Tuesday, July 26, 2016

FIRE aboard Sanford & Lake Eustis Railroad

While departing TAVARES bound for SANFORD, a fire destroyed a ‘JT&KW’ engine pulling rail cars branded ‘Sanford & Lake Eustis Railway. The 1888 fire soon setoff far more than a blaze, as in addition to destroying an engine, a blame game ensued.

Litigation arising out of the April 9, 1888 fire led to depositions and court appeals, archives having an unexpected positive outcome – HISTORY!

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Now a phantom train, surveying for ‘Sanford & Lake Eustis Railway’ had begun in 1885. The train’s path included present day ghost towns PAOLA and MARKHAM, but provided service as well as for present day Lake County communities of SORRENTO and MOUNT DORA. Each of these place names were 19th century depots on an Orange County train, running east-west between towns Sanford and Tavares.

The Road to MARKHAM
A Seminole TRAIL today; one-time RAIL route of S&LE

The 1888 fire litigation cited four early railroads: (1) Sanford & Lake Eustis; (2) Tavares, Apopka & Gulf Railroad; (3) Peninsular Land, etc., Co.; and the Plaintiff, (4) Jacksonville, Tampa & Key West Railroad.

Peninsular Land, Transportation & Mfg. Co. was a TAVARES-based consortium led by Louisiana native, Alexander St. Clair ABRAMS. The Abrams organization had been very specific of its intentions to build hotels, construct railroads, and grow oranges in and around their town of Tavares. Peninsular was the parent company of: Tavares, Orlando & Atlantic Railroad (See Part 5); Tavares, Apopka & Gulf Railroad (See Part 9 next week); and the subject of this week’s Blog, the Sanford & Lake Eustis Railway.

Sanford and Tavares were competing by the mid-1880s for the coveted title of Gateway to central Florida, cities then part of Orange County. Sanford was promoting itself as the Gateway to Orange County, where trains connected with steamboats traveling the St. Johns River. Tavares likewise marketed itself as a gateway hub, where local railroads connected with mainline railroads traveling to all points north.

Sanford & Lake Eustis Railway planned to connect the two strategic hubs. But by 1887, another land based railroad began working its way south from Jacksonville. This new player in the railroad industry set its sights on a stop at the port town of Sanford.

Jacksonville, Tampa & Key West pre-dated Flagler’s east coast train, and as its name implies, the railroad envisioned a train running the length of Florida. To expand on its system, JT&KW chose to lease the Sanford & Lake Eustis Railway, paying a 2 1/2% royalty to the Abrams group on all passenger and freight revenues.

This idea of leasing an existing train, as opposed to building their own line, introduced a new concept to the central Florida railroad industry.

JT&KW Railroad lost their lawsuit, but facts reported in that suit document for history the early organizations of several of the earliest central Florida railroads.

Alexander St. Clair Abrams organized three railroads, each based out of Tavares, trains planning to connect the Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Ocean and the port at Sanford with a new State Capitol located at their hub, Tavares.

At least two overwhelming events prevented the Abrams plan from ever becoming a reality, events beginning with Florida’s Yellow Fever Scare of 1887, and followed up by the Great Freeze of 1894-95.

Plans of the Jacksonville, Tampa & Key West Railroad likewise faltered, largely because of the first event, the Yellow Fever Scare. By the mid-1890s the JT&KW had fallen into receivership, mainly because of a lack of cash.

Today, much of the right-of-way for the phantom Sanford & Lake Eustis Railway has disappeared. A short stretch does exist today, an isolated shady trail sitting along the north side of Markham Road, west of Orange Boulevard, in Seminole County.

Stay tuned for a new RAILS & TRAILS, and another GHOST TOWN or two, returning Wednesday, August 3, 2016. This summer series is sponsored by ‘Ghost Towns & Phantom Trains,’ a historical novel based on real-life Central Florida pioneers, and one historic 1894-95 devastating event that forever changed the Orange Belt.

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This summer, Central Florida Railroad Museum, in historic Winter Garden, the Winter Garden History Center, and Bookmark it Orlando book stores, have each priced this book at a Rails & Trails special price of $15.00.

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