Eastern Railroad Discussion > HEADS UP-more new FEC stack flats head south!

Another string of brand new, Florida East Coast, yellow-painted double-stack flats is heading south on CSX tonight, from Richmond, VA, on what looks like a Q409 train. There are eleven of these 3-part, articulated cars, all empty, heading for the Jacksonville interchange with FEC. (Probable route: ...to Rocky Mount, NC ...Waycross, GA, ...then on to JAX). FEC has been receiving lots of new TOFC/COFC cars recently; this is but another ready batch. Cars are painted bright yellow with blue marks, and although the first of the eleven in question was hidden behind another train in Acca Yard, here are the numbers of the others in case anyone wants to trace them and find out what the actual train # is they are on the rear of:

FEC 600??
FEC 60061
FEC 60057
FEC 60062
FEC 60048
FEC 60051
FEC 60056
FEC 60052
FEC 60054
FEC 60055
FEC 60053

Build dates: 05-01; built in Nova Scotia by TrentonWorks, Ltd. Other trains have been seen carrying 89-ft.-brand COFC flats as well, on previous dates. Don't know how many are in the new fleets, but it may mean that either FEC is replacing a lot of cars, or they're anticipating major growth in the number of trailers that currently ply I-95. Anyone in Florida (or up at TrentonWorks, Ltd.) know any more?

I saw some of these on Q121 Sunday but they weren't articulated, they were drawbarred together as a three car set.

- Steve
<A HREF="http://www.trainweb.org/csxtimetables/&quot; TARGET="_new">CSX Transportation Timetables</A>

You are correct; I stand corrected. They are indeed draw-barred together, three cars to a set. The length they took up was the northern HALF of one of the mains in Acca Yard. That's a lot of length, but then, each well car is 53-feet long.

Greenbrier announced an order for 390 three-platform well cars some time ago. I'm not sure if the FEC order is some or all of that. There have also been some Mass Central well cars of the same type coming out of there. The standard flats are the same as the AWXX cars that were built before. The frames are built in Poland, and shipped incomplete through the Port of Halifax, thence by rail, three to a car, to Trenton, where they are completed.

BTW, TrentonWorks is served by the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway (RailAmerica).

Mark
Truro NS
Jct of CBNS and CN

Sorry I'm late getting into this thread. 5/31/01 11:18 AM through Lorton. VA, Q 409, engines 646 - CW60AC, 8773- SD60M. 84 mixed freight,30 new FEC container well cars. All new cars numbered in the 60,000 series. This is at least the sixth or seventh time that I have seen new FEC flats on the rear of trains over the last two months or so. Any where between 15 and 60 cars at a time. Does any one know how many total cars are to be shipped to FEC? Just curious.

Ace S.