Eastern Railroad Discussion > Florida wanderings last week

My wife and I spent our annual winter week in Florida last week, and I made out pretty well with train photography the second half of the trip.  The first half of the trip was spent around Orlando doing some of the attractions there with our adult children.  After we dropped them off at Orlando-Sanford to fly back to PA, we did some travelling around with numerous rail stops built into the schedule.

1.  Leaving the airport Thursday morning, we happened upon Sunrail train 317 shoving south at Lake Mary Rd.
2.  Checking the Amtrak website, I saw the Southbound Silver Star (91) was running a bit late into and out of Orlando, and battling traffic on I-4, we managed to make it just south of the Orlando Station 30 seconds before the 91 departed, which allowed for this grab shot.
3.  After that we were heading to Disney Springs for a bit, and the Sunrail 317 came flying by us as we were on adjacent South Orange Ave, so I pulled into the Sand Lake Rd station for a quick shot.  CSX's Taft Yard can be seen in the background here,



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/19 17:30 by sscannella.

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4.  After lunch and wandering around Disney Springs for a bit, we headed west towards Tampa, with an overnight stop planned in Plant City.  This local, I think the O710 out of Tampa's Yeoman Yard which works to Lakeland and back, was tied down near County Line Rd, just a bit west of Winston Yd.
5.  Amtrak's northbound Silver Star - 92 - was showing a projected on-time arrival at Tampa, so I set up a few blocks west of the diamond between the S and A lines in downtown Plant City for this shot.  We called it a day then as we needed to get checked into a motel and head out for dinner (yes, it was Valentine's Day, and what better a place to spend our 36th Valentine's Day together than in Plant City, FL.)
6.  Friday I woke early to try to get some action before the Mrs. woke up.   I wound up heading a few mile east to Lakeland, where the Q452 out of Miami was approaching to head north.  The sun angle was bad so the best I could get was this going-away shot of him diverging north. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/19 17:33 by sscannella.

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7.  Heading back toward the hotel, I came upon this ballast train shoving on one of the wye tracks into Winston Yard.
8.  A bit further west at Park Rd, Winston-based O708 was working several industries not far from our hotel.
9.  After breakfast and checking out, we spent some time in downtown Plant City.  My wife spent some time visiting several antique shops a block west of the former station (now museum),  viewing platform, and diamond.  I set up a couple blocks south on the Yeoman Sub as a signal was set for the Q442 out of Tampa approaching.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/19 17:34 by sscannella.

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10.  There was also another local, the O709 out of Tampa's Yeoman Yard was working some industries south of Plant City.  When the Q442 cleared, the O709 shoved from the Plant City sub onto the Yeoman Sub, to pull up to the small yard north of the Plant City diamond.
11.  Amtrak 91 was closing in, so I set up near the viewing platform for one final shot at Plant City as my wife was finishing up her shopping spree at the antique stores.
12.  After finishing our Plant City visit, we headed into Tampa for lunch and a bit of touring.  Upon leaving there, we stopped off at the Ybor City neighborhood, a historic area of former cigar manufacturing now turned into a tourist area.  One of the highlights is a trolley system travelling through the historic district connecting it with other areas of Tampa.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/19 17:36 by sscannella.

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13.  Our last stop for the day Friday upon leaving Tampa was the bridge over Six Mile Creek just east of Yeoman Yard, where we lucked out as a light engine with a yard crew (Y332 possibly) was had pulled out clear of the bridge and then backed into the yard.  A cut of cars with it would have been better, but I'll take what I can get.  After this, it was on eastward and then south, battling rush hour traffic on Rt 60 east out of Tampa, then through the strawberry fields south of Plant City, and the phosphate areas around Mulberry, before heading south along Lake Okeechobee heading for the sugar cane fields south of the lake around Clewiston.

14.  Again, I was up early letting my wife sleep in, to see what might be running around U.S. Sugar's massive sugar operation in the area.  First light of the morning found me around the US Sugars/South Central Florida Express's shop and small yard area in Clewiston.  I didn't know what to expect train-wise, being it was a Saturday.  I did not expect to see the SCFX interchange trains to CSX at Sebring and FEC at Fort Pierce to be running, but was hoping to find a few cane trains operating as the cane harvest season was coming to a close.  

15.  There was some noise on the scanner coming from something working the large US Sugar facility a few blocks behind me, so I went to investigate and noticed several trains moving around in the yard there.  There happened to be a couple jobs switching the yard, and another train appeared to be leaving the facility.  I found my way to Evercane Rd, where I spotted a large train of 71 empties heading out, and then found myself at the second crossing on that road where I got this shot.  

 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/19 12:07 by sscannella.

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16.  Heading back toward Clewiston, I spied another empty train in the distance coming out of the back of the plant, so it was back down Evercane Rd a bit to the first crossing where USSC 310 had 20 empties in tow.  You can see the Clewiston plant in the background here.

17. Another view of the 310 with several of Florida's finest railfans waiting amongst new cane probably planted a couple months ago.

18.  On the way back to the hotel I grabbed a quick shot of what was probably road power for the SCFX freights in front of the shop areas.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/19 17:44 by sscannella.

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19.  After having breakfast and checking out of the motel, we headed toward Moore Haven to hopefully catch a train crossing the swing bridge over the Caloosahatchee River.  Along the way we came upon a harvested cane field being burned.  This is a common practice that is part of the harvest.

20.  Alas, the swing bridge was open, and after a short wait (I didn't want to keep my wife waiting too long at any one spot), we headed back toward Clewiston, as we had a 4 hour trip up to St. Augustine planned for later in the afternoon.

21. Arriving back in Clewiston, we saw a short loaded train moving in front of the shop area.  Once it cleared the crossing, I raced up to the next crossing at Davidson Rd near the plant to catch 407 with 15 cane loads in tow heading into the plant.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/19 17:46 by sscannella.

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24 & 25.  At this point I was fairly satisfied, so we decided to head a few mile south to the John Stench State Park in Lake Harbor along Lake Okeechobee for a bit before continuing our journey to St. Augustine.  Upon leaving the park, I hear the end of train marker squelch on my scanner and noticed a loaded train headed back toward Clewiston.  It had just passed over the bridge over the Miami Canal, one of the locations I had hoped to get a photograph.  So we high-tailed it back up towards Clewiston, where I wound up getting a couple of images at Evercane Rd. again, this time across the harvested fields on the other side of the road of 503 with 28 cane loads.

26.  Now I definitely figured that was it for the cane fields, but again, as we got to Lake Harbor I again hear the EOT marker squelch on the scanner.  As we were leaving Evercane Rd. earlier, I heard someone telling a train to let them know when they cleared the block.  So we pulled into the road which runs along the Miami canal, and I notice a train about 3/4  of a mile down the tracks pulling out of one of the loadout area sidings.  So I set up and waited about 15 minutes hearing the crew working the train out from the siding onto the 'main', before it finally headed north and crossed the short bridge over the canal.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/19 17:49 by sscannella.

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25.  One final sugar cane shot of the 310 with 20 loads in tow heading toward Clewiston, before heading for St. Augustine.
26 & 27.  One of the other highlights of Florida, and this area in particular, is the wildlife.  Of particular interest to me are the gators, two of which I captured image-wise seen here.  The first one was at the canal just below me where I caught the 310.  There were two others within 50 feet of this guy (or gal) here.   The second one here was taken in a canal alongside Lake Okeechobee on the east side between Pahokee and Canal Point.   N ote the five youngsters sunning themselves on mom's head and back.  Rail-related, there was a USSC/SCFX train working somewhere in the vicinity, (possibly with the 504 I had seen earlier), as we heard the EOT squelch going off, but I couldn't get a visual sighting.    I've been through the sugar cane areas 4 times previously which had always whetted my appetite for this area.   Got lucky (or was blessed) with getting a lot of activity in this half-day Saturday, but what I saw here just scratches the surface of this unique operation. 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/19 17:39 by sscannella.

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28.  My final train image of the trip was taken early Sunday morning in St. Augustine.  I was warned here on TO and elsewhere that traffic is light on the Florida East Coast through here on Sundays.  I arrived at the bridge at the San Sebastian River at sunrise, and the signal just north of the bridge was displaying green, which meant the northbound (probably 226) was imminent.  It was a short wait after I set up on the sidewalk of the highway bridge, and as the EOT squelch started going off on the scanner and the horns sounding for grade crossings.  The sun was starting to break through the clouds and get above the buildings, and I literally saw the bridge bathed in early morning sun rays as the power came around the final curve approaching the bridge.  I couldn't be happier.

All in all a great overall trip, not only for the train action, but for the time I got to spend with the family the whole week there.  It also helped that the temperatures, except for one day, were in the upper 70s - low 80s all week (and we northerners can't complain about a little morning rain and hi-50s to mid-60s for one day in Florida in February).

Check back tomorrow or Friday, as I may post a few videos from the trip.

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Sam, the quality of your photos along with the interesting subject matter does not drop one iota when you leave the Keystone State.  You've added to the excitement of my upcoming trip to Florida in April.  Although I probably won't get near the variety you have nicely captured,  I'll be living adjacent to the FEC main for 5 days in West Palm Beach and my brother and I plan to spend a day on the US Sugar operations,  so I should come away with some decent shots.  Great coverage of your vacation and I think you might be able to sell that last gator shot with the little ones on top.  National Geographic quality in my opinion.
Steve B.

Great shots.  You covered the southern part of Florida pretty well, especially the sugar fields. 
A lot of people don't realize how much is roaming around out there. It is possible to ride around all day and not see anything,  Or with a little help and luck (a radio and a map)you can "clean up".  It was nice several years ago when SCFE and US Sugar units were different colors.  It added some color to the trains. I remember also a lot of the cars were still friction bearings until a few years ago when everything finally got converted to roller bearings so they could run on either system.  Before the USSC lines since it was private could run with friction bearings. Some of the old wood side cars had built dates from the 20's and 30's.  Some of the "newer" are still around plus they have some real new ones that have been built out of cut up box cars.  I'll see if I can dig up some shots.
Mike  

Great pictures and narrative.

Empty cane cars are often staged at Moore Haven, nicely positioned for photos.

Posted from Android

Seems you know my part of Florida very well.
I live in Seffner near the A line.Worked 32 years
for SAL-SCL-FL-CSX.Nice shots.

Uncle Joe
11 miles East of Tampa

Outstanding bunch!
JB

Great shots and great coverage!  Really like that last pic of the FEC.
GK

Very nice...!!  

It looks like you had a nice trip.  I'm also partial to the gator with the babies pic. 

Your timing was exquisite. The sugar season usually goes full bore into mid or late March, and gradually tails down into May.  February into early March has been a peak rail operation, based on my occasional visits.

The current practice is to plant some fields in tomatoes and peppers in alternate years, and get that harvest in late June.

US Sugar and Florida Crystals have discussed selling some of their sugar fields for the proposed and funded reservoir. And there's increased concern about the waiver for the field burn offs. The sugar companies have a series of waivers for their mill operations and their land use which might come under scrutiny, although the legislature has been respectful of their power in the past.  Either way, the sugar companies will be part of any future solution on land use.