Eastern Railroad Discussion > Is Florida East Coast a "PSR" line?

For the affirmative:

Trains run on a schedule

Trains fill out with what ever freight is heading that way

Crews have a good idea of when they will be working

Trains are definitely longer

Some local work is now done by road trains

Sounds like Precision Scheduled Railroading...

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i've always wondered how many crews make it between jax-mia on there h.o.s. and if there are many "re-crews" on the fec.

it would be interesting to hear from somebody who knows..........

66

FEC was doing PSR before it was a thing.

It's much simpler for them, though, because they're basically a linear railroad with a relatively small volume of loose-car traffic.

Remember FEC got to do whatever it wanted after waiting out the big strike in the 60s.

Victor B.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/22 22:32 by wabash2800.

FEC has about the best operating environment imaginable for this kind of operation:
-The network is simple and volume concentrated between the endpoints.
-The railroad is flat as a pancake and straight as an arrow with frequent, long passing sidings and stretches of 2MT. The south end where Brightline runs will be largely double tracked.
-Aside from an occasional hurricane, the weather is perfect 99% of the time.
-They only have one end of the railroad that deals with the vagaries of connecting carrier deliveries.
-Traffic (5 or 6 mainline end to end trains a day is manageable within the capacity of the railroad).

Bottom line is they typically run a very reliable service product and run what is truly a PSR operation and do it very well. Most regionals and shortlines have been practicing true PSR for years before EHH branded it.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/12/22 10:33 by DJ-12.

Plus FEC's engines are always neat and clean on the outside.

DJ-12 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> FEC has about the best operating environment
> imaginable for this kind of operation:
> -The network is simple and volume concentrated
> between the endpoints.
> -The railroad is flat as a pancake and straight as
> an arrow with frequent, long passing sidings and
> stretches of 2MT. The south end where Brightline
> runs will be largely double tracked.
> -Aside from an occasional hurricane, the weather
> is perfect 99% of the time.
> -They only have one end of the railroad that deals
> with the vagaries of connecting carrier
> deliveries.
> -Traffic (5 or 6 mainline end to end trains a day
> is manageable within the capacity of the
> railroad).
>
> Bottom line is they typically run a very reliable
> service product and run what is truly a PSR
> operation and do it very well. Most regionals and
> shortlines have been practicing true PSR for years
> before EHH branded it.


The most frequent disruption to the smoothness of FEC's operations is grade-crossing collisions that are mostly, if not entirely, attributable to Florida drivers' impatience. I would not be at all surprised if 70+ percent of road-train recrews are attributable to relief of the involved trains' crews and those of other trains also delayed by crossing-crash investigations, and would be shocked if that percentage is less than 50.

I worked for the FEC in the early 1980's. I was out of Hialeah yard on the extra board working as a thru freight conductor and on most trips back then we usually made from Hialeah to Bowden yard (Jacksonville) and back without having to have a dog catch crew. Sometimes things did not go as planned and we did not make the full trip. Back then the FEC used mainly Chevy Citations to haul crews around.
there is a great article on the FEC from Trains Magazine from July 1996 ( yes I know that was a long time ago but it's still a nice article) FEC was on the cover and the article ran on pages 34 to 43.
Robert now retired in Lagrande Oregon.
 

goneon66 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i've always wondered how many crews make it
> between jax-mia on there h.o.s. and if there are
> many "re-crews" on the fec.
>
> it would be interesting to hear from somebody who
> knows..........
>
> 66

There are a ton of variables that factor into whether or not a train "makes it" without being relieved. That being said, most FEC freights get over the road within the crew's HOS.

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