Eastern Railroad Discussion > FEC - once, twice, three times a ...

Seeing all the recent excellent FEC posts, I figured I would add my $0.02 into the mix.

Back in February I was snowbirding down in Boynton Beach, FL for a couple of weeks. I mainly worked, but I was able to get trackside a few times, each time on a weekday morning. Three out of four times I bagged the same southbound freight three separate times, all around the same time of day (between 9 and 9:30am) - the other day (a Friday) I waited for two hours and nothing came.

I'm sure those of you more familiar with the FEC can tell me the symbol of this freight - I'll edit this post to reflect once it is made known.

*** EDIT *** - as serendipity would have it, the train I caught three times is symbol #123 - thank you toledopatch - *** END EDIT ***

First up on 2/23 FEC 711 and 422 are in charge, cruising through the Atlantic Avenue crossing in Delray Beach:



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/12 15:28 by rbenko.

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Next is at the same location, five days later on 2/28 - FEC 716 and 704 do the honors:

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Third time's a charm? The next day (2/29) I moved a few miles north to Boynton Beach, where once again FEC 711 leads 411 past the massive water tower:

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Hope you enjoyed - thanks for viewing.

Rob Benkovitz
New York, NY

Hey, Rob, if it always had those Crowley doublestacks, then it was dollars-to-donuts a #123 train each time.

(Although these days, with many donuts costing more than $1, that may not be a good expression of certainty any more)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/12 14:06 by toledopatch.

During my stay in Fort Pierce a few weeks ago, FEC tended to use the same pairs of engines on the same trains for a few days at a time. As ToledoPatch mentioned, you can just about set your watch by these trains.

Thanks for sharing. Always interesting to see some new locations.

Nice photos man. SD70M's will probably be around for awhile so it's good you got the older power.
Bro

Okay, this second image...the motors being both six-axle and both cab forward combined with the auto racks behind the power? That's #121. Means they'll run the balloon in Hialeah so they'll lead back north the same way. #123 doesn't have rack traffic as dime-to-donut ratios go. It CAN happen, but not likely. And Bowden always has #123's power back-to-back as there is no wye or balloon in Fort Lauderdale. They alternate between two 400's or a 700 & a 400. Just has a small yard big enough for their intermodal traffic.

Always excpetions to the rules, but the way the patterns are right now, that's my take on it. NICE third shot with the dark clouds, too!!!!

Here's one of those exceptions when #123 had a third motor to be dropped for local use...

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FBU32804 Wrote:
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> Okay, this second image...the motors being both
> six-axle and both cab forward combined with the
> auto racks behind the power? That's #121. Means
> they'll run the balloon in Hialeah so they'll lead
> back north the same way. #123 doesn't have rack
> traffic as dime-to-donut ratios go. It CAN
> happen, but not likely. And Bowden always has
> #123's power back-to-back as there is no wye or
> balloon in Fort Lauderdale. They alternate
> between two 400's or a 700 & a 400. Just has a
> small yard big enough for their intermodal
> traffic.

Interesting - thanks for the info.

Does anyone have access to a current FEC freight schedule? I've seen some stuff on the net, but the ones I've seen are all several years old at best. FEC has a schedule on their website, but it (obviously) is geared towards customers, not railfans.

FBU32804 Wrote:
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> Here's one of those exceptions when #123 had a
> third motor to be dropped for local use...

OK, and now you shall have to be killed. ;) Nice shot of that 714. I wish all the SD40-2s looked that good (or at least were blue).

Didn't know about the power set-ups for Ft Lauderdale vs Hialeah. Good information. I wasn't sure about autoracks on #123, which was why I prefaced my statement with the bit about having the Crowley stacks in the train -- that, to me, is a solid indicator of #123. Autoracks, on the other hand, seem to be able to show up on any of several trains and thus are not a reliable symbol indicator.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/12 14:09 by toledopatch.

toledopatch Wrote:
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> Didn't know about the power set-ups for Ft
> Lauderdale vs Hialeah. Good information. I wasn't
> sure about autoracks on #123, which was why I
> prefaced my statement with the bit about having
> the Crowley stacks in the train -- that, to me, is
> a solid indicator of #123. Autoracks, on the other
> hand, seem to be able to show up on any of several
> trains and thus are not a reliable symbol
> indicator.


Yeah, there is very little reason for #123 to have racks....it HAS happened, but just strays. If there's overflow multilevel traffic that doesn't make #121 for some reason, they'll run a 141 extra or put a 105 on the next day. #123 has two lengthy drops to make headed to Fort Lauderdale & they don't get racks at Lauderdale. Now the Crowleys & Tropicals? Oh yeah, 123 traffic for sure.

rbenko Wrote:
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> Does anyone have access to a current FEC freight
> schedule? I've seen some stuff on the net, but
> the ones I've seen are all several years old at
> best. FEC has a schedule on their website, but it
> (obviously) is geared towards customers, not
> railfans.

It might sound like old hat news 'cos everyone says it, but get on that FEC YahooGroup. Pretty much everything is documented there and sightings are posted daily. With so many jobs abolished right now, established trains will pick up the slack of others on their days off, so you have to spend some time studying each day's schedule.