The Florida East Coast Rwy

[fecfan]

Specifically, I would appreciate help in getting current rosters for locomotives and for maintainence-of-way cars of the Florida East Coast Railway. I would be generally interested in any discussion about this road as well, I have followed it for over twenty years but have since moved away from Florida, thus making it more difficult to stay current with the FEC. Some of my photos of the FEC are at www.geocities.com/myfecrailway . I'll be glad to meet you.


John

[Anonymous]

John,
Just checked out your website, WOW! What a trip down memory lane !!!
Born & raised in Ft. Lauderdale (living in Kansas the last 10 years & learning to love Armour Yellow) till '88, the FEC & SCL were what I cut my young railfan teeth on.
I so remember that interlocking "shack" (hardly a tower eh?) at the SCL Port Everglades access & I'm proud to say (but BARELY remember)that as a wee-youngin' I rode the Gold Coast Railroad when it was still just north of the airport.
Your photo of the New River Bridge did it for me the most though. I can remember spending MANY hours at that exact spot (& the other 3 corners as well) waiting for that countdown timer to come on, hear the warnning horn sound, watch the span come down, & then watch & listen as a train (or two) banged across the bridge.
I recall trying to talk to the bridge tender a couple of times but he wasn't too interested in me - "get outta here kid, yer tresspassin'!).
Oh well, thanks for the memories.

Matt

[fecfan]

Right on Matt! Made my day. Folks like you are one of the main reasons I built the site. My first train ride happened to be on the Gold Coast RR in the early 1970's, when I was about seven or eight. There's more scenes on the way of the GCRR and the Ft Lauderdale bridge, keep checking the "Ft. Lauderdale" section of the website or just email me from the site. Sure wish I had a photo from one of my many visits to the old FEC Princeton depot when it was still at Crandon Park Zoo!

John

[Anonymous]

I enjoyed your website, had a little trouble with the old branch line links, is there any business left on the Titusville branch, I drove by this in December, it looked like it was still in use. I used to live in Melbourne and had a freind who was modeling the FEC in N scale. I used to enjoy watching those freights barreling through at around 60mph. I now live in warm sunny Pennsylvania. I think he was trying to model the whole locomotive roster.
I was wondering if you know anything about the shortline that took over the branch at Ft. Pierce.

Thanks,
James

[fecfan]

Hello, James. Thanks for visiting my FEC Rwy site. The broken links were my fault, I didn't get all the pages up. That problem will be gone this week - hope you'll check back sometime.
The few times I trekked the Titusville branch mile by mile, I never saw a car on the track except in town. Past Mims the grade crossings are mostly rural/residential, as you probably know, and by the time the rails get to Aurantia about four miles up, they're paved over at the crossing. No one has really been able to give me a sure answer to why this track hasnt been taken up yet like the rest of the branch.
Ten years ago I modeled in 'N', Port Everglades and its connection w/ the FEC in Ft Lauderdale. I, too, have since left the Sunshine State.
An FEC rep at the sales office in Miami told me that the South Central Florida Express (SCFE)interchanges cars w/ the FEC at Ft Pierce. I don't know alot about the SCFE except that it runs down the middle of the state through places like Sebring on what is probably ex-SCL tracks. They used to meet the FEC at Lake Harbor at the bottom of the lake. In my DeLorme's map it looks like there is a modest yard in nearby Clewiston. I couldnt find a corperate site for SCFE, but if you go to a search engine like Google and type in "south central florida" (w/ quotation marks), you'll get over a hundred links to stuff related to it, including some fan sites.
Hope this helps. Glad to hear from you!


John

[Anonymous]

A few years ago I drove along the northeast coast of Florida, on Highway 19/98/27. I noticed a railroad running through towns like Cross City, Suwanee, Fanning Springs, Crystal River, etc. Then a year ago I was on the same highway and the railroad had been pulled up. Was this the FEC? (I realize it was on the WEST coast, but you never know). Also, do you have any info as to why and when it was abandoned?

[jsanchez]

I believe the track your talking about was originaly Atlantic Coastline trackage, it later was Seaboard Coastline, C.S.X., and part of it belonged to the shortline Florida Northern for awhile. The main shipper in Cross City closed down, I believe it was a pulpwood mill, after this was gone there was no more business past Trenton, Fl and this is were the track ends now. Some of the trackage in Cross city was originaly part of a shortcut for Florida passenger trains going to Chicago, this was built I believe in 1927. There never was much online business and Amtrack killed the Chicago to Florida trains around 1979. So the line was pretty much redundant after that.

James

[fecfan]

I don't have anything to add to James' helpful information except a little trivia. Another branch of the line connected with the tracks you asked about at Fanning Springs and went east. Thirteen miles of this line has been saved and is operated as the "Florida West Coast" railroad, evidently hooking up to another CSX connection closer to Gainesville. The fact that the FWC has an up-to-date website suggests that they are still in business.
I'd like to make a trip like the one you took. This is one area of Florida I've never been in, but I understand there's a web of old and abandoned lines all the way down past Tampa. Just for the record, the FEC tracks very seldom stray from the literal east coast of Florida, and where they do they never go as far as even the middle of the state.

[cudjoebob]

I don't have a florida map in front of me, but wasn't there a FEC connection west of daytona over to the st. johns river where it connected to a southern railway precursor that came down from the valdosta area? is there still a bridge over the st. john river?
I used to work for SCL out of miami 2/73-2/75, working the extra board I occasionally caught the "port everglades switcher". it was based at the ft. lauderdale freight station. I have pulled those levers at the FEC/SCL port everglades junction "shack".
with the building of the interstate highway extension usurping the SCL right of way, the port everglades service is no more. only FEC serves the port now.
I caught a work train originating in west palm beach once that went up the main line all the way to sebring, then switched onto the former ACL track all the way down to moore haven on what is now a short line RR, I think is the south central florida express.

[kenneo]

There is now a new book on the FEC and the "founder and developer" of Florida --- "Last Train to Paradise" Henry Flagler and the spectacular rise and fall of the railroad that crossed the ocean. by Les Standiford copyright 2002, Crown Publishers division of Random House isbn 1-4000-4947-4.

[Anonymous]

Back in about 2000 I made a trip to Homestead for a Nascar race. We went all the way down to Key West. It was all very nice and very pretty. We saw the old railroad bridges where they are still up. They are fishing piers now. I have wondered since then how a passenger / tourist line would fare if everything was rebuilt and they could again run down into Key West. I know the bridges would be expensive to build and the track would cost a fortune to lay. but it is a thought I would love to see become a reality. [8D] [:)] [8D]

[Modelcar]

....It sure would be nice to have for us fans but the cost now would be out of sight...Even using the "old" bridges and filling in where needed of what's destroyed. It sure is an interesting story, that of construction of the railroad "that went to sea"....They got to use it for some years but too bad the storm destroyed much of it that it had to be abandoned. I remember driving out to Key West many years ago across those bridges and the roadway was not overly wide...and if I remember correctly, some of the side rails on the bridges were constructed of railroad rails.

[kenneo]

Flagler was dead by then, but had he been alive, I think he would have rebuilt. As it was, he started out in Florida with the second biggest fortune behind only J D Rockefeller with whom he was an equal partner in Standard Oil. He spent most of it in developing Florida and the Key West Extension cost more than the rest of the FEC and the Florida developments combined.

The U S Government had about 1/2 of the Homestead-Key West Highway built when the Labor Day 1935 storm swept through. It is figured to be the worst storm in U S history -- bigger than Andrew. Winds much in excess of 200 MPH. Eye figured to be 40 or more miles across, the storm itself was only between 100 and 150 miles across (which is why it was so intense. The bigger the storm, the slower the winds). The storm surge which came through just ahead of the eye-wall cleaned all rail and ties off a 40 mile streach of track and bridges leaveing only the 60 or so feet underneath the engine of the rescue train (which itself, was the only thing left "standing" except for the bridges - and not all of those around Islamorada) that got trapped. The eye came ashore at Islamorada MM 81.5. There is a memorial there to all those who died in the storm. The storm surge exceeded an estimated 40 feet. The bridges were 34 feet above the sea, and the sea completely covered them.

[Anonymous]

I have a magnet (actually 2) on my icebox that I bought at Islamorada. If I remember right isn't that the town that has the hugh cast "lobster" where alot of tourist (including myself) have their picture made. It is in front of a little shopping area with pottery, candles, a restaurant, a general store type shop and other shops. It was a very nice little town, and a very nice sidetrip. I have a picture of a Coast Guard Cutter returning to the base at Key West. It came in just about sunset and it is a very pretty picture and makes a great souviner of the trip.

[Anonymous]

Cutter may be incorrect to describe the Coast Guard ship that came in. I am not a boat / ship / sea knowledgeable person therefore, please overlook my goof. You may correct me, but use kid gloves, I bruise easily. [;)]