This abandoned railway line wyed off from an existing phosphate line in Durant, FL and ran south to Sarasota, FL--a distance of 69.7 miles. The line was constructed in 1895 and had nine stations, the major ones being Sarasota and Venice. These nine stations in order heading south are: Durant, Wimauma, Parrish, Palmetto Jct., Bradenton, Oneco, Sarasota, Bee Ridge, and Venice. A line also extended from Durant to Turkey Creek further to the North. In 1903, the first passenger train arrived in Sarasota. The line was extended into Osprey and Laurel in 1910 and in 1927 the first passenger train arrived in Venice. This was also the route of the Tropicana train up until 1967--when the Seaboard/Coastline merger occured. Most of the thru trains were discontinued at this point and were re-routed through the ACL line that currently runs between Tampa and Bradenton, although work train still serviced industries on the Sarasota sub line up until 1981. The CSX acquisition spelled doom and gloom for the Sarasota sub from Durant to Willow--the only purpose this portion of the line served was for storage of cars near Durant until early 1986 when the cars were removed--then the tracks shortly thereafter from the wye in Durant through Willow--where a spur of tracks lead into the Florida Power Plant. The Florida Gulf Coast Railroad Museum currently operates excursion trains from Parrish to Willow and the line south of Parrish to Bradenton was recently cleaned up to transport transformers to the power plant.
Thanks to Harvey Henkelmann for contributing information about this route.