Hey everyone…been down here in sunny Fla. (not as sunny as I hoped but not too bad) on a week vacation with friends. It is not a train oriented trip but this is me and of course it gets worked in no matter what. The FEC line follows a road for a while out of Jacksonville and last year I got to pace a train out of town on the way to St. Augustine, we went again yesterday and sure enough we chased a train down. Had three SD40-2s and sounded great. On the way back we passed another but didn’t get a good look in the dark but sure it was SD70s, was looking for new scheme but couldn’t tell. A couple of miles behind was another train heading south, this one with GP40s. Three trains just for driving past a bit and a variety of power. I am much impressed and have to give kudos to FEC for putting on a show I have’t seen in a while on even the bigger railroads. Too bad I forgot my camera.
Also saw my first Tri-Rail trains, so I guess train-wise I have been doing pretty well so far.
I’m really glad you got to enjoy some Florida railfanning, albeit, without a camera. Those trains you paced between Jax and St Augustine were most likely 107 to Hialeah, 117 to Ft. Lauderdale and 121 to Hialeah. Here’s a link to the current schedules so that you can determine for yourself: http://www.fecrs.com/svc_plan.html#southbound
The four new SD70M-2s with the new RailAmerica paint scheme aren’t in revenue service yet. They are currently in the New Smyrna Beach Shops being outfitted with cab signals and protective, sliding steel mesh window screens. They should be in service within a week or two.
How far south did you get during your trip? You mentioned Tri-Rail which, as everyone knows, runs between Mangonia Park (just N. of West Palm Beach) and Miami; the Palm Beach, Broward and Dade tri-county metropolitan are