Eastern Railroad Discussion > Question: trains through Dade City, FL

Yesterday (5/28), in the space of about 4 hours, I hit two "doubles" - train meets just south of Dade City on CSX. I had no scanner: wondered if someone could help with train numbers/symbols - and their origins/destinations.

First pair (around 5:15PM) - a long (165 car) merchandise north-bound freight, headed by 3033, meeting what appeared to be a southbound rock train, led by 4793 with open bottom dump gondolas. The head end of the merchandise train had 50+ loaded covered hoppers followed by 30+ tank cars (sulfur?), then mostly mixed cars that looked a lot like what one sees on Q452 from Miami - all empties except for open-top gondolas of scrap. Good dispatching by CSX - the north-bound, on the pass track, never stopped and once the stone train went by the big merchandiser QUICKLY accellerated to 50mph without stopping. I suspect - but am not sure - that the covered hoppers and tankers came from the Mosaic plant north of Plant City and may have been picked up by a very late north-bound 452 routed that way??? But that is just guessing.

Second pair (around 8 PM) - a south-bound double-stack, headed by 5309 met what appeared to be a north-bound ethanol tank train (Haz-mat placard number 1987). Once again, neither train stopped. Paced the double-stack at a steady 50mph until she slowed smoothly to 40mph for the switch onto single track.

 

Judging by the times and consists, the northbound freight would have been Q604-28 (Winston, FL - Waycross, GA).  The southbound stack train was most likely Q177-28 (Jacksonville, FL - Winter Haven, FL).  Not sure about the rock or ethanol trains.  We get quite a few of those down here with a bunch of various symbols.

Andrew

Edit:  Another possibility for the southbound stack train could have been an early Q045-28 (Jacksonville, FL - Tampa, FL).  Q177 would have been all domestic stacks (CSX intermodal, Pacer Stacktrain, UMAX).  Q045 would have had some UPS trailers or containers mixed within domestic stacks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/16 14:31 by florida581.

Thanks for your help. Based on your comments I think that the south-bound D/S was Q177: the consist was just as you described it.