Evening In The Bone Valley
I'm getting ready to head to Florida next week and soon hope to have lots of new material but that made me think about the last time I was there a half dozen years ago. So here are a few from that last trip.
Another load of phosphate is northbound on CSXT's Brewster Sub near MP 844 passing the remains of South Bradley Yard (ex SAL) in the famed Bone Valley region of central Florida, Encompassing portions of present-day Hardee, Hillsborough, Manatee, and Polk counties, in which phosphate is mined for use in the production of agricultural fertilizer. Florida currently contains the largest known deposits of phosphate in the United States and the mining and production and distribution relies heavily on rail service. The region is the exclusive domain of CSX Transportation which maintains a complicated tangled web of lines in the region southwest of Tampa that is anchored by Mulberry Yard.
I only had the chance to visit the area for a few hours one afternoon and what it lacks in scenery it makes up for in classic older power and crazy complicated operations threading seemingly everywhere.
I don't know the symbol of this train led by a classic SD50 & SD40-2 duo. The leader was blt. Jan. 1984 as CO 8563 in Chessie System livery while the trailing unit was blt. Apr. 1979 as LN 8016 in Family Lines gray and both have kept their original numbers under the CSX banner. They are about a mile from the location known as Bradey Junction where the Brewster Sub, Achan Sub, and Agricola Spur all meet at a wye and diamond crossing. The trackage at the junction is all former Seaboard Air Line but the SAL's arch rival the Atlantic Coast Line also served the valley historically.
Bradley Junction is named for Peter Bradley of New York who was one of the fertilizer capitalists (Bradley Fertilizer Co.) that Captain LeBaron (of the US Army Corps of Engineers who first discovered the phosphate deposits in 1881) had first approached about the sand bars on the Peace River where he'd made his discovery. In May 1899, Bradley was involved in the merger of 22 fertilizer companies into the American Agricultural Chemical Co., (AGRICO) becoming vice president and a director of the new corporation.
Polk County, Florida
Sunday April 24, 2016
Evening In The Bone Valley
I'm getting ready to head to Florida next week and soon hope to have lots of new material but that made me think about the last time I was there a half dozen years ago. So here are a few from that last trip.
Another load of phosphate is northbound on CSXT's Brewster Sub near MP 844 passing the remains of South Bradley Yard (ex SAL) in the famed Bone Valley region of central Florida, Encompassing portions of present-day Hardee, Hillsborough, Manatee, and Polk counties, in which phosphate is mined for use in the production of agricultural fertilizer. Florida currently contains the largest known deposits of phosphate in the United States and the mining and production and distribution relies heavily on rail service. The region is the exclusive domain of CSX Transportation which maintains a complicated tangled web of lines in the region southwest of Tampa that is anchored by Mulberry Yard.
I only had the chance to visit the area for a few hours one afternoon and what it lacks in scenery it makes up for in classic older power and crazy complicated operations threading seemingly everywhere.
I don't know the symbol of this train led by a classic SD50 & SD40-2 duo. The leader was blt. Jan. 1984 as CO 8563 in Chessie System livery while the trailing unit was blt. Apr. 1979 as LN 8016 in Family Lines gray and both have kept their original numbers under the CSX banner. They are about a mile from the location known as Bradey Junction where the Brewster Sub, Achan Sub, and Agricola Spur all meet at a wye and diamond crossing. The trackage at the junction is all former Seaboard Air Line but the SAL's arch rival the Atlantic Coast Line also served the valley historically.
Bradley Junction is named for Peter Bradley of New York who was one of the fertilizer capitalists (Bradley Fertilizer Co.) that Captain LeBaron (of the US Army Corps of Engineers who first discovered the phosphate deposits in 1881) had first approached about the sand bars on the Peace River where he'd made his discovery. In May 1899, Bradley was involved in the merger of 22 fertilizer companies into the American Agricultural Chemical Co., (AGRICO) becoming vice president and a director of the new corporation.
Polk County, Florida
Sunday April 24, 2016