Eastern Railroad Discussion > Some News and Rumors about the Florida Central

The Pinsly Railroad Company has sold all three of it's Florida railroads. The Florida Central (FCEN), Florida Midland (FMID), and Florida Northern (FNOR). This leaves Pinsly with one railroad. The Pioneer Valley (PVRR), in Massachusetts.

The buyer is Regional Rail LLC, a Pennsylvania-based shortline holding company. Regional Rail already owns three railroads in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. The East Penn (ESPN), Middletown & New Jersey (MNJ), and Tyburn Railroad (TYBR).

A friend of mine was recently at a model train show in Orlando. He ran into an FCEN manager that spilled some information about why Pinsly decided to sell out, and what Regional Rail is going to do with the Florida Railroads. (Note: this is very much "I've heard it from a friend" situation, so don't take what I say as fact, more with a grain of salt.)

The owner of Pinsly is in his later years (late 80s or early 90s). He could no longer afford to travel back and forth from Massachusetts to Florida to manage the Florida Railroads. Pinsly is going to only own the Pioneer Valley for a while. I'm sure we can all agree, if the old man wants to spend the rest of his life running a small railroad in Massachusetts, that is all fine.

Regional Rail took over operation of the Florida Railroads on January 1st. Most of the Pinsly markings have been patched with Regional Rail, except for the Pinsly logo itself, which still remains in a few places (all of what I've seen is at Plymouth). All of the locomotives will eventually be repainted into the Regional Rail paint scheme. It will be sad to see the iconic Pinsly scheme go in Florida, but the Regional Rail scheme will make up for it.

Regional Rail is also focused on expansion. They've already started the search for new customers along the Florida Railroads. Regional Rail is also wanting to expand the number of railroads it owns in the South. We can only speculate which ones (G&W railroads maybe?).

> The owner of Pinsly is in his later years (late
> 80s or early 90s). He could no longer afford to
> travel back and forth from Massachusetts to
> Florida to manage the Florida Railroads. Pinsly is
> going to only own the Pioneer Valley for a while.
> I'm sure we can all agree, if the old man wants to
> spend the rest of his life running a small
> railroad in Massachusetts, that is all fine.

I totally disagree.  I recently moved from Massachusetts to Florida and I think for an elderly person like him and me, living in sunny warm Florida (it's 83 degress right now typing this outside on my patio) is much easier than fighting the snow and cold back home :).  Come on down!

The expansion is spurred by 3i Group, an English investment group who purchased Regional Rail in 2019. They purchased Regional Rail and want to expand their North American presence through them

Already another acquisition in the works which should be announced any day now.

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