I was driving through Live Oak,FL. today on US90 west. SALs former line to Tallahassee parallels the highway for miles. West of Live Oak a "spur" crosses over US90 and enters an area south of the highway. I saw many freightcars on tracks in this area. Is this a yard? If so, who did it formerly belong to? SAL? ACL? Any info about SAL in Live Oak,FL would be appreciated. Thank you.

-- Richard Stallworth (ThisIsR@aol.com), February 10, 2001

Answers

The ACL had a small yard on the north side of Live Oak. The yard was located about one-half mile north of the existing CSX (ex-SAL) main line. The ACL yard was primarily used for the pick up and set out of hopper cars for the limerock mines located several miles north of Live Oak. Some of the abandoned mines are visible on each side of Interstate 10. The ex ACL trackage in the Live Oak area, including the yard tracks, was removed with the abandonment of the main line between DuPont, Georgia and High Springs, Florida in the l980's. The short spur line that crosses U.S. 90 on the west side of Live Oak was constructed by the Live Oak, Perry & Gulf (which was absorbed by the Southern Rwy). This section of trackage was abandoned between the northwest side of Live Oak and Brucell Jct. (on the southeast side of Perry in the early l970's in sections, as described in the earlier responses to your question. With the line's abandonment, the local customer service responsibilities on the short spur were conveyed to Seaboard System/CSX. The small metal building you saw was constructed by Southern Rwy, and is currently used by CSX. SAL never had a yard in the Live Oak area, and uses sidings for car sortings and temporary train storage while performing local switching duties in the Live Oak area. CSX currently uses two local Turns (one out of Tallahassee and the other out of Baldwin) for local switching and customer service work. Sometimes the short spur is used to store a local freight train until through freights have cleared through the area. Aaron Dowling

-- Aaron Dowling (aarondowling@cfl.rr.com), November 02, 2002.

A few comments off the top of my head without looking at my records. I agree with the previous answer that this was most likely the old Live Oak Perry & Gulf line that crossed the SAL just west of Live Oak and ran west, at its farthrest distance, a total of 74 miles to Flintrock, Fla., in Jefferson County. All the line west of Springdale (3 miles west of Perry) was abandoned in the early 1940s. In 1972 the LOP&G branch line from Mayo Jct. to Mayo, Fla., was abandoned. In 1976 the line from Live Oak to Foley Jct., 5 miles east of Perry, and entrance to Buckeye pulpmill at Foley (one mile from Foley Jct.). On the Live Oak end the track only extends about one mile west or south of the CSXT (old SAL). The last LOP&G (Southern) depot at Live Oak (Slade-see below) was a small Armco type steel building that sat just west(south) of 90 and was still there a couple of years ago. When Southern (before NS) abandoned the LOP&G, all the Live Oak tracks were conveyed to SCL, SBD (or whatever it was in 1976) including this now one mile spur. This location was a station named Slade which was an interchange point between SAL and LOP&G and also had a few industries off the spur referred to. One was a large creosote treating plant, also I believe there was an LP gas plant and maybe a fertilizer type operation or two out that way. The last I knew of it the CSXT used it for storage and the old steel depot for m/w purposes. The Slade station was a gimmick frequently used in the old days to provide a line haul division of revenue for the LOP&G on traffic to and from these industries, also for traffic routed SAL-LOP&G for Live Oak proper. There was also an SAL/LOP&G interchange in "downtown" Live Oak, connecting to SAL off the tail of the LOP&G wye. Until a year or so after Southern bought the LOP&G in 1954, LOP&G trains (mixed) originated and terminated at the SAL (old Union station-SAL-ACL-FLA-LOP&G) depot at Live Oak, backing up from the LOP&G yard (former shops, etc.) about a mile and a half into their stub track at the passenger station through the old ACL yard which is now long gone. The LOP&G scheduled arrival and departure times were from the passenger station. I don't think there's much track of any kind left north of the CSXT; i.e., the old ACL yards and mainline. The Perry end is still in operation between Foley and Perry, 5 miles, as part, along with the former South Georgia Railway, of the now Georgia & Florida Railnet. The track between Perry and Springdale has also disappeared over the years. Richard, these are ramdom thoughts and not organized at all, but probably far more than you ever wanted to know on the subject.

-- Russell Tedder (srtedder@arkansas.net), February 13, 2001.

that is most likely the former southern railway (ex live oak, perry and gulf) line from live oak to (as of latest map) dowling park FL... im not sure what is left of this line... the ACL dupont subdivision also went through this area, but all trackage south to high springs has been abandoned, and i believe only a short spur remains to the north, if that. I have not been there in some time. NS gets (got) there over trackage rights coming most likely from lake city. The yard you may have seen was very small yard where NS and CSX may have interchanged, from my map its no very big, but like i said, i have not been there in some time

-- troy nolen (kirkwood@gdn.net), February 10, 2001.