The Plant City, Arcadia, and Gulf Railroad was first built as a logging railroad in 1898 by the Warnell Lumber & Veneer Company. It connected to the
Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad in Plant City, which would become the
main line of the
Seaboard Air Line Railroad in 1900. The Seaboard Air Line bought the Plant City, Arcadia, and Gulf Railroad in 1905. They rebuilt the line and incorporated it into their network as their Plant City Branch. Shortly after, the Seaboard built track from the line at
Keysville (at a point that would then be known as Welcome Junction) east to
Nichols where phosphate mines were located. In 1908,
Coronet Industries began mining phosphate just southeast of Plant City. The company built a phosphate processing plant there and a small town known as Coronet for workers to live. The Seaboard Air line built a spur from Coronet Junction to the plant. In 1912, Seaboard extended the line's Nichols branch east to
Mulberry and
Bartow in 1912. The line would then be extended to
Lake Wales by 1916. Track south of Welcome Junction to Welcome was abandoned the same year. In 1925, Seaboard built the
Valrico Cutoff which ran from the former Plant City, Arcadia, and Gulf Railroad at Welcome Junction northwest to
Valrico. The Valrico Cutoff and track east of Welcome Junction to Bartow and Lake Wales would then be designated as the Seaboard's
Valrico Subdivision. From 1926 to the 1940s, the Seaboard would designate the former Plant City, Arcadia, and Gulf Railroad as the northernmost segment of their
Fort Myers Subdivision (which would overlap the Valrico Subdivision from Welcome Junction a short distance to Edison Junction, where Seaboard's track continued south and connected to
Fort Myers at the time). The line was later classified as a branch of the
Valrico Subdivision as traffic to Fort Myers declined. By 1940, the line was still being used by Seaboard's local passenger trains to
Boca Grande as well as their
Cross Florida Limited (which ran from Tampa to Miami). ==Current operations==