Brooksville and Inverness Railway


The Brooksville and Inverness Railway was a subsidiary of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad established during the Florida land boom of the 1920's. It oversaw the addition of a rail line between, as its name suggests, Brooksville and Inverness, Florida, to the Seaboard network.

Background and history

The Brooksville and Inverness Railway was created to connect two of the Seaboard Air Line's pre-existing routes, which would create an additional route from northern Florida via Archer to its busy Tampa terminal. Track from Brooksville south to Tampa was fully completed in 1908 by the Tampa Northern Railroad. On the other end, track from Archer to Early Bird was built by Seaboard predecessor, the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad, in 1891. The Seaboard Air Line extended this line south from Early Bird through Dunnellon and Hernando to Inverness in 1911.
The Brooksville and Inverness Railway was then completed in 1926. With the line in place, trains could now travel from the Seaboard main line at Waldo to Tampa as an alternative to the main line in addition to serving additional locations on the west coast. The Seaboard main line was also be double-tracked from Waldo to Baldwin to increase capacity.
The Seaboard Air Line merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1967, creating the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. After the merger, the line became redundant. It was abandoned and removed in the 1970's.