Editing Seaboard Air Line Railroad (section)

====Warfield and the South Florida expansion====
{{See also|Seaboard-All Florida Railway}}
[[Image:West Palm Beach SAL 002.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Street side of the 1925 [[West Palm Beach (Tri-Rail station)|SAL passenger station]] in [[West Palm Beach, Florida]], now used by both [[Amtrak]] and the [[Tri-Rail]] regional rail line.]]
 
With an influx of tourists traveling to rapidly developing Florida, the Seaboard enjoyed a prosperous decade in the 1920s.<ref name='Solomon 2005'>{{cite book | last = Solomon | first = Brian | title = CSX | publisher = MBI Publishing Company | year = 2005 | pages = 32–34 | isbn = 978-0-7603-1796-9 }}</ref> In 1924, Warfield, now president and CEO of the railroad, began building a 204-mile extension, called the [[Florida Western and Northern Railroad]], from the Seaboard mainline in [[Coleman, Florida]] south to [[West Palm Beach, Florida|West Palm Beach]], which for almost thirty years had been the exclusive domain of the [[Florida East Coast Railway]]. Some 35 miles northwest of West Palm Beach, the extension ran through [[Indiantown, Florida|Indiantown]], which Warfield planned to make the new southern headquarters of the Seaboard.{{sfnp|McIver|1994|p=198}} The extension was constructed in record time, and opened in January 1925.

Later in 1925, Warfield constructed the [[Gross Cutoff|Gross-Callahan Cutoff]], which allowed time-sensitive trains to bypass congested Jacksonville, and built the [[Valrico Subdivision|Valrico Cutoff]], which provided a direct route from Tampa to West Palm Beach. Warfield also leased the [[Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway]], which ran from central Florida to [[Boca Grande, Florida|Boca Grande]], as well as the [[East and West Coast Railway]] between [[Arcadia, Florida|Arcadia]] and [[Manatee|Manatee County]].

Warfield, however, was not content with what seemed to be a complete Seaboard system in Florida, and at the end of 1925, announced two new extensions, one from West Palm Beach to [[Miami, Florida|Miami]] and another from Arcadia to [[Fort Myers, Florida|Fort Myers]] and [[Naples, Florida|Naples]]. Groundbreaking for the Miami extension took place in [[Hialeah, Florida|Hialeah]] in January 1926, and by December 1926, the line was open for freight. From January 7 through January 9, 1927, Warfield took a large faction of dignitaries on a special run of the luxurious ''[[Orange Blossom Special (train)|Orange Blossom Special]]'', beginning at Arcadia and proceeding south to Naples, then doubling back over to the east coast and proceeding south from West Palm Beach to [[Miami]].

[[Image:SAL Florida 1936.jpg|thumb|300px|left|1936 system map of SAL's Florida operations, showing extension of routes into South Florida built in the 1920s.]]

Warfield had the West Palm Beach architectural firm of Harvey & Clarke, led by [[Gustav Maass (architect)|Gustav Maass]], design a series of now historic [[Mediterranean Revival architecture|Mediterranean Revival]] stations in [[West Palm Beach (Tri-Rail station)|West Palm Beach]], Lake Worth, Boynton Beach, [[Delray Beach Seaboard Air Line Railway Station|Delray Beach]], [[Deerfield Beach (Tri-Rail station)|Deerfield Beach]], [[Fort Lauderdale (Tri-Rail station)|Fort Lauderdale]], [[Hollywood (Tri-Rail station)|Hollywood]], and [[Hialeah Seaboard Air Line Railway Station|Hialeah]], as well as in [[Naples Seaboard Air Line Railway Station|Naples]] and Fort Myers. In April 1927, Warfield completed a push of the Miami extension even further south to [[Homestead, Florida|Homestead]], and had his architects erect a [[Homestead Seaboard Air Line Railway Station|Mediterranean Revival station]] there as well.