Nostalgia & History > An SDP40F toss back, Florida style

I'll take my cue from a couple previous posts today and go with a cowl unit theme and show the ones I was most familiar with- Amtrak's SDP40Fs. Although I elected to remain in Ohio, my family moved to Florida in 1976. This of course resulted in many trips to visit, and of course I immediately set out to record the rail scenes around the Clearwater and Tampa areas. At the time there were 4 trains a day each way at Clearwater- Champion, Floridian, Silver Star, Silver Meteor- most of which were St Pete sections that had split off the big trains at Jacksonville or Auburndale. I would often ride from Ohio to Clearwater via Amtrak until they started terminating them at Tampa and bussing across the bay. Tried that once, it would be the last time I took the train to Florida. Today there are no passenger trains through Clearwater, and the Tampa stop is done as a side trip on the Miami trains.

Train #88 reflects in a pond at the famous golf course in Clearwater, January 3rd, 1981.
The "Floridian" pulls into Clearwater station in August, 1977.
Train #88 again, this time at Tampa station. This scene has changed a lot with both a much bigger downtown and the Crosstown toll road pretty much right above the station.January, 1980.

...couple more

 

Roger Durfee
Akron, OH

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Train #81 at Tampa, January, 1980.
Train #88 near Sulphur Springs (junction a bit north of Tampa) March 7th, 1981.
The St Pete bound Silver Star at Clearwater, January, 1979.

Roger Durfee
Akron, OH

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Great set Roger of SDP40F led trains !
Gary

...and one more...Amtrak 601 and 607 cross a small trestle in the Clearwater Country Club in July, 1977. The Clearwater station is just ahead.

Roger Durfee
Akron, OH

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Excellent "cowl" look back!  Thanks for sharing.

texchief1

Superb set.
Bob

Great bunch, I remember that Clearwater station very well. We rode several of those Florida trains (mostly the Floridian) several times in the late 70s and early 80s and I saw lots of those burly 40Fs. Always got off at Clearwater, closest station to grandma's house. Thanks for the nice look back...

JG

Roger,
 In picture #2 of the Floridian, thats a great shot. I thought that the Floridian always ran a dome on it. Maybe that day it was just not in it. i remember riding the Floridian from Miami to Chicago sometime around 1976 or 1977 when I was 13 or 14 years old. I spent most of the in the dome and loved it.
Robert now retired in Island City Oregon 

My favorite is the Clearwater station shot with all the blue and red paint, palm trees, and the bird series sleeper!

mp51w Wrote:
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> My favorite is the Clearwater station shot with all the blue and red paint, palm trees, and the bird series sleeper!

And unfortunately it's long gone- a 711 convenience store was built on the site. The main track is still there, but only used by a local a few times a week.

Roger Durfee
Akron, OH

Roger - thanks for the great photos at Clearwater and Tampa.  It's hard to believe there was once so much activity there.  My wife and I rode Amtrak into Tampa during the time when the Silver Meteor and Silver Star were combined because of the lower ridership associated with Covid.  It was sad to think of how service had been reduced to just one train a day between Miami and Jacksonville that had to make a side trip to Tampa.  The one bright spot was the restoration of Tampa Union Station, a magnificent facility that had been closed for many years while Amtrak used an "Am-shed" in the platform area.  There were still a few rough edges, but the restoration helped bring back some of the granduer of earlier times.  

Steve Salamon
Valley City, OH  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/24 06:18 by cr7998.

And now the attitude of Clearwater is: keep all your stinking trains out!

Great series and thanks for sharing!  Brought back some great memories growing up in Clearwater.