Eastern Railroad Discussion > How sweet it is

...with apologies to Jackie Gleason of course.
Paid a visit to the South Central Florida Express in Clewiston while down in the sunshine state last week. This has to be one of the more unique operations I've seen with it's old geeps and even older cars moving cane plants to the US Sugar plant. The horizon could look like a scene out of WWII at times with the cane burns going on.

Clewiston is certainly a sugar town and informs you as you enter that it's "America's Sweetest Town".
GP-11 9023 passes through some young cane as the smoke from a burn billows in the background.
Looking down one of the irrigation canals as the same 9023 works back to Clewiston.

RAD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/12 13:14 by erie833.

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SCFE 9032 on "The local" works Clewiston yard.
SCFE 9030 passes a flat bottom tree in Clewiston with a loaded cane train.
SCFE 9032 passes a cane load out beside the line to Sebring.

RAD

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A semi dumps it's cane load. The front end loader was being used to advance the cane cars.
A smaller load out that had tractors pulling cane carts that dumped directly into the railcars.
USSC 888, a former SP GP-9, hustles empty cane cars east.

RAD

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SCFE 9030 with loads for US Sugar.
SCFE 9023 passes MP 949, old ACL mileage (from Richmond?).
Looking across some new cane as a loaded train heads for the sugar plant seen in the background.

RAD

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SCFE 9029 passes over the Miami Canal in Lake Harbor.
Having dropped it's cars in that siding, 9029 highballs back to Clewiston as USSC 405 approaches in the distance. This is ex FEC track.
Next it was USSC 405's turn to glide over the canal.

RAD



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/12 16:53 by erie833.

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I caught up with the above USSC 405 again just a few miles out of Clewiston.
USSC 406 is yarding the Sebring turn in Clewiston.
....that's all for now, hope you enjoyed the little tour :)

RAD

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Great set of "sweet" pictures Roger!!!!

Thought I'd add a few photos of the cane cars. Some still have wood sides, some are converted boxcars.

RAD

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erie833 Wrote:
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> I caught up with the above USSC 405 again just a
> few miles out of Clewiston.
> USSC 406 is yarding the Sebring turn in
> Clewiston.
> ....that's all for now, hope you enjoyed the
> little tour :)
>
> RAD


Yes, sure did!

Nice series of pics there. You don't see much of that stuff up here in PA.

Fun fact; Its cheaper to make ethanol out of sugar cane then with corn.

Your Great Photo's are why I'm glad I belong to this site

Killer pictures.
Best stuff I've seen of the Clewiston operations. Lived in FLA my whole life and have never seen it.
Thanks for sharing.
Danny Harmon
Tampa

Narr8rdanny Wrote:
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> Killer pictures.
> Best stuff I've seen of the Clewiston operations.
> Lived in FLA my whole life and have never seen
> it.

Thanks Danny and everyone. While I don't live down there, with lots of family in the state I visit at least once a year. I was always so big on the Bone Valley operations I never took the extra time to head to Clewistion when I first started going to Florida- my bad. I regret not covering the area back in the 70s and 80s. I hope the sugar industry down there doesn't do a slow fade away like the phosphate industry has. You can cover the operations pretty good in two days, so Danny, gas up the car!
On this trip I wanted to drive through the Glades, so I headed south after the sugar trains. Next time I will continue around Lake O and hit the FEC in Stuart and Ft Pierce.

RAD

miralomarail Wrote:
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> Your Great Photo's are why I'm glad I belong to
> this site

Thank you so much! Attached is a photo of some smoke from a cane burn. I guess everything has beauty somewhere in it...
Some equipment rests in the early hours in a recently burned and cut cane field.

RAD

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Roger,

nice series of a pretty cool railroad.

Mark Mautner