When was service on the ex-ACL branch to Immokalee terminated? When was the line taken up? Was this before or after SCFE took over the line to Palmdale and Lake Okeechobee? Were there any actual customers on the Immokalee line who had to switch to trucks when rail service was stopped? Is there development in that area today that makes CSX or SCFE wish that the line were still in place?

-- bob lowry (rlowry98@aol.com), January 07, 2001

Answers

The 1987 date given seems about right. By then,CSX had decided to get out of the railroad business in Southwest Florida, and anything that was not in use was being taken up and hauled away. 1987 was the year Seminole Gulf started up, and by then the Imokkalee branch was gone. SCFE came along later.

-- Bill Donahue (BillD53A@aol.com), July 07, 2001.

My CSX timetable dated June, 1987 shows the Immokalee branch (at this time ending at Keri) as part of the system. I can recall the grade crossing on route 29 near Harrisburg being extant in the 1983 to 1985 timeframe but the track seemed very lightly used. I am certain the track was gone by 1994 as I drove out one day to Keri to look for it and could hardly discern the old right of way. The American Shortline Railway Guide states that the SCFE started operations in June 1990 so it is possible that the Immokalee branch was still in place at that time but I tend to doubt it. I would guess that there is not development in the area to justify rail service today.

-- dave alberti (davealb@mediaone.net), July 05, 2001.

If you are intrested, I will see if I can get a pic of it for you.

-- Waddy Thompson (cthomp3851@aol.com), January 11, 2001.

Another thing about this, I know a story about the "Immokalee" sign from the old railway station at Immok. While the building was on fire, my now deceased friend James Hodges, climed the building and removed the sign from the south end of the building, and had it hanging in front of his home for years. Sometime a few years back, that house burned down, and they gave it to one of his friends, whose house also burned down. He still has it, but I can't remember if it is hanging in front of his current home.

-- Waddy Thompson (cthomp3851@aol.com), January 09, 2001.

I think that the last things that I remember being shipped in and out from the Immok. area were propane and vegetables in reefers. Just north of Immok. at Keri, they loaded pulpwood and stumps until they took out the tracks. After the freight station burned, not too much was shipped out except rock from Sunniland.

-- Waddy Thompson (cthomp3851@aol.com), January 09, 2001.