View allAll Photos Tagged FEC711
Railfans have now conquered the air! A drone hovers above FEC 226 with a matched set of SD40s as the train rounds the curve in St. Augustine.
After a very busy July, I finally had some time to buff the Jacksonville area again this morning. When I saw an FEC coal train pulling into West Jax Yard, of course I stuck around the bridge until it finally came along with a Champ SD40 doing the honors. Sometimes you just luck out :-D
I don’t exactly remember the circumstances that led to this happening, but alas, another rare daylight run of the FEC rock-runners documented for the books. Such moves are hard to plan for on a whim, let alone predict, but are massively appealing to photograph when given the opportunity. Finding FEC SD40’s in service on the mainline in daylight is difficult to accomplish. Even with the complexities of shooting unplanned train moves, Little River is one of the ‘safe’ plays for me, a location I’d fall back on for this occasion—and it certainly won’t be the last time.
Led by sister ‘40’s #FEC720 [SD40-2] and #FEC711 [SD40-2], a late-running FEC 193-08 heads south through the cluttered mess that Little River on the morning of December 8th, 2023, rounding the curve past the neighborhood’s namesake body of water towards the Little River wye. The two Champion units have 121 cars on the drawbar, 119 of them being empty limestone gondolas/hoppers, and two articulated TOFC spine cars for the railroads’ then-new Waste Management service on the bottom [said WM traffic now has its own dedicated train at the time of posting].
Typically operating under the cover of night, Train 193 handles empty limestone traffic out of Fort Pierce to Medley Monday through Friday as the southbound counterpart to Train 292, which handles the northbound loads out of Medley. Motive power for the service cycles every week, and greatly varies depending on what’s available.
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Little River, FL
FEC Mainline
Date: 12/08/2023 | 09:51
ID: FEC 193-08
Type: Empty Rock/IM
Direction: Southbound
Car Count: 121
1. FEC SD40-2 #720
2. FEC SD40-2 #711
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© Vicente Alonso 2023
Running early behind the coattails of southbound BLF 729-07, Florida East Coast Railway’s six-times weekly trash train, operating as FEC 191-07, has their train strutting through downtown West Palm Beach on the unusually nice afternoon of June 7th, 2025. #FEC711 [SD40-2] and #FEC430 [GP40-3] both provide power for their 41-car train, a strikingly colorful, rare locomotive pair; Champion colors paired with 430’s commemorative veterans paint scheme was something I never expected to witness, and it’s left me craving for more! Compared to Miami’s bustling, crowded skyline, West Palm offered a refreshing city scene to pair with 191-07’s eye-catching lashup, not to mention the impeccable weather conditions. The friendly Fort Pierce-based engineer lays on 711’s horn as a salute, the RSL-3L giving a dry wail, devoid of sufficient pressurized air.
Train 191, and its northbound counterpart Train 290, operate Monday through Saturday shuttling waste traffic between Hialeah, Port Everglades and Fort Pierce as part of a contract with Waste Management [WM]. Initially starting out as detours done by mainline freights, the service has expanded enough to warrant its own pair of dedicated trains. Starting at Fort Pierce Yard, empty waste containers originating from the WM Okeechobee Landfill are taken south on 191 directly to Hialeah Yard for unloading and distribution. Loaded waste containers are picked up at Hialeah’s intermodal ramp, returning north on 290, with the train making a pickup at Port Everglades for more loads. On Saturdays, additional empty rock cars out of New Smyrna Beach are tacked on the headend of 191 for Hialeah Yard, as seen above with 191-07 [21 wellcars of empty waste containers, 20 extra limerock/cement empties].
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West Palm Beach, FL
FEC Mainline
Date: 06/07/2025 | 18:44
ID: FEC 191-07
Type: Empty Rock/IM
Direction: Southbound
Car Count: 41
1. FEC SD40-2 #711
2. FEC GP40-3 #430 [Veterans]
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© Vicente Alonso 2025
Located at milepost PL 3.4 on the FEC Port Lead, Control Point OVERTOWN’s main purpose is to allow Florida East Coast Railway dispatchers line Brightline and TriRail passenger trains in and out of the five track, elevated, dead-end “MiamiCentral” terminal. The two track line splits into four here, with three leading into the station [tracks 1 and 3 for BLF, track 5 for RTA] and one branching off at ground level towards Port Miami, named the “DL” [short for “Dodge Lead”], used exclusively for FEC traffic. The line to Dodge Island has existed much longer than the triple track ramp into MiamiCentral, having been reactivated over a decade ago by FEC to serve Port Miami, a service that remains alive and well; on the other hand, CP OVERTOWN didn’t exist eight years ago.
Bathed in the late winter afternoon light, FEC PM1-01 breaks off from the “PL” onto the “DL” after knocking down the Approach Diverging indication at CP OVERTOWN, reducing its speed from ~30 MPH to ~10 MPH. #FEC711 [SD40-2], adorned in its bright ‘Champion’ paint scheme, takes charge of the yard job hauling 19 intermodal wellcars—12 loads and seven empties—bound for Port Miami, framed with the cluster of background Midtown apartment complexes around 16:44.
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Miami, FL
FEC Dodge Lead [CP OVERTOWN]
Date: 02/01/2024 | 16:44
ID: FEC PM1-01 [Job 23]
Type: Yard Job
Direction: Southbound
Car Count: 19
1. FEC SD40-2 #711
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© Vicente Alonso 2024
FEC Northbound Intermodal Train 226 passes through Palmer Street in Sf. Augustine, FL. with a pair of SD40-2’s in charge painted in the Champion paint scheme brought back from their passenger train days.
FEC Southbound Christmas Train 141 passes through St. Augustine, FL with Champion painted SD40-2 711 leading a GP40-2 painted specially for breast cancer awareness, I was suffering from fog that morning that filtered the sun some but it came out decent
FEC Northbound Intermodal Train 226 passes through Palmer Street in St. Augustine, FL. with a pair of SD40-2’s in charge painted in the Champion paint scheme brought back from FEC’s passenger train days.
FEC Northbound Intermodal Train 202 passes through Bunnell, FL with a pair of former UP SD40-2's in charge, these were cool to catch & even more cool that they will disappear in favor of the much better looking Champion scheme of FEC