Florida's Celestial Railroad

Added: Thursday April 21, 2011
 

Click on the Picture above to enlarge

This Picture shows the Celestial Railroad's North Dock with the Jupiter Lighthouse
on the north side of the Jupiter inlet.

This was a Narrow gauge railroad that ran from the South Side of the Jupiter inlet
south 7.5 miles to the north end of Little Lake Worth.

Starting near the Dock on the Jupiter Inlet, it had stops in Juno, Venus, and Mars
along the railroad, before the south end near a dock on the north end of the
Little Lake Worth, thus getting the name
"The Celestial Railroad"

They had only 2 Engines, 2 Passenger, and 3 Freight cars for the rail line. The
fare was 10 cents a mile, 75 cents for the entire 7.5 miles, but passengers only
paid for the distance traveled. Freight charges were higher, per 100 lb weight.

In the eight months prior to February 1894, the Railroad make an estimated
$68,000.00 for hauling materials for Henry Flagler's railroad.

Flagler's FEC railroad passed to the west in February 1894 to West Palm Beach.

This put the Celestial Railroad on a steep decline and it rolling items were
auctioned off in June of 1896.

Click on the Picture above to enlarge
They are Similar Engines except, Note the different Cow Catchers !
The Engines were pointed south, so they ran forward from Jupiter down
to the Juno docks and backed up when going back north !
 

The remaining Section of land as shown in the picture above, from US1 to the ocean,
was purchased by Palm Beach County as a preserve and named Loggerhead Park.

 Read a Great article, Retracing the Celestial Railroad by Geoffrey Lynfield