Maxwell House Railroad History

[aclchampion]

Looking for a little insight from those in the know. Back in the mid 20th century the downtown Maxwell House plant was railroad served. What I am trying to learn is how the railroad was used by the plant. Did it recieve raw beans by boxcar? I believe the beans came by ship to the port. But then how did they get to the plant?  Or did it ship finished coffee out by boxcar? What else might it have shipped or recieved and what types of cars would have been used. Anyone?
Thanks.

[thelakelander]

Beans were originally shipped by barge up Hogans Creek.  Rail was probably used to ship finished product out to customers.

[aclchampion]

Okay. Thanks Lakelander.

[billy]

Remember, two rail lines bracketed the Union 700 Terminal Warehouse, and
there was another food stores building (748 Union) next to the the Maxwell House rail line.

I thought I had heard that at least one of the Union 700 freight elevators could handle multi-ton containers/barrels
of beans.

[Lunican]

This map shows where the tracks were. It looks like it ran in the middle of Ionia St. for a few blocks.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=30.32626&lon=-81.6473&zoom=17&layers=M

[Lunican]

You can see the tracks under the asphalt on Ionia. http://g.co/maps/dd79h

[downtownjag]

Does Maxwell House do tours? How old is that facility?

[thelakelander]

I don't think so.  It opened in 1910 as the Cheek-Neal Coffee Company.

[mtraininjax]

No tours. But you can smell it from the Hart expressway, daily.

[Ocklawaha]

It was served by two railroads, the St. Johns River Terminal Railway {western most tracks}(part of the Georgia, Southern and Florida Railroad, part of the SOUTHERN RAILWAY SYSTEM, the NORFOLK SOUTHERN of today), and the Seaboard Air Line Railroad {the Eastern most tracks} part of the CSX of today.

There was once a railroad yard which extended from about Union Street to Bay. Until the 1890's there was a train station at this location, built by the Fernandina and Jacksonville Railroad, a Seaboard Air Line property. There was even a period of time that to move a car of express from the coffee plant to the Jacksonville Terminal Station it actually had to travel north to Yulee, then southwest to Baldwin, then east to the station! The famed "S" Line, better known as the Jacksonville Belt Railroad solved that problem.

The main tracks were intact through most of the 1980's. The railroads crossed Bay Street into the ship yards, the St Johns River Terminal Railroad was happy to connect with the ship builders, while the Seaboard crossed Bay, turned east and ran under what is today the Hart Bridge.

Today the coffee comes in (mostly at Tallerand) and is moved by truck to the plant, outbound shipments go west of town to the massive CSX piggyback/container yard, or the NORFOLK SOUTHERNS Simpson Yard, while some actually goes down to the FEC RR's Bowden Yard off Philips Highway.

OCKLAWAHA

[aclchampion]

Ocklawaha, prior to containerized freight, how would Maxwell House have moved the finished product out? I assume by boxcar.

[Marley Weinstein]

It would be nice if Maxwell house provided tours to the public. I'd love to see their operation

[Ocklawaha]

Ocklawaha, prior to containerized freight, how would Maxwell House have moved the finished product out? I assume by boxcar.

...And you would be right about that.

[thelakelander]

You can see Maxwell House between both rail lines in this historic aerial:

[thelakelander]

In this image (you'll have to scroll), you can see three boxcars on their property.