ACL/SAL Seaboard Airline Info Needed

Hi...just joined the group in order to aid me in building my model railroad. I’ve done a lot of research since childhood and have some questions.
1) where can I find some pics of the Wildwood Depot? I’d like to scratch build it, but am missing a track and west side pic.
2) what passenger service ran between Wildwood and Leesburg Florida




Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Check out the Barriger Library's SAL photos at [ https://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/albums/72157640356967466 ]. You might find something there, though I think the ACL photo file is more extensive.

You might also check out the Hathitrust site and look for old Official Guides for passenger timetables, though the Guides on line (many from the late 1800s to early 1900s) may be older than you seek. [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.19008249;view=1up;seq=1] Ignore the Page Not Available note and page forward to get to the Guide. This one is from 1910.

I'll bet that you're a member of the ACL/SAL Historical Society, but if not, they're at [ http://www.aclsal.org/ ] and are a first-rate organization that could likely help.

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Thank You....I joined the Historical Society last week and will look at the sites you suggest.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Hi herendeen, for the fun of it, I checked one of my Guides and as of October1, 1944, the SAL operated a daily mixed train between Wildwood and Orlando that passed through Leesburg. Train 607 left Wildwood at 7:00 AM and arrived at Orlando at 10:30 AM. Train 608 left Orando at 8:00 PM and arrived back in Wildwood at 11:00 PM. The branch continued east through Orlando 16.6 Miles to Lake Charm, but that segment was freight only.

This service continued to exist without change on December 17, 1953. Sometime between '53 and March 1966, the mixed service was replaced by Southern Greyhound Line buses.

 

Awesome. In 1971 on the way to WDW...my Dad took me to either Wildwood or Leesburg to watch the train come through. Dad had rode to Leesburg in WWII. I’m not sure of the train we saw, but it was long and silver. We were on the platform and it rounded a curve into town. As it approached, it had a gyrating light and blasted by the station and came to a stop farther down the tracks. Dad passed away in 1999 and this moment has stuck in my head ever since.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Nice memory to hold. My Dad told me that upon arrival on an SAL train in Richmond, he phoned for a taxi and mentioned the Seaboard Air Line. The taxi went to the airport.

The SAL was a fascinating railroad, assembled in 1900 from nineteen lines acquired by John Skelton Williams. In the teens it expanded and engineered improved lines like the low-grade East Carolina (the 'EC') along the coast that took through freight off the original twisty and longer mainline route through Columbia, SC. The SAL always seemed to operate in the shadow of the wealthier ACL and put up a good fight throughout.

Quite the generous geographic license with this map, right? Too bad the SAL wasn't quite this straight .......