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Doing all the work on this relatively short L303, SD70MAC #4555 rolls east past CH 147 on a gray March day.
Q652 with one heck of a lashup approaches the Callahan Turnout, bound for Waycross. The consist is as follows:
CSX 8011 (SD40-2)
CSX 7564 (C40-8)
CSX 465 (AC4400CW)
CSX 4046 (SD40-3)
CSX 4806 (SD70AC)
CSX 4555 (SD70MAC)
CSX 6520 (GP40-3)
CSX 2383 (RD SLUG)
CSX 6983 (GP40-2)
Through my years of experience documenting train action along the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority’s 74-mile mainline, I’ve vehemently avoided chasing nearly any sort movement north of Hialeah Yard. Whether it be Amtrak, TriRail or CSX, the unpredictability of local or highway roadway conditions could make or break a successful chase. Any tenured driver would know that I-95 can be devolve into mayhem at any moment, on any stretch, most evident during weekday rush hour. Even the simplest traffic stops initiated by the Florida Highway Patrol can back up traffic for miles, inching ahead at a snails’ pace; trust me, I’ve seen it myself on many occasions. The one highway that conveniently parallels the mainline all the way up to Mangonia Park, ironically, ain’t all that convenient for a chase-crazed local buff.
However, as the old adage goes, “rules are meant to be broken.”
My first visit to Control Point WHALEN to photograph the wave of Saturday afternoon southbound trains down the SFRTA Corridor had proven to be a spectacular success, having logged Amtrak P09116 [‘Silver Star’], CSX L79317, and Amtrak P09716 [‘Silver Meteor’] back-to-back-to-back in the span of 30 minutes. Through garbled radio static, RTA Dispatch would order to L79317 hold on Track 3 at CP S DANIA to allow the ‘Silver Meteor’ and TriRail traffic to bypass the slower empty rock train. Thus, a critical question arose: do I call it a day and head home with the three trains under my belt, or do I push further south down the mainline to intercept L79317 again once they get underway? My mind couldn’t be made up until I took into account one obvious, crucial detail… L79317 had a pair of SD70MACe’s.
Traffic on I-95 south miraculously played in my favor as I shot down towards Golden Glades in roughly 20 minutes, dispelling any qualms I had regarding chasing on the Corridor—at least on weekends. Control Point HARDY would come in clutch that day, it’s a tried-and-spot for afternoon southbounds with viable sunlight nearly year-round, excluding the winter season. Miraculously, I’d make it to my spot there before L79317 even had a favorable signal indication to proceed south out of S DANIA.
A break in the cloud cover to the west showered the scene in a luscious golden tint right as CSX L79317 popped around the corner a mile to the north, following TriRail P68517 south towards Hialeah. The pair of SD70MACe rebuilds, #CSX4569 and #CSX4555, guide their 109 empties through the crossover under NE 183rd St and into a pocket of sun in the last 52 minutes of daylight, the iconic growl of the locomotives’ 16-710G3 prime movers reverberating out from under the bridge. By diverging onto Track 2 at HARDY, the RTA dispatcher can have a quicker route for L79317 to get into Hialeah Yard at CP TOMPKINS, preventing a scenario where L79317 would have to drag its feet across both mains down there instead. In the moment where this behemoth of a freight train was in front of me, however, what mattered was that the MACe’s weren’t in the tree shadows, dropping my shutter in the crucial few seconds to capture what I now consider to be one of the best shots of CSX’s SD70MACe’s in my collection. One stumble off my step-ladder, a rock wedged into my elbow, and a pat on my back later, the light vanished as fast as L79317’s end of train device did whirring by, putting a cap on my last outing for the month of August.
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Miami Gardens, FL
SFRTA Mainline [CP HARDY]
Date: 08/17/2025 | 19:03
ID: CSX L79317
Type: Empty Rock
Direction: Southbound
Car Count: 109
1. CSX SD70MACe #4569
2. CSX SD70MACe #4555
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© Vicente Alonso 2025
I've only been thinking "Why can't we just get a pair of 70s in the L302/303 rotation for a bit?" for the better part of 2 years. That has finally happened, at least for the last couple of days. A bonus was freshly rebuilt #4757 leading, the first of the flared SD70AC rebuilds I've seen. With only 40 cars in tow, #4757 is doing all the work while #4555 idles along behind.