Postcard from the Folkston Funnel

[Hugh Jampton]

QUOTE: Originally posted by warrior

now if you had been at FOLKESTON KENT,you could have took photographs of some real trains.eurostars entering &leaving the channel tunnel at 186 mph.frieght trains entering & leaving at 70 mph.

err,, not quite,, Eurostars are limited to 100MPH on the approach to and through the tunnel (within Eurotunnel yard limits),, Shuttles travel at 70 and frieght trains travel at 50 or 60 depending on what's in the consist,.and due to the security it's not possible to photograph them. the best place to see a Eurostar flat out is North of Ashford.

Pity that autofocus doesn't work well in poor light conditions.

[tree68]

QUOTE: Originally posted by warrior

now if you had been at FOLKESTON KENT,you could have took photographs of some real trains.eurostars entering &leaving the channel tunnel at 186 mph.frieght trains entering & leaving at 70 mph.

Hey - I was happy to see in the space of a few hours what I would have to sit trackside for 48 hours straight to see near home, and that doesn't include the Amtrak!

I'd love to see the Chunnel traffic - moving at that speed it has to be impressive.

As for the Amtrak fuzz-fest, it was either too dark and fooled the autofocus, or I rushed it and didn't give it a chance to settle in...

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by warrior

now if you had been at FOLKESTON KENT,you could have took photographs of some real trains.eurostars entering &leaving the channel tunnel at 186 mph.frieght trains entering & leaving at 70 mph.

Interesting you should mention Folkstone, Kent, My brother-in-law grew up there a few years ago in the pre-chunnel days. He tells me that where his school was they dumped the tailings and mud from the channel. You are correct on seeing those Eurostars bolt out of the chunnell like a canon ball. He showed me some photos of one of the trains exiting the North Portal. To bad he isn't in the forum to show them. By the way if you should have some photo's (snaps I think are what they are called in the UK) to add a counter-point to tree's from the other Folkstone, I believe the forum would like to see them.

[Anonymous]

now if you had been at FOLKESTON KENT,you could have took photographs of some real trains.eurostars entering &leaving the channel tunnel at 186 mph.frieght trains entering & leaving at 70 mph.

[locomutt]

Larry,
Good pictures!!!! And yeah,it had to be good to get a little
something else out of a 'working' trip like this one.

[JoeKoh]

LARRY
thanks for the great pics.
stay safe
Joe

[cherokee woman]

Larry, you've got some very good pictures there!! Glad you're able
to get some railfanning in between briefings.

[Modelcar]

....Tree: Enjoyed your photos...Too bad the Amtrak one was out of focus...seemed like a nice shot.

[tree68]

(At the risk of sounding like I work for the Folkston Chamber of Commerce)

During a business trip to the Jacksonville area, I found that Folkston, GA wasn't really all that far away (about 40 miles from JAX airport). I had free time the last afternoon, so I made the trip. It was well worth it:

5:03pm, Southbound Auto Racks behind CSX 9024

5:10pm, more SB racks behind CSX 8206

5:27pm, SB intermodal behind CSX 7790

5:45pm SB manifest behind 8768

5:47pm, NB TOFC & IM (Q601?) behind CSX 609 + a UP "Flag", held at signal meets 8768. They moved as the SB was passing them. They had stopped at 5:42.

6:05pm, Another SB manifest behind CSX 516 and a BNSF. This may have been the Q613, If I heard the scanner right.

7:15 pm - A bit of a dry spell, then UP 5211 leads yet another SB manifest.

7:20pm, CSX 766 leads a bunch of LAKX hoppers NB

Another dry spell, but the signals just north of the pavilion show something is probabably coming. It's out of focus for some reason, but a NB Amtrak AutoTrain makes its way through. It crossed over to the No. 1 (SB) track just north of Folkston for some reason.

That wrapped up the available daylight (there is a flood light next to the pavilion), but when I stopped to visit a fire station in Hilliard, another NB autorack train passed through behind CSX 5824.

I missed the head end of another NB (empty hoppers again) while I was chatting with the Hilliard firefighters (and trading patches).

A few miles further south I stopped to visit another fire station in Callaghan and heard two more trains go through.

All four of those trains had to pass through Folkston.

There were a variety of people to be found around the pavilion, including railfans and people just there to see trains (there is a difference!). A gentleman from the Atlanta area was shooting some video for his own edification. When I first arrived, an older local resident was there taking notes on passing trains. He wasn't an experienced railfan - I explained several things to him, but he was definitely interested.

All in all, it was a good time! Just a couple short blocks off US1/US23, with food nearby, a scanner running all the time, and lots of information about local track, it's great.

(By the way - please don't quote this entire post if you want to comment - it's a waste of time and space!)