Florida Color 2007

After a month's rest in Orlando, the train is moving to Miami to start the 2007 season.

Alternate shot of the southbound Ringling train passing A775, Z915 (both on left) & A798 at the north end of Taft Yard.

FEC #336 has wrapped around itself at the Rinker plant in City Point unloading by remote control. Notice the slight variant in paint jobs on both SD's (715 smaller herald on nose & hood, 717 larger herald on rear, but not on hood).

Arriving in Jax from Orlando. Decent set of engines, instead of the seemingly normal "safety cabs".

It had to happen sometime, 191 gets the 2000 to lead since being "daylighted" to the NSB end of the railroad a year ago.

Had been wanting to get the 2000 leading 191 since the train's originating terminal was swapped to NSB in daylight (from Ft Pierce at night). This shot comes just a few days shy of the first time I saw 2000 at NSB in the year 2000. A week after this shot here, 2000 was put in Bad Order Storage at NSB for a blown turbocharger.

Daily sight as CSXT brings TOFC & empty juice cars from Moncrief to Bowden.

Loram Rail Gringer has completed its work on FEC & is seen here running north at track speed along remnants of FEC's double track "Speedway".

Power from CSXT K999 sits as Conrad Yelvington brings loaded rock cars down to their pit, with Q455 holding the siding. Had K999's power been turned the other way, we'd have CSXT 455 facing south.

Waiting on Q258's train to be released. Note the large fuel tank on 6203.

Arriving in Parrish after the 2PM trip. Train shoves about halfway to Willow during the Feb "Month Of Steam".

Shoving out with the final trip of the day, passing the FL Railroad Museum's collection display which serves as the ticket office & gift shop.

Steam makes a month-long appearance at Florida Railroad Museum (formerly Florida Gulf Coast Rwy). The mainline they use runs thru classic FL that doesn't appear to have changed in 100 years. *Note, there is no official AAR reporting mark for this locomotive as it is moved by truck, so I improvised for this site.

STEAM returns to the woods of FL for the month of Feb, seen here blowing for the one & only grade crossing between Willow & Parrish.

Ex-GO/TriRail locomotive semi-posed with two Florida Railroad Museum pieces.

Easing down along San Sebastian Bay.

Hitting the curve in the Nation's Oldest City. Gondolas of panel track behind motors.

Display has been cut out of train & is backing down to Volusia Ave.

Passing South Daytona, this was one of the spots I spent many hours in the late 80's becoming familiar with FEC. Excellent for night audio recordings!

Following #101 by 20 minutes on a Friday, has been happening this way lately for some reason. #109 is usually out well ahead of #101.

448 is fresh out of the shop with "St Augustine" & "Azalea" & the power car being spotted into the team track at Daytona Beach by local #910.

Before the tent & other "obstructions" went up.

448 is fresh out of the shop with "St Augustine" & "Azalea" & the power car spotted into the team track at Daytona Beach by local #910.

Fresh paint on 448, right out of the shop, with "St Augustine" & "Azalea"

Hanging over Volusia Avenue.

Backing down into Taft Ramp to assemble Q258.

The removal of the dead telephone poles along the tracks in Taft has opened up an otherwise tight photo op....and when it rains, this "reflection pond" can be had.

Annual visit is almost over as "Work Extra 425" passes Sunbeam. Train will recrew & head over to NS.

Running about 40MPH under I-95 south of the Harwood siding.

Northbound from Bowden Yard with an unusual motor on the point....if they had moved out about 30 minutes earlier, I'd still have sunlight & it'd be a much sharper pic...it's just here until I get better luck :-)

Once in a while, we get something borrowed and/or blue in the rock train pool from Miami. This unit was the only LMS unit to have a four digit 700-series number, 0701. Seen here at Highland Avenue northbound on #1 track. This spot makes for good morning light northbound shots and, finally, has been cleared of dead telephone poles that made shooting here tricky up until now! (Wish I could go back to 2000/2001 when the ex-EMD lease fleet was on this job & make better shots here)

Until recently, shooting this far back at Highland Avenue on the A-Line doubletrack north of downtown Orlando wasn't possible unless you could live with telephone poles in the foreground. Many areas with dead lines have recently been cleared & thankfully, this is one of those areas. The branch line leading into the bottom of the shot is coming off the #2 track & used to offer enough gap space between poles to get two motors in a shot if the train was on #2 track, the spur used to serve a lumber yard off Virginia Avenue & is the last piece of the line to Oviedo still in place. Now, the spur is just used for MofW. At one time, the local used to "clear up" here for opposing traffic.

Southbound loaded flyash train will drop at Taft for FCEN & continue south. These trains had been running once a week, but have dropped back to twice a month as when they first started out.

Two New Orleans trains side by side at Baldwin: K872 from BNSF & Q606 off UP.

At Baldwin on the Tallahassee side

Departing off the Tallahassee Sub towards the Callahan Sub & Waycross.

Quite a few of these are on BNSF & several have drifted into FL lately. Seen here as the sun burns thru the early morning fog headed to Baldwin & Waycross...then Mulberry.

Breaking thru the morning fog east of Lake City running railroad north.

Yes, 5542 is that badly faded! Nice consist working Taft Yard.

Inbound power from Q255...an almost identical set will show up here the next day on the same job.

Inbound power from Q255...an almost identical set showed up here the prior day on the same job.

Backing down into Taft Ramp to assemble Q258.

No "Golden Spike" moment here. O682 comes up from Tampa & heads around the south leg of the wye in Taft & usually encounters Q255's power tied down there. SO, they have to couple up & shove them as far down as necessary to clear up & back around the north leg of the wye to get running back southward to Tampa, setting off in Taft Yard. This particular moment took upwards of 20 minutes. For a crew with only three more hours to work, that's a mighty long time.

Train is backing around the north leg of the wye at "TOFC" to turn & head south.

O682 is on the main southbound with A776 working the yard. Yes, all the paint is as faded as it appears.

Leaning into the curve southbound from Taft Yard.

Elusive Tampa-Winston-Taft turn at the north end of Taft siding northbound. When it first started running in the late 90's it was Q682 following Q188 from Tampa, but was later changed to "O" as the "Q" symbol classified a Waycross-oriented job better & is usually out of Tampa around 0300hrs. Lately, it has been very tardy & running close on hours of service.

Dreams DO come true!! First, all the dead telephone poles alkng the main & service track at Taft were taken down, opening up a remarkable photo angle. Now, after as many eons of dealing with the overgrown vegetation along the RofW on the Taft Ramp lead that often made photography tricky, CSXT has plowed it all out on both sides by Rachel's (they only did the north side one other ~ime). Figures, they waited to do this for so long, now with the possibility of them moving the intermodal ops to Winter Haven!

A pair of former ex-CR motors take Q258 north from Taft Ramp, passing recently-cleared RofW.

P92001 northbound passing Jax Amtrak. Who knew CSXT wanted to run a steam train? :-) Usually, trains pulling from Moncrief Yard will begin blowing smoke right about here as they notch up, but it was a surprise to see this one doing that having already been running good for a few miles.