direction, however, when in 1878, on the advice of his physician, Flagler traveled to Jacksonville, Florida for the winter with his first wife, Mary, who was quite ill. Two years after she died in 1881, he married one of Mary's former caregivers. After their wedding, the couple traveled to St. Augustine, Florida. Flagler found the city charming, but the hotel facilities and transportation systems inadequate. He recognized Florida's potential to attract out-of-state visitors. Though Flagler remained on the Board of Directors of Standard Oil, he gave up his day-to-day involvement in the firm in order to pursue his Florida interests.

When Flagler returned to Florida, in 1885 he began building a grand St. Augustine hotel, the Ponce de León Hotel. Flagler realized that the key to developing Florida was a solid transportation system, and consequently purchased the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax Railroad (JS&H) on December 31, 1886. He also discovered that a major problem facing the existing Florida railway systems was that each operated on different gauge systems, making interconnection impossible. Shortly after purchasing the JS&H Railroad, he converted the line to standard gauge. The small operation was incorporated in 1892.

The earliest predecessor of the FEC was the narrow gauge St. John’s Railway, incorporated in 1858, which constructed a now-abandoned line between St. Augustine and Tocoi, a small settlement on the east bank of the St. Johns River, midway between Palatka and Green Cove Springs. In 1883, Henry M. Flagler, now retired from Standard Oil, moved to St. Augustine and purchased several hotels. The East Coast of Florida was relatively undeveloped at that time, and Flagler found it difficult to obtain the construction materials he needed. His purchase of the JS&H Railroad was intended to make it faster and easier to supply his building projects.

The JS&H railway served the northeastern portion of the state and was the first operation in the Flagler Railroad system. Before Flagler bought the organization, the railroad stretched only between South Jacksonville and St. Augustine and lacked a depot sufficient to accommodate travelers to his St. Augustine resorts. Flagler built a modern depot facility as well as schools, hospitals and churches, systematically revitalizing the largely abandoned historic city.

Flagler next purchased three additional existing railroads: the St. John's Railway, the St. Augustine and Palatka Railway, and the St. Johns and Halifax River Railway so that he could provide extended rail service on standard gauge tracks. Through the operation of these three railroads, by spring 1889 Flagler's system offered service from Jacksonville to Daytona. Continuing to develop hotel facilities to entice northern tourists to visit Florida, Flagler bought and expanded the Ormond Hotel, located along the railroad's route north of Daytona in Ormond Beach.

Beginning in 1892, when landowners south of Daytona petitioned him to extend the railroad 80 miles south, Flagler began laying new railroad tracks; no longer did he follow his traditional practice of purchasing existing railroads and merging them into his growing rail system. Flagler obtained a charter from the state of Florida authorizing him to build a railroad along the Indian River to Miami, and as the railroad progressed southward, cities such as New Smyrna and Titusville began to develop along the tracks.

By 1894, Flagler's railroad system reached what is today known as West Palm Beach. Flagler constructed the Royal Poinciana Hotel in Palm Beach overlooking the Lake Worth Lagoon. He also built The Breakers Hotel on the ocean side of Palm Beach, and Whitehall, his private 55-room, 60,000 square foot (5,600 m²) winter home. The development of these three structures, coupled with railroad access to them, established Palm Beach as a winter resort for the wealthy members of America's Gilded Age. Palm Beach was to be the terminus of the Flagler railroad, but during 1894 and 1895, severe freezes hit all of Central Florida, whereas the Miami area remained unaffected, causing Flagler to rethink his original decision not to move the railroad south of Palm Beach. It is said that Julia Tuttle, one of two main landowners in the Miami area along with the Brickell family, sent orange blossoms to Flagler to prove to him that Miami, unlike the rest of the state, was unaffected by the frost. To further convince Flagler to continue the railroad to Miami, both Julia Tuttle and William Brickell offered land to the Florida East Coast Canal & Transportation Company and the Boston & Florida Atlantic Coast Land Company, in exchange for laying rail tracks.

On September 7, 1895, the name of Flagler's system was changed from the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railway Company to the Florida East Coast Railway Company and by 1896, it reached Biscayne Bay at present day downtown Miami, at the time a small settlement of less than 50 inhabitants. When the town incorporated in 1896, its citizens wanted to honor the man responsible for the city's development by naming it, Flagler. He declined the honor, persuading them to retain its old Indian name, Miami. The area was actually previously known as Fort Dallas after the fort built there in the 1830s during the Second Seminole War. To further develop the area surrounding the Miami railroad station, Flagler dredged a channel, built streets and The Royal Palm Hotel, instituted the first water and power systems, and financed the town's first newspaper, the Metropolis. Flagler was a great visionary and he can be credited for the development of the entire east coast of Florida. Yet he lacked vision on at least one issue: he felt that Miami would never be more than a fishing village.

As of 1905, Flagler started what everybody considered a folly: the extension of the FEC to Key West which would later be known as The Overseas Railway, at the time considered the eighth wonder of the world and surely the most daring infrastructure ever built exclusively with private funds. The first train arrived in Key West on January 22, 1912.

Constructing the Florida East Coast Railway

The railroad south of West Palm Beach was constructed in phases by the FEC and the predecessor systems. Flagler began his railroad building in 1892. Under Florida’s generous land-grant laws passed in 1893, 8,000 acres (32 km²) could be claimed from the state for every mile (1.6 km) built. Flagler would eventually claim a total in excess of two million acres (8,000 km²) for building the FEC, and land development and trading would become one of his most profitable endeavours.

Before it became the FEC, the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Indian River was constructing a line southwards from Daytona Beach in 1894. Fort Pierce was reached on January 29, and West Palm Beach on March 22. Further extension southwards did not begin until June 1895, when a favorable deal was signed with Miami-area business interests. Fort Lauderdale was reached on March 3 of the following year. By April, the construction reached Biscayne Bay, the largest and most accessible harbor on Florida’s east coast. Flagler announced in 1905 that the FEC would be extended 128 miles to Key West over the ocean. The Overseas Extension was completed in 1912, a mere 16 months prior to Flagler’s death, at a cost of $27 million and lives of hundreds of workmen.

Key West Extension: Eighth Wonder of the World

Never one to rest on his laurels, Flagler next sought perhaps his greatest challenge: the extension of the Florida East Coast Railway to Key West, a city of almost 20,000 inhabitants located 128 miles beyond the end of the Florida peninsula. Flagler became particularly interested in linking Key West to the mainland after the United States announced in 1905 the construction of the Panama Canal. Key West, the United States' closest deep-water port to the canal, could not only take advantage of Cuban and Latin America trade, but the opening of the canal would allow significant trade possibilities with the west.

The construction of the Overseas Railroad required many engineering innovations as well as vast amounts of labor and monetary resources. At one time during construction, four thousand men were employed. During the seven year construction, five hurricanes threatened to halt the project.

Despite the hardships, the final link of the Florida East Coast Railway was completed in 1912. In that year, a proud Henry Flagler rode the first train into Key West, marking the completion of the railroad's overseas connection to Key West and the linkage by railway of the entire east coast of Florida.

FEC Through the Years

The Stock Market Crash of 1929 and subsequent Great Depression were particularly harsh on the FEC. The railroad declared banktuptcy and was in receivership by September 1931, just 18 years after Flagler’s death. Bus service began to be substituted for trains on the branches in 1932, and the Key West Extension was abandoned after the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. However, streamliners terminating in Miami nevertheless plied the rails between 1939 and 1963, including such famous trains as The Champion and The Florida Special jointly operated with the Atlantic Coast Line. Adding to the woes was the Cuban embargo, thus reducing a significant portion of FEC's revenue.

In 1961, Edward Ball, who controlled the Alfred I. du Pont testamentary trust, purchased a majority ownership of FEC, allowing the FEC to emerge from bankruptcy. That same year, a labor contract negotiation turned sour, leading to a prolonged work stoppage by non-operating unions beginning January 23, 1963, and whose picket lines were honored by the operating unions (the train crews).

Although freight trains were operated with non-Union and supervisory crews, passenger runs were not reinstated until August 2, 1965, after the city of Miami sued and it was ruled that their corporate charter required both coach and first class service. For first class accommodation, they sold "parlor car seating" in the rear lounge section of a tevern-lounge-observation car. At the insistence of the city of Miami and after the stoppage began, Miami’s wooden-constructed downtown passenger terminal was demolished on November 12, 1963. Thus, the passenger runs reinstated in 1965 only ran between Jacksonville and North Miami, as they no longer had a station in downtown Miami. With a single diesel and two streamlined passenger cars, it would continue six days a week until it was finally discontinued on July 31, 1968. Because the strike was by the non-operating unions, a Federal judge ordered the railroad to continue observing their work rules, while the railroad was free to change the work rules for the operating unions, who were technically not on strike and thus had no standing in the Federal Court regarding the strike. Thus this two car train included a Passenger Service Agent and a Coach Attendant, who were "non-operating," in addition to the operating crew, which operated all the way across three previously observed crew districts (Jacksonville to New Smyrna Beach to Fort Pierce to Miami). Following the letter of the law, the train carried no baggage, remains, mail or express; honored no inter-line tickets or passes; and the only food service was a box lunch (at Cocoa-Rockledge in 1966). On board service was limited to soft drinks and coffee.

Ed Ball controlled the Florida East Coast Railway during the strike of 1963 to 1977. In order to try to save the railroad from its decades-long state of bankruptcy, which if allowed to continue would have threatened the railroad with physical decrepitude and even partial abandonment, Ball fought ferociously for the company's right to engage in its own contract negotiations with the railroad unions rather than accept an industrywide settlement that would almost certainly be larded with egregious featherbedding and intolerably wasteful work rules. His use of replacement workers to keep the railroad running during the strike led to violence by strikers that included shootings and bombings. Eventually Federal intervention helped quell the violence, and the railroad's right to operate during the strike with replacement workers was affirmed by the United States Supreme Court. As the strike continued, the Florida East Coast took numerous steps to improve its physical plant, installed various forms of automation, and drastically cut labor costs, all to an extent that most other railroads would not succeed in matching until years later.

Flagler's heritage

In 1913, Flagler fell down a flight of stairs at Whitehall. He never recovered from the fall and died in West Palm Beach of his injuries on May 20, 1913, at 84 years of age. He was buried in St. Augustine alongside his daughter, Jenny Louise and first wife, Mary Harkness. Only his son Harry survived of the three children by his first marriage in 1853 to Mary Harkness. There is a monument to him in Biscayne Bay, and Flagler College is named after him in St. Augustine. The Florida East Coast Railway was the product of Flagler's resources and imagination. Flagler's construction of hotels at points along the railroad and his development of the agricultural industry through the Model Land Company established tourism and agriculture as Florida's major industries.

Nearly a century later, the effects of Henry Flagler's incredible accomplishments can still clearly be seen throughout Florida. Perhaps even more amazingly, as Florida is now well-known as a retirement state of preference for many Americans, Flagler accomplished these feats after retiring from his first career. Flagler had already founded and developed the vast empire of Standard Oil with partners John D. Rockefeller, Samuel Andrews and Henry H. Rogers before becoming interested in Florida. Linking the entire east coast of Florida, a state that at the time was largely an uninhabited frontier, demanded a great deal of foresight and perseverance.

The Florida Overseas Railroad, also known as the Key West Extension of the Florida East Coast Railway, was heavily damaged and partially destroyed in the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. The Florida East Coast Railway was financially unable to rebuild the destroyed sections, so the roadbed and remaining bridges were sold to the state of Florida, which built the Overseas Highway to Key West, using much of the remaining railway infrastructure. A rebuilt Overseas Highway (U.S. Route 1) following Flagler's dream, continues to provide a highway link to Key West, ending at the southernmost point in the continental United States.

FEC in modern times

The Florida East Coast Railway operates from its relocated headquarters in Jacksonville after selling the original General Office Building in St. Augustine to Flagler College in late 2006. Its trains run over nearly the same route developed by Flagler (the Moultrie Cutoff was built in 1925 to shorten the distance south of St. Augustine). Today, the company only provides freight service — passenger service was discontinued in 1968 after labor unrest that resulted in violence. However, there has been some speculation that the southern end of the FEC line may be used for a commuter rail service to complement the existing Tri-Rail line and that Amtrak may be allowed to use FEC lines for a more direct route between Jacksonville and Miami.

The FEC operations today are dominated by "intermodal" trains and unit rock (limestone) trains. The intermodal traffic includes interline shipments off CSX and Norfork Southern, participation in EMP container service operated by UP and Norfork Southern, UPS piggback trailers, trailers going to the WalMart distribution center at Ft. Pierce, and import containers through the ports of Miami, Port Everglades (Ft. Lauderdale)[the principal source of imports], Port of Palm Beach/Lake Worth Inlet, and Port Canaveral [minor, of no real consequence]. Additionally FEC offers "Hurricane Service" offering trucking companies the opportunity of having their trailers piggybacked out of Jacksonville to save the expensive cost of back-hauling empty trailers. The rock trains come out of the FEC yard at Medley, just west of Hialeah in the "Lake Belt" area of Dade and Broward Counties principally for materials dealers Titan and Rinker.

The FEC also hauls normal "manifest" freight to and from points along its right of way. These cars are hauled on whatever train is going that way, so intermodal and rock trains routinely have manifest cars in their consists. Additionally, the FEC currently transports Tropicana Products' "Juice Train" cars to and from the company's processing facility just west of Fort Pierce, Florida on the "K Line."

FEC freight trains operate on precise schedules. Trains are not held for missed connections or late loadings. Most of the trains are paired so that they leave simultaneously from their starting points and meet halfway through the run and swap crews, so they are back home at the end of their runs. The FEC pioneered operation with 2 man crews with no crew districts, which they were able to start doing after the 1963 strike.

Today the FEC is a "prime" railroad right-of-way. They have 133 pound continuous welded rail attached to concrete ties, which sits on a high quality granite roadbed. The entire railroad is controlled by centralized traffic control with constant radio communication. Because the railroad has only minor grades, it takes very little horsepower to pull very long trains at speed.

The FEC completed its "second generation" dieselization with the purchase of 49 GP40's and GP40-2's and 11 GP38-2's. These locomotives have been extensively rebuilt. In 2002, the FEC acquired 20 used ex-UP SD40-2's, which remained at the time in UP colors with FEC markings. In 2006 they purchased four SD70M-2's. The GP38-2's are used principally for yard and road switching. The others are used as available in road service. Some test runs have been made to observe the effect on fuel consumption of dynamic braking and combinations of new and old power.

For many years the company was controlled by Edward Ball, who headed the trusts set up under the will of his brother-in-law Alfred I. du Pont and associated business interests. His "Pork Chop Gang" was also a powerful force in Florida state politics. Later, after 36 years with the railroad Raymond Wyckoff took the helm on May 30, 1984, the same year that Florida East Coast Industries was made the holding company for the Railway and the Commercial Realty and Development Company, a structure which persists to this day. As of March, 2005 Robert Anestis stepped down as C.E.O. of Florida East Coast Industries after a 4 year stint, allowing Adolfo Henriquez to assume that position, with John McPherson, a long-time railroad man, continuing as president of the railway itself.

Awards and recognition

On May 16 2006, FEC was the recipient of the Gold E. H. Harriman Award for safety in Group C (line-haul railroad companies with fewer than 4 million employee hours per year).

Corporate history

The Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railway Company was incorporated under the general incorporation laws of Florida to own and operate a railroad from Jacksonville in Duval county, through the counties of Duval, St. Johns, Putnam, Volusia, Brevard, Orange, Osceola, Dade, Polk and Hillsborough.

Florida state law chapter 4260, approved May 31, 1893, granted land to the railroad. At that time, it was already in operation from Jacksonville to Rockledge, the part south of Daytona having been constructed by them. The company had just filed a certificate changing and extending its lines on and across the Florida Keys to Key West in Monroe County.

The name was changed to the Florida East Coast Railway Company on September 7, 1895.

On May 8, 2007, Florida East Coast Railway Company's parent, Florida East Coast Industries (FECI), announced that FECI would be acquired by private equity funds managed by Fortress Investment Group LLC affiliates. The transaction is valued at $3.5 billion.

Lines

Main line

Historical Brevard County Stations (North to South )

Lyrata
Scottsmoor
East Aurantia
Jones Post Office or East Mims
Titusville (Enterprise Branch begins)
Indian River City
Pritchards
Frontenac
Hardeeville
Fuastina
Sharpes
City Point
Cocoa
Rockledge
Rockledge Hotels (spur across Indian River)
Coquina
Bonaventure
Pineda
Bahia
Horse Creek
Eau Gallie
Military Park (Station at the Kentucky Military Institute)
Sarno
Melbourne
Tillman (now Palm Bay)
Malabar
Valkaria
Grant
Micco
Roseland

Bypass around Miami

Kissimmee Valley Line and cutoff (K-Branch)

FEC Kissimmee Valley Extension Map

Stations (North to South)

Maytown
Osceola
Geneva
Chuluota
Bithlo
Pocataw
Wewahotee
Narcoossee
Salofka
Tohopkee (Mail service terminated 1927 )
Holopaw
Illahaw (Mail service terminated 1935 )
Nittaw (Mail service terminated 1935 )
Kenansville

Kenansville Branch (East)

Apoxsee
Lokosee
Yeehaw
Osawa
Fort Drum Depot
Hilo (Currently known as Hilolo)
Efal
Opal
Okeechobee

Kenansville Branch (West)

Armstrong
Pine Island
Halsey
Greely
Bassinger

South of Holopaw, the line roughly parallels US 441.

Palm Beach Branch

Fellsmere Branch

Lake Harbor Branch

The Lake Harbor Branch runs from Fort Pierce in St. Lucie County to Lake Harbor in Palm Beach County.

Enterprise Branch

The Enterprise Branch (E-branch) was built in 1885 by the Atlantic Coast, St. Johns and Indian River Railroad and leased to the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railroad, part of the Plant System. Initially, the westernmost five miles served as a connection from Enterprise Junction to Enterprise, a port for steamboat traffic down the St. Johns River. Later, the line was built through Osteen, Kalamazoo, and Mims to Titusville. The Enterprise Branch also crossed the Kissimmee Valley Branch at a location known as Maytown.

A steam locomotive pulled the first train over the line onto the wharf on the Indian River at Titusville on the afternoon of December 30, 1885 and greatly accelerated the transportation of passengers, produce, seafood, and supplies to and from central Florida. While Titusville thrived thanks to this new transportation connection, Enterprise lost stature as a steamboat port, since Henry Plant's railroad paralleled the St. Johns River and greatly reduced travel times to Jacksonville.

During the winter of 1894–95, a widespread freeze hit twice, decimating the citrus crop and ruining that part of Florida's economy. This allowed Henry Flagler to acquire the line at a discount to piece together what became the Florida East Coast Railway.

The track of the E-branch has been uprooted as far as Aurantia, about five miles northwest of Mims, ending directly under the Interstate 95 overpass and has been abandoned. The crossing gates and signals were removed before the summer 2004 hurricanes and the track is being removed by a steel salvage company. As of 2008 the track has been completely removed up to the connection with the current FEC mainline.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection took ownership of the rail bed on December 31, 2007. The corridor will become Florida's longest rails-to-trails project. This rail line would have been suited to recreational railroad use by such groups as the North American Rail Car Owners' Association assuming a representative who is local to the area could have been located.

Atlantic and Western Branch

This branch, from Blue Spring on the St. Johns River via Orange City to the main line in New Smyrna Beach, was built by the Blue Spring, Orange City and Atlantic Railroad. In the mid-1880s it became the Atlantic and Western Branch of the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railway, which changed its name to the Florida East Coast Railway in 1895. It may have been the Atlantic and Western Railroad in between. The line was in use until 1930.

Tocoi Branch

The railroad from Tocoi to Tocoi Junction, outside St. Augustine, was built by the St. Johns Railway. The Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railway took it over by 1894, and changed its name to the Florida East Coast Railway in 1895. The line was abandoned by 1917; it was later used for SR 95, which became SR 214 at some time after the 1945 Florida State Road renumbering, and is now CR 214.

Moultrie Cutoff

The almost arrow-straight Moultrie Cutoff was built in 1925 to cut the distance on the main line, avoiding the swing inland to East Palatka. It runs from just north of Bunnell to Moultrie Junction in St. Augustine. In 2005 the entire route had its mileposts redone to match the rest on the main line.

Flagler Beach Branch

The railroad from Flagler Beach to Dorena, north of Bunnell, was built by the Lehigh Portland Cement Company in 1953. The line connected to the Lehigh Portland Cement Company Plant located near Flagler Beach. The line was abandoned in 1957, after a deadly strike erupted in that year that closed the massive plant. The site of the old plant was where some of the monorail beams were assembled for Walt Disney World in the early 1970s. Current plans are for the route to become part of the rails to trails system. The plant has been demolished outside of one smokestack that will become a "lighthouse" for a new development.

San Mateo Branch

Palatka Branch

The railroad from Palatka to Moultrie Junction, outside St. Augustine, was built by the The Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax River Railway. The Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railway took it over by 1894, and changed its name to the Florida East Coast Railway in 1895. The line was the main route until the construction of the Moultrie Cutoff in 1925. it was later abandoned in 1988 and all rail was removed to a point just west of I-95. In 2001 rail service resumed up to this point and track was rehabilitated when new industries were located there. A daily local serves the eastern end of the line today known as the Wilber Wright Industrial Lead.

Mayport Branch

This was originally built by the Jacksonville and Atlantic Railroad from Jacksonville to Pablo Beach (now Jacksonville Beach). It was later extended north along the coast to Mayport and taken over by the FEC.

Family tree

Florida East Coast Railway formed September 13, 1895 as a renaming of the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railroad; still exists
Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railroad - formed October 6, 1892 as a renaming of the FC&G; renamed the Florida East Coast Railway September 13, 1895

Florida Coast and Gulf Railway - formed May 28, 1892; renamed the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railroad October 6, 1892
Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax River Railway - formed February 28, 1881 as a renaming of the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax River Railroad; merged with the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railroad October 31, 1892

Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax River Railroad - formed March 1879; renamed the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax River Railway February 28, 1881

St. Augustine and Palatka Railway - formed September 1, 1885; merged with the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railroad 1893

Gauges

In 1890, the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax River Railway (the line north of St. Augustine) changed from narrow gauge to standard gauge.

References

Bramson, Seth H. (2002). Speedway to Sunshine: The Story of the Florida East Coast Railway. Boston Mills Press, Boston, MA. ISBN 1-55046-358-6.
Standiford, Les (2002). Last Train to Paradise. Crown Publishers, New York, NY. ISBN 0-609-60748-0.
Railroad history database
Rand McNally Map — 1917 showing Western Kissimmee Valley Branch