Field crops such as cotton, corn and soybeans are not usually consumed completely in close proximity to the lands where they were grown. The same can be said of timber and most farm livestock.
It is a commendable quality of American farmers that they are so highly productive that they must send their raw products to distant locales for use. But this does beg the question of how to get the commodities to processors and end users.
In contemporary panhandle Florida there are many paved roadways with trucks to transport commodities to markets remote from the farm or ranch. This was not the case as the calendar moved from the 19th to the 20th century.
Most roads were dirt and there were far more horses and mules used for moving crops from the field than there were trucks. Unless there was a navigable river handy, the only option was the nation’s rail system.
In September 1909 the Marianna and Blountstown Railroad (MBRR) went into service to support the local economy. As the shortest of Florida’s short line railways, it covered 27 miles between the two towns.
The narrow cab was the control center for this multi-ton propulsion system which hauled freight and passengers between Blountstown and Marianna. An engineer and fireman (who stoked the boiler) teamed up to make the run between the towns.
Marianna had the Louisville and Nashville Railroad where the MBRR could transfer its cargo to the national rail network. Additionally, there were steamboats which hauled cargo on the Chipola and Apalachicola rivers.
The result was lumbermen, farmers and ranchers had many more marketing options for their products. They were able to choose the buyers who would pay the highest net price and financially strengthen their business’ position while creating employment opportunities for area residents.
In addition to freight, the MBRR carried the mail and offered passenger service until 1929. Excursion trips were offered to the West Florida Fair in Marianna for those who wanted a simple but a relatively quick ride to the regional event.
Spur lines attached to the MBRR from remote timber tracts substantially reduced the time-to-market for loggers harvesting longleaf pines.
In 1947 the railroad introduced its first diesel locomotive. With the population growth of Florida and changing market conditions, the MBRR ceased operation in 1972 and abandoned its railbeds.
Today one of the MBRR’s locomotives, number 444, stands in tribute to the period when iron horses ruled inland freight hauling. Built in 1911, it came to serve the MBRR’s customers in 1935.
The second-hand powerplant had served on two other railroads in its service life. After the MBRR ended its operation, this product of the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia was taken to Texas in 1982. It had been sold 16 years prior, in 1966.
With a historical marker giving a brief history of the once important rail connection to the national markets, the locomotive, tender and caboose are the tangible evidence of a time when horses dominated dirt roads.
Much like a long-displaced retiree, old number 444 was returned in 1989 to the location of its final service years. It remains on a remnant of the MBRR’s roadbed in Blountstown’s north side.
Matched with a fuel hauling tender and caboose, the steam locomotive is easily seen on the east side of Highway 71. Visitors can climb into the cab and imagine what it was like to control the hissing and puffing steel behemoth as it ran through the forests and swamps of panhandle Florida.
While its freight hauling days are long in the past, this technological wonder of its day is still transporting people to a time when a distant whistle meant a connection to the outside world was just a few minutes away.
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