I am looking for help in identifying two trains that I shot some years back.
The first shot is of a local train with what appears to be empty Norfolk Southern hoppers at Dania in 1991. The sun indicates that I took the picture in early to mid afternoon. Is it safe to say that this is Train 965 the Fort Lauderdale switcher?
http://freericks.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=830729
The second shot is a local train that was working in the downtown Miami area (probably between there and the 71st Wye) in 1981. It is carrying clearly empty boxcars. The picture looks like it was taken at exactly mid-day, based on the shadows only appearing directly under the train. Does anyone know what train this was? Also, can anyone recognize the exact location?
http://freericks.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=827818
Thanks so much for any information you can provide.
Charles Freericks
Hello Charles, I think I can help although it appears that you were the person who took these photos and thus you should know where the second photo was taken.
First photo: Yes, that would be local 965 out of Ft. Lauderdale Terminal. Your photo was obviously taken from the East side of the tracks along SW 4th Ave. at about SW 2nd Pl. facing NW. This location is just South of Stirling Road (SR-848) in Dania, now named Dania Beach for tourism reasons, of course.
Second photo: This Miami train is officially called “Downtown”. This is because technically it never leaves the yard limits, thus is not a local and no number assigned. This train works Little River belt line industries and rarely runs to the Port of Miami on Dodge Island. The entire FEC line from Hialeah Yard (on the NW side of Miami Intl. Airport), E to the wye at NE 4th Ave. and S to the end-of-the-line in Kendall falls within the limits of Hialeah Yard.
This photo appears to have been taken at the NE 71st St. grade X-ing, facing SE. The train is sitting on the center track which no longer exists in that district. Now, approximately a quarter mile S of this location is a left hand crossover connecting the E and W tracks. Just S of the crossover, the two tracks merge and it’s single track the rest of the way.
I’ll be in Miami this weekend. I’ll verify this information for you and post my findings to this thread.
Ted,
That’s exactly the info I was looking for. Thanks so much. (And yes, you are correct, I did take both shots… but in the 1980s and early 90s I stopped taking notes, like I had in the 1970s and do now… so I had little or no idea where I was when I took the pictures out to look at again years later.)
CF