View allAll Photos Tagged FEC715
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.
I had to repost this shot. But a trio of FEC EMD’s lead train #230 North over the San Sebastián River in St. Augustine, Florida.
06:45, Saturday, December 31st, 2022. Wake up to the phone alarm. Check Messenger. Nothing. Shower. Check Messenger. Voice message at 07:09 from Gary L.: “…We have a nice treat on 101 this morning, it’s all EMD six-axle power. By me in West Palm Beach at seven ‘o eight AM…” Verify the power via VRF Cocoa live cam. It’s two SD40-2s. Get dressed. Pack up equipment. Bail out the back door and drive up to Dania Beach.
This really wasn’t the headsup I was expecting to receive on New Year’s Eve; I was anticipating a report on CSX M45330 and it’s CM44AH leader, but alas, a rarity on the Florida East Coast Railway takes priority once again. In another odd move by Bowden Yard, FEC 101-31 would have two of the railroads SD40-2’s act as power for one of last southbound freights to traverse the mainline in 2022. Word within inner circles state that the reason behind this decision was because of a lack of LNG sets in Bowden. #FEC715 leads the train, the unit being one of three former Union Pacific “Snoot Nose” SD40-2’s, a nickname derived from the locomotives’ extended noses. Photographed at the MP 347 curve, commonly referred to as the “Dania Curve” by local buffs, 101-31 had completed setting out one multi-platform IM car at Port Everglades a few minutes prior, now roaring south to Hialeah Yard with 101 cars and the two EMDs howling in run 8. Traffic for Hialeah Yard was compromised of empty rock and cement tubs, manifest, one autorack, and two IM cars.
There’s too many people I’d like to tag so I’ll keep it brief: thank you to everyone who made 2022 great to me!
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Dania Beach, FL
FEC Mainline
Date: 12/31/2022 | 08:20
ID: FEC 101-31
Type: Manifest
Direction: Southbound
Car Count: 101
1. FEC SD40-2 #715
2. FEC SD40-2 #702
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© Vicente Alonso 2022
It had been three weeks since I had left home in Miami to venture around Chile for a little over two weeks, shooting all kinds of familiar and new interesting operations I had not been able to document in years past. It was a memorable trip overall, but alas, I had to go back home eventually, back to the mundanity that is South Florida railroading. Taking into account I hadn’t shot one of the railroad’s operations in a while, I took my chances at shooting some midday Florida East Coast Railway trains along the Belt Line for my first outing since returning, aiming to get FEC 206-22 and PM1-22.
Come 13:00 while set up at MP 365 looking down towards CP N IRIS, the first train to roll around wasn’t the 206-22, but PM1-22. Easing through the crossovers and under the signal gantries, the train is a whopping two cars long, comprised of two loaded three-platform wellcars. It and the power pulling it, #FEC715 [SD40-2], are headed towards PortMiami where the containers will be transferred to a cargo vessel bound for somewhere in the Caribbean. Equally as surprising as the size of PM1-22 was the time frame it come around; typically this Job follows FEC 206 out of Hialeah Yard onto the Belt, depending on the work needed to be done in the yard. The short cut of traffic for the Port must’ve expedited the crews work, allowing them to squeeze out before 206-22.
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Hialeah, FL
FEC Mainline [CP N IRIS]
Date: 06/22/2022 | 13:02
ID: FEC PM1-22 [Job 23]
Type: Yard Job
Direction: Southbound
Car Count: 2
1. FEC SD40-2 #715
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© Vicente Alonso 2022
Making an earlier appearance in St. Augustine than usual, 204 eases across the marsh shortly after sunrise. That 715 in the vintage FEC paint sure looks fantastic in the golden hour sun, if this was my railroad think I'd have the whole roster painted like that!
Florida East Coast Railway ( FEC ) Northbound Intermodal Train passes through Palmer Street in St. Augustine, FL.
Yeah it's hard to get nose light on a northbound FEC train outside of the couple of spots in St. Augustine, but kinda liked how the backlighting really made that extra long snoot nose on the 715 pop out. Built in 1978 for the UP as their 3437, hard to believe some of these have spent nearly as much time working for the FEC as they did out west.
There's a lot of competition in this category for sure, but I'd have to say the repainted FEC ones might be the best-looking SD40-2s ever.
With Gary Loveless and Christopher Beckett, 807, 715 & 418LHF are seen shooting across the trestle at MP304, just south of Gregory Road in West Palm Beach, Florida.