I recently travelled from Nurnberg, Germany to Palmetto, Florida "March 8-31 March 2016" to visit family. I remembered that the Juice Train ran through Palmetto around 645am Monday-Friday, and wanted to get some shots of it going across the Manatee River, on the old ACL drawbridge. It must be the slow time of year at Tropicana, because I didn't see or hear the train until 30 March 2016. It left Tropicana around 10am and by the time I caught up to it, the train was almost through Palmetto. I remembered the old ACL bridge in Ruskin, me and my tiny Toyota rental car bolted for Ruskin. I made it with 15 minutes to spare. What an incredible sight as the Juice Train stopped short of the bridge and the Conductor did a bridge check, before the big GE locomotives crossed over at a snails pace. The Conductor climed aboard and the train roared on.
There are very good viewing points that are NOT on CSX property. Take the 1st road left after the US41 Little Manatee River bridge, heading North. This road has a railroad crossing at the bridge, really cool.
It has been awhile since I had thought about the'Tropicana Juice Train'. I actually say it for the first time while waiting to load at a shipper location in Jersey. Then once I caught it in the Richmond, Va. area. That was back in the early 1970's, and it was pretty impressive, a solid train of white insulated boxcars. Not too sure of more than those details at this point; I think I remember reading that they run multi-car shipments out to the West Coast (?)
Not necessarily a full- dedicated train (?). For an operation that has lasted from back in the early 1950's to current times, they MUST be doing things right to have lasted over 65 years.
I see the "Juice Train" fairly often passing through the Richmond VA area. For a while it had container flats (empty) tacked on to the tail end, now it seems to be strictly "Tropicana," at least heading north.
Going south, the juice cars are usually mixed in with a regular freight consist.
Sad thing is, those big white cars seem to be an irresistable "canvas" to the graffiti artists.
Firelock76 I see the "Juice Train" fairly often passing through the Richmond VA area. For a while it had container flats (empty) tacked on to the tail end, now it seems to be strictly "Tropicana," at least heading north. Going south, the juice cars are usually mixed in with a regular freight consist. Sad thing is, those big white cars seem to be an irresistable "canvas" to the graffiti artists.
Interesting stuff! I did a little surfing for " Tropicana Juice Train" and found several sites with information on it.
The following linked site is a 'shamless commercial promotion by GE and has a video of 156 seconds in length that seems to be a complilation of a forward facing camera of the entire Bradenton, Fla to Jersey City, NJ.. northbound trip. pretty cool stuff!
http://www.ge.com/stories/juicetrain
The video mentions that" The[Juice]Train" makes five turn a week, and it is done with f enroute crew changes. NO wonder Firelock 76 sees it often in Richmond area !
Also found this link @ http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/127283.aspx It is alink to a Trains Forum from May of 2008 titled "Tropicana Juice Train"
Also, from a Wikipedia link @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juice_Train
As I had previosly stated; this Tropicana Juice Train has a history that goes back to prior to the 1950's and has run almost continously from then to current times. It is an amazing story and should be a poin5t of pried to the folks at CSX ( and its predecssor lines) and to Tropicana through its changes of ownership in those 65 or so years(?).
Wonder if TRAINS has ever done a Feature Story on what could amount to a railroad legend?
We should add the Tropicana train is pretty much the only train you'll see with what used to be called "billboard cars," or close to it in this day and age.
Those cool, colorful old billboard cars were outlawed back in the 1930's for various reasons, the only exception for their use (as I understand it) is if the train doesn't leave "home rails." In this case the Tropicana train is CSX all the way from Florida to the New York area, although I could be wrong on the "home rails" thing.
Firelock76 We should add the Tropicana train is pretty much the only train you'll see with what used to be called "billboard cars," or close to it in this day and age. Those cool, colorful old billboard cars were outlawed back in the 1930's for various reasons, the only exception for their use (as I understand it) is if the train doesn't leave "home rails." In this case the Tropicana train is CSX all the way from Florida to the New York area, although I could be wrong on the "home rails" thing.
Tropicana ships to 3 destinations, the New Jersey one is the primary, however they now have facilities at Cincinnati and City of Industry, CA. City of Industry is an interline route.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD
I have seen a few cars running on some IMs on the W&A near LOCKAIR (Marietta) this must me the Cincinatti cars you mentioned.
I used to see the Juice Train thundering thru Jesup, GA from 1990 to 1992. The cars were orange back then. Now, some of them (I assume to and from California) come thru Tallahassee at the front of IM trains.
How do they refuel all the reefers?
That's a good question! I've wondered about that myself, are the refridgeration units on the cars independent units, that is are they separate engines that need refueling, or are they powered by head-end power from the locomotives?
I'm sure someone out there knows the answer.
They are powered by individual refrigerator generator sets located on one end of the car. Most seem to be slightly larger versions of the Carrier units found on refrigrated truck trailers. This allows them to stay cool even when disconnected.
The only freight locomotives that offer freight HEP are Alaska's SD70MACs (also used on passenger) that are used to heat loads in the winter.
Interesting. Gets back to "C&O's" question about refueling the same. I'd assume it's done around the same time the cars are loaded in Florida, no need to fuel them for the trip south obviously, they're empty. Making a wild guess I'm thinking they'd be propane powered like a Servel refrigerator. The whole procedure would be fascinating to know.
NorthWestThe only freight locomotives that offer freight HEP are Alaska's SD70MACs (also used on passenger) that are used to heat loads in the winter.
It's kinda dim in my old mind, but I think I read that the Panama Canal Rail Road uses HEP to hook up to refrigerated containers transferred between ships. I did a couple of quick searches and didn't find anything about it. Does anyone know anything about this?
_____________
"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
I suppose that I should have put a 'in the US' qualifier on that...
Panama Canal Railroad uses ex-Amtrak F40PHs, so it is possible and makes sense in the tropics.
Firelock, I believe that they are diesel powered.
Even more interesting. That would explain the time I saw the Juice Train passing through and one of the refrigeration units was smoking like a diesel with bad injectors.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.