These pics were taken in April 2010, at the Orlando (Florida) Church Street Station. This is the former ACL (Atlantic Coast Line) station; it is surrounded by more modern buildings. The Baldwin steam engine is in sad shape, and the passenger cars are even worse, with a lot of rust damage and several broken windows. The engine has Searboard Air Line logos, but I do not know the rail lineage of the passenger cars; all identifying info was painted over.
MP
I hate seeing stuff like this equipment just sitting there rusting away it is sad , who owns this prioperty Larry
It's not clear who currently owns it. This station area was part of an "entertainment complex" in the 1980s and 1990s but has fallen on hard times. A review of Wikipedia shows the property has changed hands a few times. The engine, evidently once with Frisco, is for sale. The cab is protected by plexiglass sheets.
My understanding is the Church St Station is the old SAL station. SAL had a line from Wildwood - Leesburg - Tavarers (now abandoned by FMID and SCL) then Ellsworth - Plymouth - Orlando which is now Florida Midland RR (FMID) that line crossed the ACL (it now junctions into the ACL line) about 1 - 2 blocks north to the Church St Station which is east of the ACL (CSX soon to be Sun Rail)(the CSX line is in the foreground of your station picture). SAL then continued north from the station (east of the ACL line to Oviedo (now abandoned).
The present Amtrak station at 1400 S.Sligh Blvd is about 2 - 3 miles south of the Church St. Station. This station is on the old ACL line and as far as I know is the original location for ACL station. It could have been ACL used church St for a short time?
Although I usually boarded and detrained at Lakeland, Sanford, or Winter Park, while on business in the area and visiting very close friends, I did use the downtown Orlando Church Street station on several occasons, and can assure you it was definitely used by the Atlantic Coast Line up into the Seabord Coast LIne era. Business did include work at Disney World at one point, so the station was in use as late as the facility was built and open.
When I took photos there 20 or more years the dome and the obs were painted olive green and lettered SOUTHERN.
The steam loco is former St. Louis-San Francisco (Frisco) 0-6-0 3749, built 1911 by Baldwin. It came to Orlando after it was purchased by the developers of Church Street Station ca. 1977 from Pensacola, Florida, where it had been donated ca. 1976 by a scrapper there who had bought it ca. 1963. Pensacola was the farthest east the Frisco operated.
The sorry part is that between the City of Orlando and the owners of The Orlando Magic, they spent hundreds of millions or dollars on the new Amway Center about a block away on the other side of I-4, and have done nothing for an historic part of downtown Orlando thus far.
There is nothing quite as destructive to 'stuffed & mounted' equipment as the continual exposure to the Florida Sun.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
It always distresses us train lovers that static displays often fall into disrepair due to weather and vandals and simply old age.
The problem is, it takes money $$$$ to restore to running order or to properly "stuff and mount" {as it was stated in a post} and display a locomotive or RR cars.
Steamtown's yard is full of some really decrepit old equipment and passenger cars. They have a loco they are trying to restore and are collecting donations to do so. {far into the future as time to work on it and not of Steamtown's major running attraction 3 steamers it has to run- not all of which are ever all ready to run anytime together- there is always at least one of them down for a rebuild, and usually only one to actually run at any given time}. I asked the locomotive back shop tour guide if there was any loco in their yard that they considered too far gone to restore. His answer was "If you throw enough money at any one of them, they could be restored to operation. THe problem is having the money {and time} to retore it".
The RailRoad Museum of PA is also trying to raise money to restore a 4-4-0 Atlantic, but are far from the goal. Whether it will be restored for static inside display or actually run somewhere is another question.
The K4 The Horseshoe PA organization that was trying to restore using their people to work it, and Steamtown's shops to do it in ran into big snags when it was found to be so far more costly than they thought and could afford and it got stalled mid project, and still is in pieces. Again lack of $$$ for a boiler rebuild snagged it.
Unless we are all willing to provide money for restoration of these beautiful locos we see everywhere, then they will, unfortunately, continue to deteriorate, especially if left outside exposed to the weather. Preservation efforts by just painting the locos with black oil paint doesn't really stop all the rusting that will happen in the future as far as I am concerned.
I have and will continue to support money for the Steamtown rebuild and the RR Museum Of PA's rebuild, But I don't have, say, $500K to throw at them to help them along. But a smaller gift of cash made by many can have the desired results!
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
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