Upon completion of the Live Oak and Rowlands Bluff Railroad, Plant quickly chartered the Live Oak, Tampa and Charlotte Harbor Railroad to continue the line south through peninsular Florida to Charlotte Harbor.

However, during construction, Plant learned that a competing line, the Florida Southern Railway, had similar plans.

The Florida Southern's plans included a line from Lake City to Charlotte Harbor in a similar path with a branch to Palatka.

To avoid competition, Plant made an unsuccessful attempt to buy the Florida Southern.

The Florida Southern would operate south of Gainesville and the Live Oak, Tampa and Charlotte Harbor Railroad would exist north of there and the two firms would share trackage rights.

The Atlantic Coast Line would extend the branch to Archer south to Morriston in 1913 to connect with the former Silver Springs, Ocala and Gulf Railroad, which would create a more direct route down the west coast and to Lakeland instead of the former Florida Southern line.

[4][5] In 1980, the Seaboard Coast Line's parent company merged with the Chessie System, creating the CSX Corporation.

Much of the main line of the Live Oak, Tampa and Charlotte Harbor Railroad was abandoned by CSX in the late 1980s though track remains from Burnett's Lake to just north of Gainesville today.