View allAll Photos Tagged USSC405
With sundown just minutes away, SCFE’s Sebring Turn wraps up work at Wedgworth’s in the outskirts of Moore Haven. The crew would begin to resort cars in their train prior to their arrival to Clewiston with traffic for industries around the Lake Okechoobee area, pulling down over an irrigation canal just off of CR 720. The turn job had left Clewiston earlier that morning to the CSX interchange at Sebring with outbound traffic, working other industries on the way to and from.
To my utmost delight, #USSC405 [GP38-2], paired up with #USSC409 [GP38-2], would be acting as power for the turn; the sound of twin 16-645E roots blown prime movers sputtering as the engineer eased cars back and forth while sorting made for an enjoyable few minutes of waiting. Upon getting underway at 17:25, the turn would have 26 cars in total upon arrival to its terminus at around 17:55, with the minimal sunlight restricting me to shooting video footage for the remainder of the chase back east from this point onwards.
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Moore Haven, FL
SCFE Sebring Subdivision
Date: 12/14/2022 | 17:11
ID: SCFE Sebring Turn
Type: Local
Direction: Eastbound
Car Count: 26
1. USSC GP38-2 #405
2. USSC GP38-2 #409
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© Vicente Alonso 2022
Night begins to settle in over the patchy clouds hovering over Clewiston, FL as townsfolk head out to attend their Saturday night weekend activities. On the south side of the city, however, the U.S. Sugar mill drones on in the background and train horns blare in the distance. It’s only January; there’s still plenty of weeks left until the season is over.
Up by the South Florida Central Express North Shops, a line of U.S. Sugar EMD’s idle away on a stub track tucked away after completing a long days’ work of hauling sugar cane around the city. #USSC405 [GP38-2] idles away closest to the switch to the SCFE mainline. The shop building lights shine off of the units impeccable yellow and gray paint, a truly unique scheme within Florida. All the while, an inbound SCFE cane job rolls by with USSC GP11 #310 hauling 22 loaded cane cars for the mill, it’s blinding LED lights rolling by the facility and idling geeps.
From what I’ve seen online, buffs who go visit the U.S. Sugar operations tend to stick around until the sun goes down. Night photography and videography can be tricky without the proper equipment at times. The one time I decided to stick around past sundown, January 21st, the day this long exposure was taken, I got to understand the scope of the sugar harvest operation; When people say “it’s a 24-hour operation” through the season, they aren’t kidding. Trains on both the USSC and SCFE continue running between the mill and loadouts all throughout the night. Hopefully I can capture more of the “dark side” of the operation in the near future, as much as a challenge it may be.
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Clewiston, FL
SCFE Sebring Subdivision [North Shops]
Date: 01/21/2023 | 18:38
ID: [unknown]
Type: Loaded Cane
Direction: Eastbound
Car Count: 22
1. USSC GP11 #310
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© Vicente Alonso 2023
Nothing beats a lax full-day train chasing session in south central Florida’s expansive sugar cane fields south of the Inland Sea. Amongst the fields of sugar cane stalks, powerlines, and canals, a yellow speck is spotted off in the distance; a cane train waiting to head back into the mill. Following an hour long wait and a brief check-up with some passing Hendry County sheriffs questioning my parked car off the side of Evercane Rd., #USSC405 [GP38-2] slowly proceeds west towards the end of the Ritta sugar cane loadout off of the SCFE's Fort Pierce Subdivision with loads for U.S. Sugar’s processing mill in Clewiston. This job only had 20 loaded cars for the mill, which lies out of view two miles to the west.
The locomotive in the lead was of particular interest to me that day. Even though USSC only rosters three types of locomotives for road jobs [not including their SWs and MPs that stay within yard limits], none of their locomotives were built new for them, each of them having operated for multiple railroads prior or having been extensively rebuilt at some point during its lifetime. USSC 405 is no exception to this. It would begin its life in late 1979 as a GP40-2 built for the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad as #422. Following careers on the GTW and HLCX, it would be sold to US Sugar around 2006, now with a de-turboed 16-645E but still using its original but slightly altered carbody.
It gained notoriety to me while on USSC for the two Leslie horns that are mounted on the unit: an RS3L and an exceptionally rare tabby S5T. Although other locomotives on the roster have two horns, I believe this one has the best looking and sounding one. Might’ve gotten too carried away hounding the unit all day on the jobs it went on, but those will be for another time.
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Clewiston, FL
SCFE Ritta Branch
Date: 12/10/2022 | 14:17
ID: [unknown]
Type: Loaded Cane
Direction: Westbound
Car Count: 20
1. USSC GP38-2 #405
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© Vicente Alonso 2022
November 7, 2016: On the way back home the day after the Homestead air show, I encounter US Sugar Co. 405 pulling a string of cane cars out of Clewiston north to Moore Haven so I gave chase...
November 7, 2016: On the way back home the day after the Homestead air show, I encounter US Sugar Co. 405 pulling a string of cane cars out of Clewiston north to Moore Haven so I gave chase...