Day 1 of my Florida trip was highly productive. I got a total of four different Amtrak trains, one of those twice. I also bagged a Sunrail commuter train, a CSX local, various industrial and shoreline engines and two FEC trains. This is a picture of FEC train 101 crossing a bridge at Melbourne on Monday.
Making a back-up move in Tavares, Florida.
While vacationing in Florida I caught one of the last trips of the Tavares Eustis & Gulf steam train, the Orange Blossom Cannonball.
TE&G No. 2, a Baldwin 2-6-0 built in 1907, powered these final trips the weekend of Jan. 27-28 2017.
This scenic railway used the tracks of the Florida Central short line. It started operation in 2011 and an increase in trackage rights fees caused it to shut down this month.
The equipment has been used in movies such as True Grit, Appaloosa, and 3:10 to Yuma, among others. It is owned by the Reader Railroad of Arkansas and will be returned there.
I was fortunate to be vacationing for these last trips.
Here are some photographs from Fernandina Beach, Florida, and the First Coast Railroad, a Genesee & Wyoming property.
The 1810 is former AD&N. The 437 with that picture window front is former Chattahoochee and is lettered for the Golden Isles Terminal Railroad, another G&W property.
First Coast serves the port of Fernandina Beach. There is lots of paper off loaded into ships there. All of the track was originally Seaboard Air Line and branched off the main at Yulee, north of Jacksonville. The Fernandina Beach rail line was part of the first cross-state Atlantic to the Gulf railroad operation.
Amtrak’s Silver Star crossing the St Johns River at Sanford, Florida.
The southbound Autotrain at Sanford.
The Silver Meteor makes a station stop at Deland, Florida.
Florida East Coast train 101-29 at Daytona Beach, Florida.
An FEC train crossing the Tomoka River at Ormand Beach, Florida.
A Sunrail commuter train at the station in Debary, Florida.
Akron Railroad Club member Todd Dillon was in Florida this past weekend and sends along these images from the Sunshine State. He caught some Florida East Coast, Amtrak and Sun Rail commuter trains.
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