Does anyone know what route the ACL was planning to use to extend into Miami in the 1920's?

-- Roy Bower (RBower5697@aol.com), February 11, 1998

Answers

Hi Roy. According to my copy of RAILS 'NEATH THE PALMS by Robert W. Mann, ACL's Miami extension started as a cutoff between Sarasota and Ft. Ogden (near Arcadia), which actually was built and was used as a shortcut between Tampa and the lower Fla west coast. Further surveys were done between Ft. Ogden and Palmdale 35 miles east on the Haines City-Everglades (City) line. A connection was made with the Moore Haven & Clewiston RR, (which was later absorbed into the ACL).

The ACL met up with the FEC (from South Bay) at Lake Harbor at the bottom of Lake Okeechobee. From here, a joint rail line was to head south along the canal to Miami. Some grading had reportedly begun when the Florida land boom busted (1929, I think), and that ended the idea for the Miami extension. Most likely, the intended route was what is now US highway 27 south to Miami, as this follows the canal, and would have been the most sensible rail route. Following US-27, this leads directly to the SAL line to its' (original) Miami passenger depot. Of course, ACL's trains ended up there by Jan. 1963 anyway, thanks to the FEC strike. Hope this info has been some help. R.V.

-- Bob Venditti (bobvend@bellsouth.net), February 13, 1998.