Oviedo Turntable
The Oviedo Turntable was located on the "Dinky Line"
In October of 1890 the Osceola & Lake Jesup Railway extended its line ten miles, from Oviedo to Winter Park. This line was known as the "Coffee Pot" or "Dinky Line." In 1891 this line became part of the East Florida and Atlantic Railroad, and circa 1892-1894 was re-named the Florida Central & Peninsular (FC&P), nicknamed the "Friends Come and Push."
You could leave Oviedo at 7:50 a.m., travel through Winter Park to Orlando, stay the day and return to Oviedo that evening. You might be delayed because Walter Preston Watson, the engineer, liked to stop the train at Gabriella to let the passengers pick wild flowers and oranges.
Freight and passengers were carried during this period. The railroad installed this manually operated turntable at the Oviedo Depot, where the trains could be turned around. The crew would move the locomotive and tender onto the turntable, which was balanced so that four men could rotate it to change direction for the trip back to Orlando.
Even in those days, union rules called for a rest period for the crew. Those rest periods were spent at the home of Mrs. Dora Kelsey, who lived on South Central Avenue, about a mile from the depot. There the crews could bathe, have a meal, and if time permitted, sleep while waiting for return trip.
The Seaboard Airline Railway later bought the FC&P. The Seaboard merged with the Atlantic Coast Line on July 1, 1967. The Dinky Line made its last run on October 22, 1967, with 600 passengers on board. The train left Orlando at 9:30 a.m. for Oviedo, and made its final run from Oviedo to Orlando at 11 a.m.
The roadbed of the Dinky Line is slated to become part of the Cross-Seminole Trail. It will connect to the Cady Way Trail in Winter Park.
Marker is on Bush Boulevard north of County Home Road.
Courtesy hmdb.org
