Florida Branchline Railroading
I'm getting ready to head to Florida in a few days and soon hope to have lots of new material, but that made me think about the last time I was there a half dozen years ago. So here are a few from that last trip.
While everyone knows about the famed CSX Tropicana Juice Train originating from the giant plant at Bradenton, I bet most railfans don’t know that Tropicana has another rail served plant where you can see the big white refrigerated boxcars. Outside of Fort Pierce, across the state from Bradenton, is a second plant that originally opened in 1973 and is served by the Florida East Coast Railway. Here a Fort Pierce based local crew with FEC GP40-2 421 (blt. Oct. 1979 new for the railroad) has a long string of cars in tow, including a cut of seven TPIX reefers, rolling south on the K Subdivision branch line near MP 4.3 approaching the Beer House Lead switch.
The K Branch extends nearly 71 miles to Lake Harbor on the southern edge of Lake Okeechobee, but since 1998 it has been leased to US Sugar Corporation's common carrier railroad subsidiary the South Central Florida Express from MP 15.5 south. The SCFE also has overhead trackage rights over the 15.5 northern miles (including the trackage seen here) in order to interchange in FEC's Fort Pierce yard on the mainline.
Fort Pierce, Florida
Monday April 25, 2016
Florida Branchline Railroading
I'm getting ready to head to Florida in a few days and soon hope to have lots of new material, but that made me think about the last time I was there a half dozen years ago. So here are a few from that last trip.
While everyone knows about the famed CSX Tropicana Juice Train originating from the giant plant at Bradenton, I bet most railfans don’t know that Tropicana has another rail served plant where you can see the big white refrigerated boxcars. Outside of Fort Pierce, across the state from Bradenton, is a second plant that originally opened in 1973 and is served by the Florida East Coast Railway. Here a Fort Pierce based local crew with FEC GP40-2 421 (blt. Oct. 1979 new for the railroad) has a long string of cars in tow, including a cut of seven TPIX reefers, rolling south on the K Subdivision branch line near MP 4.3 approaching the Beer House Lead switch.
The K Branch extends nearly 71 miles to Lake Harbor on the southern edge of Lake Okeechobee, but since 1998 it has been leased to US Sugar Corporation's common carrier railroad subsidiary the South Central Florida Express from MP 15.5 south. The SCFE also has overhead trackage rights over the 15.5 northern miles (including the trackage seen here) in order to interchange in FEC's Fort Pierce yard on the mainline.
Fort Pierce, Florida
Monday April 25, 2016