Pine Castle Historical Markers - part 10

THE TRAIN STOP

The South Florida Railroad came to Pine Castle in 1881, connecting Orlando and Kissimmee with two trains a day. A trip to Orlando cost 15 cents, and the train made three stops along the way, unless additional stops had to be made for the occasional alligator or cow that had wandered upon the tracks. As the local citrus industry grew, growers found it convenient to ship fruit from the Pine Castle station.

The coming of the railroad speeded up mail delivery. Outgoing mail was put in mailbags and hooked onto a pole and picked up as the train went by, and incoming mail was thrown from the train onto a platform near the station depot.

In 1893, the Plant System purchased the South Florida Railroad and in 1902, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad acquired the Plant System. In 1967 the latter railroad merged into the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad which eventually passed to CSX. Although trains no longer stop in Pine Castle, freight and Amtrak trains still pass through daily.