[B)][B)][B)]Destin Flordia …Any place to railfan in the Destin Flordia area…My mother-in-law is taking the whole family there for 2 weeks. This fair skinned, easily sunburned fatboy can only take so much surf & sand.
Not too much of an “answer”, really…
The only major railroad within your radius of Destin is, as indicated, CSX (I believe ex-L&N). Crestview (on Florida 85) is an Amtrak stop – be advised, though, that the schedule times for the Sunset Limited are somewhat “off-hours”! Station is 101 N. Main. 85 also parallels an old railroad grade for much of the route up to Florala (AL) which might be interesting to you.
I use 331 to get to Blue Mountain Beach, and the stretch in De Funiak Springs has some good watching locations. There is an airport just south of the intersection of the north leg of 331 and US 90 where I’ve been able to park without trouble. You can get maps from some of the online services; here’s one from Rand McNally that shows the tracks (zoom level 9):
(take all the spaces out if you paste the link…)
There are several grade crossings with short lines on 331 going up to Florala – interested knowledgeable people can tell you about them.
Take newly-four-laned 98 east past Carillon Beach to the Panama City area, and you’ll find a short line that I often see traffic on.