Eastern Railroad Discussion > Some Florida East Coast action in St. Augustine 2/26

Spent a few days in Florida again last week, this time with my wife along.  (After flying into JAX, we spent the first couple days in Savannah, GA before driving back down to Florida to St. Augustine.)

The Ponce Hotel is the place to stay in St. Augustine as the rear rooms face the Florida East Coast main.  There is even a viewing platform built out toward the tracks from the parking lot, where you can enjoy breakfast waiting for the morning "parade" to pass.

Typically train 210 passes roughly 7:00 - 7:30, with 204 and 202 about 1 - 3 hours later.   You can usually catch local 905 heading south either between or after those two also in that time frame.

Wednesday 2/26 was the day that I built in a few hours in the morning to try to catch some of the limited action on the FEC.  There is anywhere between 8 - 12 moves a day over this section of the FEC line, but only these three - four operate in the morning).  I had my scanner in the window with the head end and EOT channels plugged in, I can usually hear the squawk with about 5-10 minutes to spare before they get to the hotel.  Northbounds sweep around a 90 degree curve before crossing the San Sebastian river, so it gives me enough time to get from the room down to the viewing platform.  Since my wife was with me, I decided to just do photography from the motel, and not run down to the bridge or the marsh area a little to the south.

210 showed up right on schedule about about 7:15, just as the sun was clearing the tracks a few hundred yards south, so I opted for some 200 mm tele shots of it.

We then grabbed breakfast, and afterward I decided to head into the shower, and asked my wife to bang on the door if she heard any squawks.   As fate would have it, when I stepped out of the shower, I heard a loud squawk from he scanner, and threw on sweatpants and a shirt while still dripping wet and ran down the stairwell.   204, which has been using older EMD power (as opposed to the newer GE ES44C power with fuel tenders), was already on the causeway a couple hundred feet from the platform, and I barely was able to snap off a few shots before it passed.  (My wife assured me that she hadn't heard anything coming from the scanner before that.)

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Got dressed and decided to head out for the day of sightseeing after 204, and there goes the squawk on the scanner again as we were getting ready to leave.  This time, plenty of time to grab everything for the day and head down to the platform to record 202 heading north with a pair of the GroupoMexico repaints and a fuel tender.

It was about 10:00 am now, and although I would have liked to stick around for the 905, I didn't want to push my luck too much.  We did head a few miles up to Magnolia siding in case it had been waiting there for 202 to pass, but that turned out to be an exercise in futility.   I did learn later that 905 did pass with a blue GP40 and about 20 or so cars about 11:15, we were already out half-way through our walk on St. Augustine beach by then.  Still, quite happy that I captured the three morning road freights.

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Thursday was our day to travel back to Harrisburg from Jacksonville with a noon flight, so I didn't have a ton of time to do anything in the morning.   Again, timing is everything.   I woke up at 7:00, turned on the scanner, and withing 5 seconds - squawk.   I hadn't heard anything pass yet - and believe me, if you get annoyed by trains rumbling 50 felt from your window, the rear rooms are not the place to stay.  My wife never hears anything, I get awakened 2-3 times every night we stay here.  And I always request a trackside room.

Anyway, grabbed the camera, just shot from the balcony, watching the rising illuminating sun creep toward me as I spotted 210 coming into view around the curve.  By the time the train passed, the tracks were fully illuminated.  Timing.          



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/25 18:28 by sscannella.

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Great set - Colorful paint jobs.
Bob

Nice action shots! I turn on the Fort Lauderdale webcam at New River on occassion and see a lot of Brightline and some FEC action, usually in the dark. Mostly the GEs with fuel tenders. Once a lite 4-axle "Hurricane" engine trundling along another time a very short business train.Another time a Geep and a boxcar. Fun to see the trains and the Millions dolar Yahchts getting towed up and down New River. Cheap entertinment while I work from home and I am already stuck on two computer screens.
 Its always interesting to hear that many railfans are "pushing buttons" of their spouses, trying to squeeze in their rail-fanning whereever and particularly on their vacations. I must be an exception. I had two train-crazy little kids fueled by a train crazy Dad. But also had a teenage daughter that had zero interest in the trains, ferry boats, and whatever interesting geological finds like tourist trap caves or caverns I subjected her to when transporting her to and fro Penn State University in State College. The wife was okay with almost all of it, but didn't like the kids throwing ballast rocks harmlessly onto the NJT roadbed waiting for a C&O 614 runby in Otisville, NY. We, me and all the kids survived the ralfan abuse, the wife just ignores it all now.
Wishing all of you brow-beaten railfans the best while tying to catch rail action. The great images you manage to grab are appreciated. Myself, not so inclined to chase trains now that the two boys are men with their own spouses and interests. I no longer have the pleasure and opportunity to frustrate my hot-headed red head daughter.
Then again the rail scene has become somewhat plain vanilla unless you want to count rivets and cooling fans on today's boring diesels. Yawn!
FEC is a bit more interesting than NS in front of my home. Although CSX has begunn running Howard Street Tunnel detours, still just not enough incentive to wander down to the station to shoot their slightly more colorful locos.
Gonut

Good stuff! I spent a night at the Ponce Hotel in January 2022 with a back room. I'm single not keeping anybody else other than myself up that night. I think I heard maybe three go by during the night. Enjoyed the platform the next morning too. 

fantastic set of photographs . .. really enjoyed.thank you 

Prashanth Randadath
Palakkad,
Palakkad Roads and Rails

Great stuff, I don't think I've seen those GroupoMexico locos before.

Nathan