That’s all, folks!

What I find interesting is the variety and variability of the CSX train horns, as “performed” by different engine drivers. Some are long and rude; some seem normal and reasonable; one driver is an “artiste” and plays the horn like a musical instrument. I enjoy it when he comes through, ‘though he’s always going east; maybe he rides shotgun going west.

Late one night I was watching a tree frog hiding under leaves in a depression in the ground. Coming from the east was a train–at night you can hear them blowing from Weems Road on into town–and every time the horn would blow, the frog would stick its head out of the leaves and answer back! I laughed my *** off.

If you run across one of those 1890 maps of Tallahassee, look at the railroad; same then as now. And on the south side of the All Saints District there’s the one block Seaboard Street; Seaboard was absorbed into what is now CSX.

The old freight depot, just east of Stone Valley, now is used for County Offices, including a very nice meeting room; the Tallahassee Film Society weekly shows films in what was the Amtrack ticket office. Amtrack hasn’t come through since Katrina, and even then the ticket office was only open half an hour before the passenger train came through. Here’s the text of the historical marker in front of the old depot on Railroad Street:

Title: JACKSONVILLE, PENSACOLA AND MOBILE RAILROAD
Location:
County: Leon
City: Tallahassee
Description: The Jacksonville, Pensacola and Mobile Railroad Company Freight Depot, built in 1858, is one of the oldest railroad buildings in Florida and the oldest still used as a passenger rail station. The one-story depot was built when Tallahassee was the center of Floridas cotton trade. By 1885 the two-story addition was added. Middle Florida (now North Florida), with its rich agriculture lands, grew rapidly in the 19th century. By 1890, Leon County was the top producer of livestock, sweet potatoes, corn and cotton in the state. With cotton in great demand, Tallahassee was the regions commercial hub, shipping 16,686 bales of ginned cotton in 1860. Wagons brought the cotton from local plantations to be processed. It then went by rail to the coast for shipping. A new rail line between Pensacola and Jacksonville provided access to ports and made transporting both freight and passengers easier. In 1905 a passenger station was built across from the original one. It was used continuously until 1971 when, for the first time in 113 years, passenger service ended. Tallahassee was a freight only stop until 1992 when passenger services resumed, with the old freight depot used as the passenger station.

Leon County Historical Markers