I attended Stetson U in the 60s in Deland and couple blocks south of the campus was an ACL line extending east of US17 which ended at a lumber company. There was what looked like an old station building there which was being used as a bus station at the time. Just beyond the track serving the lumber company was an abandoned trestle over a narrow road, it appeared that in earlier years the line went even farther east. Today the line ends a few blocks west of US17, not sure of who the customers are there. Who knows history of the DeLand branch, how far it used to go, and who the customers are on it today?

-- bob lowry (rlowry98@aol.com), March 22, 2000

Answers

in the early 90's within 1 mile of the junction w the jax-sanford main was a plasics mfr of some sort that had a number of >5000 cft covered hoppers at it facility on the branch into deland

-- roger wilson (rwilson@trailerbridge.com), October 06, 2000.

This branch is an interesting piece of railroad, both because it is still owned and maintained by CSX, and because it is very steep, curvy, and scenic, quite a contrast from the mainline area. I've seen photos of steam locos switching in DeLand itself, but these are the only photos Ive ever come across. Can anyone supply other photos and history, including shots of present-day operations? This would make a great Lines South article if we could pull together some more info and photos.

Larry

-- Larry Goolsby (LGoolsby@aphsa.org), March 23, 2000.

The track in Deland, Florida, was originally built by the Orange Ridge, DeLand & Atlantic R.R., a five mile long 3ft gauge line which ran from downtown DeLand west to the St.Johns River at "DeLand Landing". The railroad opened for business during 1885. In April 1886 the company was reincorporated as the DeLand & St.Johns River R.R. and the gauge changed to five foot to allow interchange with the Jacksonville, Tampa & Key West R.R.("Tropical Trunk") which built through the area enroute to Sanford at about this time. The crossing was called "DeLand Junction". "Junction" was dropped from the name about 1901. The J.T.&K.W. was a predecessor to the ACL, providing their mainline from Jacksonville to Sanford. The two miles of the DeLand & St.Johns River west of the main line was abandoned early, since freight could go all the way by rail rather than being reloaded into boats on the St.Johns River. I hope this answers the "history" part of your query.

-- Tom Underwood (tlunder@attglobal.net), March 23, 2000.