according to e.p. rentz quoted in the palatka daily news there were dreams of a great diagonal railroad running from jacksonville to tampa via ocala. rentz may have had in mind an associations with the ocala southwestern railroad, which ran about 6 miles southwest of ocala in the direction of tampa; no but nothing more ever came of it. plans to extend the railroad across the st. johns river to hastings and then north on the east shore to jacksonville fell through; the company went bankrupt in may 1913.