Sad news. It looks as if another landmark is coming down. Sigh.

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/08/07/Northpinellas/Train_depot_reaches_e.shtml

-- Jeff Gerlach (jgerlach@trainsofthought.com), August 07, 2003

Answers

More web research, from the Tampa/Hillsborough County Public Library archive, which is indexed at: http://www.lamartin.com/burgert/index.htm

As-built photo of the "new" SAL station, 1924: http://zerver.thpl.lib.fl.us/archive06/1871.jpg

And a 1922 photo of (what is apparently) the third ACL line station, this one on Cleveland Street: http://zerver.thpl.lib.fl.us/archive06/1857.jpg

-- Jeff Gerlach (jgerlach@trainsofthought.com), August 13, 2003.

Below are some annotated links to photos from the Florida State Archives, regarding Clearwater's train stations.

Interestingly, both of Clearwater's railroads (ACL and SAL predecessors, respectively) called themselves the "Orange Belt," at their origins, although the SAL's proxy, the Tampa and Gulf Coast, use "Orange Belt Route" as an informal knickname on its locomotives, whereas the ACL-predecessor Orange Belt Railway, used the name formally.

The Orange Belt Railway arrived first, in 1888, from Sanford, and the Clearwater depot (http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/prints/pr01775.jpg) clearly shows the railway's promoter, Peter Demen's, Russian heritage.

In what appears to be the same location, a 1910 photo shows a new, or heavily reconstructed, depot has taken its place (http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/prints/pr01764.jpg).

The Tampa and Gulf Coast was extended to St. Petersburg, via Clearwater in 1913-1914, and this 1922 photo shows what may be the original station (http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/reference/rc03476.jpg).

The station now being demolished is a 1926 SAL replacement, shown here in a 1996 photo (http://www.clearwater- fl.com/cpl/depot1996.html).

According to Bob Warren, posting on the Floridarailfan Yahoo Group site, the first SAL station was converted to a freight station and torn down (fairly recently one presumes) for a police department parking lot.

-- Jeff Gerlach (jgerlach@trainsofthought.com), August 10, 2003.

This was the SAL station and there was a ACL station someplace in Clearwater. There was a train station at Belleair. Now that leaves two stations we are looking for. There had to be an "Orange Belt" station. Was this the first and only SAL depot?

-- Dick Kearns (kearnsrh@aol.com), August 08, 2003.

Larry,

Yes this is (was) the ex-SAL station.

-- Jeff Gerlach (jgerlach@trainsofthought.com), August 08, 2003.

Comparing photos, this appears to be the ex-Seaboard station pictured on the November page of our 2003 calendar - can anyone confirm?

-- Larry Goolsby (clgoolsby@att.net), August 07, 2003.

Does anyone have information on the five old time railroad stations in the City of Clearwater, Florida referred to in the article in the St. Petersburg Times dated August 7, 2003.

-- Dick Kearns (kearnsrh@aol.com), August 07, 2003.