Florida - help please

[Anonymous]

Im an English railfan who is likely to be spending a good proportion of this year in Miami. Does anyone have any good linesiding tips or depot(engine sheds) info?

[fecfan]

I trust you that you will have a good street map of greater Miami, or an equivalent street knowledge thereof..The yard for the CSX/Amtrak and the facility for the Metrorail rapid-transit trains off NW 79th St near the famous Hialeah racetrack was a great place for all sorts of rail activity; I never had any trouble getting permission to the property ten years ago. Equally interesting will be the Hialeah Yard of the Florida East Coast Railway, a few miles from the CSX facility and just west of MIA airport. I used to go down the Palmetto Expressway and get off on NW 36st "948" and backtrack to their yard. It always helped to have a hardhat walking into these areas when asking permission for access.
If you get a chance to ride up to Ft. Lauderdale, the FEC Railway intermodal yard connecting w/ Port Everglades might be worth seeing. Take I-95 north to the I-595 exit and go east, you'll pass over the south throat of the yard and then backtrack to it from US 1. There are some pictures of that part of town at my FEC website.
Check to see if the Gold Coast Railroad is open for visitors. This famous south Florida railroad museum is located off Coral Reef road ("992") off US 1 south of Kendall at the Metrozoo, but the whole area was heavily damaged in the Hurricane in 1992. Don't know if it's back in operation yet, but its a good collection of american railroad history if it is.
Miami is historically very significant as a railroading town, that's a whole other field to explore. The Metrorail gives an enjoyable and efficient run about the city, but when taking the train through downtown Miami, remember that you're over the right-of-way of long-gone train tracks which years ago went all the way to Key West.

Have a safe trip,be careful, and enjoy South Florida!!



John




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[fecfan]

My mistake; it is the Palm Beach - to - Dade county 'Tri-Rail' trains which terminate, I believe, at the CSX/Amtrak yards in Hialeah (if you have a free day, take the Tri-rail up and back to West Palm Beach. Perfect way to see the CSX main in South Florida). I spent more time on the Tri-Rail than the Metrorail; I should've got it right the first time....

John

[Anonymous]

I highly reccomend riding the Tri-rail, Miami to North of West Palm Beach, you'll go through a couple of freight yards, see some interesting old stations, I saw lots of interesting equipment Amtrack & CSX. The fare was very cheap for the 70 miles each way journey, I think it was under 5 bucks round trip. The scenary in many places isn't beautiful, I don't know if you've been to the USA, before but many of our urban areas are crimeridden and 3rd world in nature. Kind of embarrassing. Be careful. Try to avoid the Liberty City area. One thing I reccomend is to brush up on your Spanish, it will come in handy, its the most spoken language in this part of the U.S. South Miami Beach is awesome.

Have fun,
James