Florida Pot Pourri

Florida Northern; Ocala, Fla.; December 16, 2013

With a polar vortex gripping a lot of the U.S. right now, let's warm up a bit with a trip down to Florida. Over the past few weeks we've shown parts of this trip with posts on an evening in Jesup, Ga., street running in Augusta, Ga.,  chasing the Pickens Railway in South Carolina, and a set of night photos from the trip. To recap, my brother and I were delivering a car to Florida and spent some time railfanning along the way. Now we're in Florida, and we'll see some of the interesting sites the state has to offer. We'll start with the Florida Northern in Ocala on December 16, where GP9 No. 60 from sister railroad Florida Central was returning from delivering cars to an industry on the west side of tow. Spanish moss makes for a nice frame as the train returns to its yard (above).

Back at the yard, the crew continued on another branch to pull cars from a scrap dealer. The train made for a nice shot as it entered the yard on the return trip.

Florida Northern; Ocala, Fla.; December 16, 2013

There was a time when the Florida Central was known for its CF7 fleet. The CF7s were built by the Santa Fe on frames of old F-units; once the Santa Fe was finished with them, they became the de facto short line locomotive of the 1980s as they scattered on the second-hand market. Florida Central's No. 63 still sits in the Ocala yard. with traces of moss and vines showing that it hasn't run in a long, long time.

Florida Northern; Ocala, Fla.; December 16, 2013

Florida Northern also has a line that heads south, crossing CSX on a diamond at the Ocala passenger station before doing a few blocks of street running. Alas, the railroad did not run this direction on the day we were there, but CSX polished the diamonds with several trains, including this southbound led by C40-9W No. 9023.

CSX Transportation; Ocala, Fla.; December 16, 2013

Next up we find a CSX northbound on the south side of Ocala, with AC44CW No. 561 in the lead. Trailing the power is a string of white refrigerator cars carrying Tropicana orange juice to New Jersey. The orange juice is not concentrate -- it's pure as-squeezed orange juice in cartons ready for the store shelves of the northeast.

CSX Transportation; Ocala, Fla.; December 16, 2013

Finishing off our first day in Florida, we scoot a bit east so we're now north of Orlando. A northbound Amtrak train races past a signal at Eldridge on the former Seaboard Air Line. The defect detector nearby, which broadcasts over the railroad radio, indicted the train had no defects and was moving at 79 m.p.h. The signal is of a design that was unique to the SAL; like many other unique signal systems across various railroads, it will ultimately be replaced by generic signals as Positive Train Control is implemented.

Amtrak; Eldridge, Fla.; December 16, 2013

The next day we headed down to the South Central Florida Express, a railroad owned by U.S. Sugar Corp. to serve the cane fields around Clewiston, south of Lake Okeechobee. You might recall we visited this same railroad in February 2013, but a steam line rupture at the mill in Clewiston had all operations shut down. This time the mill was running and cane was being cut. We caught a train of loaded cane cars west of Clewiston as it headed towards the mill. The smoke on the horizon is where cane residue is being burned; you can always find the fields being worked -- and the trains serving the fields -- by looking for smoke.

South Central Florida Express; Clewiston. Fla; December 17, 2013

There are dozens of loaders along the railroad, with trucks bringing in cane from the field to be loaded into rail cars. On any given day, different loaders can be in service. GP11 No. 303 lead a string of empty cars southeast of Clewiston past an inactive loader. The cars are adapted from a variety of original cars, mostly boxcars with roofs removed.

South Central Florida Express; Clewiston, Fla.; December 17, 2013

Sugar cane is highly perishable and needs to be processed within hours of cutting. If an empty train goes out, a loaded train will soon be coming in. Such was the case with No. 303 -- we caught it a little bit later in the afternoon going past another loader as it came back with cane loads.

South Central Florida Express; Clewiston. Fla.; December 17, 2013

With a flight home the next day, our railfanning would be concentrated within striking distance of the Orlando airport. We set up on a parking deck near the old Orlando station on Church Street where we were surprised to catch a SunRail test train running. SunRail is the new commuter service for Orlando scheduled to open later in 2014.

SunRail; Orlando, Fla.; December 18, 2013

The Church Street Station was used by Amtrak, but the passenger carrier has relocated to a new station about a mile south. However, Church Street Station is seeing a rebirth as a passenger station; the platform canopies are all new in anticipation of the SunRail service. Not far behind the test train was a southbound Amtrak train, easing its way through the entertainment district that has grown up around Church Street.

Amtrak; Orlando, Fla.; December 18, 2013

Once Amtrak was through, it was time to leave downtown and head for the airport. On the way, there was time for a quick stop at the Florida Central's small yard at Silver Star, where GP9RM No. 7032 was sitting. This locomotive started life working for Canadian National and was later transferred to work for the Agence metropolitaine de transport, a Montreal commuter railroad; the locomotive still wears its AMT colors. After this stop, it was off to the airport to catch a flight, bringing an end to the southbound trip to the Sunshine State. A complete photographic gallery of the trip can be found here.

Florida Central; Silver Star (Orlando), Fla.; December 18, 2013

Ain't No Cane

South Central Florida Express;
Port Mayaca, Fla.

In the last entry we started a mini-series on Florida with photos taken last February. In addition to the Orange Blossom Cannonball (which was covered in the last installment), my other primary Florida goal was to shoot the South Central Florida Express, a subsidiary of U.S. Sugar Corp. and the last true sugar cane railroad in the United States. An attempt to shoot it a few years ago in March got us to the railroad just a couple of days after the cane season ended. This time we were there in February.

South Central Florida Express hauls sugar-related products to the outside world from the mill in Clewiston on two different lines. Heading northwest is the connection with CSX Transportation in Sebring, about 70 miles away. Heading mostly east is a connection with the Florida East Coast at Fort Pierce, maybe a distance of 50 miles. Both lines feature nice bridges. However, after two visits I have not been able to get a decent shot of the swing bridge at Moore Haven on the line to Sebring (it seems to be a cloud magnet). The wonderful old lift bridge on the line to Fort Pierce, however, at Port Mayaca proved to be an easier target, and we got a train heading towards Clewiston at the bridge on February 11 (right).

The line to Fort Pierce also has a nice deck concrete bridge at Port St. Lucie, about 13 miles out of Fort Pierce. We were able to catch trains here twice in good light, such as this one on February 13. Only one locomotive was needed for the short train however; usually two locomotives lead a much longer train. We'll see why this train was short in just a minute.

South Central Florida Express; Port St. Lucie, Fla.; February 13, 2013

With an early February visit, we'd be guaranteed to find trains working the mill and hauling cane back from the fields. There were also frequent trains scheduled to come in from the former mill site at Belle Glade. However, on the first morning of our visit the mill at Clewiston had a major steam line rupture. This would shut the mill down for four days (much longer than our visit); since cane is highly perishable, no cane would be cut in the fields. And no cane meant no cane trains. We were fortunate to see the last train come in from Belle Glade right after the rupture; this train was already on the road when the rupture occurred and most of the cane it had would ultimately go to waste.

U.S. Sugar Corp.; Clewiston, Fla.; February 11, 2013

With no processed sugar heading out of the mill, the interchange trains to CSX and FEC would be running short -- thus, the short train we saw at Port St. Lucie. The tracks near the mill in Clewiston, by the way are operated as U.S. Sugar Corp., while the tracks heading to the interchanges are operated by subsidiary South Central Florida Express. USSC owns all the locomotives.

With not much running except the interchange trains, we chased them around. The train we shot at Port Mayaca paused to do some work between Lake Harbor and South Bay. We set up for night photos at the Miami Canal bridge, but as dusk approached the train stopped working. It just sat there with its lights on. Not ones to give up easily, we kept an eye on the train and about two hours later a crew van pulled up; shortly thereafter the train began shuffling back and forth once more. Finally, after a far too long wait, the train came west to finish its run to Clewiston.

South Central Florida Express; Lake Harbor, Fla.; February 11, 2013

So what does this mean? Hopefully, third time will be a charm. We'll be back to Clewiston at some point this winter to finally see the last cane trains in the U.S. working the fields.

Next: Florida East Coast