Southern Comfort (Part II)

The second part of my plan to do some railfanning in Florida included a visit to the Plant City Railway Museum and the adjacent railfanning platform at the junction of the old Atlantic Coast Line A Line and the Seaboard Railroad S Line. (Here's the first post.) It all sounded very promising. The daylight wasn't terribly kind and the position of the buildings meant this was the only decent shot I could get of this caboose.

Those who read this blog know I am a fan of CSX's predecessor railways, since the Chessie System (former C&O, former Pere Marquette) served my hometown in Southwestern Ontario. That line still exists in a much reduced capacity as part of CSX's industrial switching operation for the Chemical Valley in Sarnia and a few scattered industries south of the city.

So a chance to see two historic predecessor rail lines in action was pretty exciting. The Robert W. Willaford Railroad Museum is located in the city's former Union Station in the downtown. It was not open on the morning I visited, sadly, but there was more than enough on the museum grounds to look at, including this wonderfully preserved and rehabilitated Seaboard Caboose.

Plant City is an area that is dotted with a number of railway tracks, but the activity in and around the city is mostly relegated to overnight freight action, which was a big disappointment to me.

This Whitcomb switcher is almost too small to be believed. You have to see these machines to truly appreciate what it must have taken to fit any type of railroad-grade horsepower into such a small box. I looked at the axles and wheels on this thing and wondered how it maintained its balance. This unit, ACL 508, was painted in an unknown-to-me purple and grey livery for the old Atlantic Coast Line. These engines remind me of the trackmobiles you sometimes still see in industrial switching operations.Here's an example of one, for comparison.

Since the S Line and A Line were so quiet, I made sure to seek out the details on the museum grounds, such as the Seaboard logo on the caboose. Here's an interesting piece of trivia. The Seaboard Railroad adopted the "Air Line" into its name as a way to compete with airlines. The Air Line nomenclature was meant to signify that the Seaboard routes were the straightest and most direct connections between destinations. So, in other words, it was like flying straight to your destination. Interesting marketing concept. I always liked this logo.

The ACL logo was incorporated into a number of railroad items on the grounds, including a few benches, which used old rails bent to act as supports for the wooden slats. I like that the old ACL listed its major destinations on the outside of its logo. It gives you a good idea of the reach of this old line. That tradition continued when Seaboard and ACL came together as the SCL, which in turn became part of the loosely joined Family Lines system (later Seaboard System). Here's an example of the Family Lines logo.

This is where I waited, and waited, and waited. The signals on the A Line and the S Line remained solid red in my time in Plant City, which meant that nothing was happening. I was really disappointed that not a single train passed through, although I did know going in that traffic was light to sporadic in the daytime. Welcome to modern PSR-obsessed railways. Sigh...

Another small piece of trivia I unearthed while in Plant City was that the town itself was not named after the famous strawberries that grow in the region. Chances are, if you buy strawberries with any regularity, as I do, you will likely buy Plant City strawberries at some point during the year. They are known to be some of tastiest in North America. But, the Plant in Plant City comes from the railway executive who originally laid the tracks through this area. So, like many other cities and towns across North America, the town name can be traced back to the railways.

The final insult in my time in Florida was my time spent with my kids at Disney World. Even the Magic Kingdom's famous steam railway was out of commission on the day I visited. The entire railway was undergoing significant maintenance and renewal, including the removal of some of its narrow gauge track. I will hand it to the people in charge through, who knew enough to park one of the trains in front of the Magic Kingdom train station for the Christmas season. A nice touch.

So, on the whole, my train karma wasn't great in my time in Florida, but I suppose it's better to have bad train karma and be warm than have bad train karma and shiver trackside, as many of us often do in Ottawa.

In case anyone is wondering, yes I have some strong opinions on the absolute disastrous launch of Ottawa's Confederation Line light rail service. But that post will have to wait for another day. 

Southern Comfort (Part I)

After Christmas, my family made its way to Florida for a family vacation. I made sure to carve out some time to sit trackside and capture some images of railway action outside my customary haunts in Ottawa. On Dec. 29, when my family was relaxing poolside, I made my way to the Lakeland Amtrak station to get some shots of Amtrak's long distance train, the Silver Star. This train connects Miami with New York alongside its sister train, the Silver Meteor. The Star serves Lakeland twice daily, once on its way northbound and once on its way south to Miami.

I arrived a little early because I was curious about the Lakeland Amtrak station, which has an unconventional design, but is still quite pleasing to the eye. It's not a terribly old station, but it has some nice classic touches, like the arched windows. Here's a shot from Lakeland's Main Street. For those interested in Lakeland's geography, it is located roughly halfway between Orlando (to its east) and Tampa (to its west).

I couldn't help but think of some comparisons between Amtrak and Via Rail Canada, while I stood on the platform, waiting for the northbound Star to make its way to the platform. My first observation was how impossibly long the platform was (look carefully at the image below and you will see just how far into the distance those arches recede).

My first thought was how many more long distance trains Amtrak has in its schedule compared to Via Rail. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison by any means, since Amtrak relies much more heavily on regional subsidies for many of its longer distance regional trains, but the fact remains that its long-distance trains that fall under the Amtrak National umbrella outnumber Via's Canadian and Ocean by a wide margin.

Here's a shot of the Star crossing Massachusetts Avenue in Lakeland's downtown. The consist of this train might appear odd to some, but it does make sense. The train was led by two P42s, as all Amtraks seem to be. The P42s are arranged elephant style. I have read in a few places (including Trains Magazine) that this arrangement is used when a train breaks up into two pieces, like the Empire Builder does on its western fringes. In this case, the Star doesn't do this, but I have also read that the engines are often arranged this way, rather than back-to-back, as a redundancy in case one of the units breaks down. The other will then be able to take over without having to wye somewhere.

I was not able to get a great angle, since I was so close to the tracks, but I did manage to get a shot of some of the Amfleet equipment. This design seems to be timeless. I don't know if there was ever a time when Amtrak didn't have some generation of this type of coach in its fleet. I was reading not too long ago that this design was a carryover from the old Penn Central Metroliners, which Amtrak inherited when it took over much of the American passenger railway services in the 1970s. Apparently, despite the initial problems with the rough ride, Amtrak liked the fuselage style design of the cars and stuck with it.

The end of these trains are always lined with newer equipment, with wider windows. You can even see the baggage car, which is at the end of the train. If you look closely, you can faintly see the light from the Amtrak station agent's scooter, which is used to carry bags to the back of the train.

Here's a new baggage car, much newer than the baggage car I saw the last time I caught this train in Kissimmee, Florida a few years back. I am told that Amtrak leaves the baggage car at the back of the train on the northbound Star because it means one less car to turn when the train is readied to head back south to Florida. I'm not sure if that's the reason, but it does make for an interesting consist when this car is on the end. Notice, too, how the traditional Amtrak striping has been applied to this car. I'm often baffled by Amtrak's various paint liveries. There's always some form of red, white and blue but look at the difference between this car and the coaches.

Now look at the blue and grey livery of its P42s. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but neither does the various shades of green, turquoise and yellow that Via Rail uses. I was actually hoping to catch one of Amtrak's heritage painted units, but this was all that was on display that day. 

One last going-away shot and that was a wrap for this brief trackside meet with a long-distance passenger train. If you click the link above to the post where I met this train in Kissimmee, you'll notice quite a difference in its length.

I tried to catch this train one more time, but there must have been some serious congestion on CSX's Florida lines because the train was ridiculously late the next time I was at the station and I ended up giving up. The A Line, which this train uses for the stretch through Lakeland, is lightly used by most indications, but the lines further south, which include CSX's S line (former Seaboard) has heavier traffic. In any case, this was my only meet with the Star. I did manage to make it out to a railway museum at Plant City and saw some interesting stuff. I will share that soon.

Lessons learned in Kissimmee

A little breath of fresh air in Kissimmee, Florida really did me good. I made sure to take time away from the typical family outings to break away for a few moments of photographs at the Kissimmee Amtrak Station.

I had targeted this as my spot for photos before my family even went to Florida for a few reasons. The first was the station was photogenic, having been built in 1910. Second was that the trackage through the city is somewhat famous and is still known as the A Line, which was formerly a very busy and important route for the Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard Coast Line and Seaboard System railways. It is currently under CSX control, although the line sees light traffic. But, true to its name, it is poised to be an important line once again.

In the above photo, you will notice batches of new rail ties ready for placement on the A Line, as Amtrak Train 98, the northbound Silver Meteor approaches the Monument Street crossing (Check out the old Amfeet coaches!). The reason for the upgrade is that this section of the subdivision is slated to house the state's Sunrail commuter operations, which will link the city of DeLand, via Orlando, with the Poinciana region in Osceola County. Kissimmee will be the second last westbound stop on this route, or the first eastbound stop, depending on the train. This commuter link will serve an incredibly congested part of the state where the roads are at capacity, to say the least.

When I arrived at the station last Thursday, I made sure to keep my distance, since I was warned that security is tight at this station. I loved the look of the old building, which still sports old signal equipment on its roof (right of photo) and a steam engine weather vane. The inside of the station had beautiful, creaky old floors and a number of other period flourishes. I decided not to take photos, just to be safe.

While waiting for the predictably late Train 98, I decided to take some shots at a number of pieces of maintenance-of-way and track-laying equipment that were parked on a spur next to the main line. Clearly, this track is just about ready for its makeover.

Shortly after hearing an announcement warning passengers that the Silver Meteor would be "15 or 20 minutes late," P42DC 75 roared into the station about 25 minutes late, much to the relief of the passengers who were baking in the mid-afternoon sun. I brought some heat rashes back to the Great White North as a souvenir.

The train didn't stay long and geared up pretty fast as it crossed East Drury Avenue, which was where I was perched at this point. I haven't seen an Amtrak train since my teenage years in Sarnia, so the site of these old Amfleet coaches was a treat. In fact, it was nice to see a passenger train with a few different coaches in its consist. I was pleased with the shot below, as it captures the acceleration of the locomotive, which is spewing out smoke as it picks up speed.

This (below) was the true gem of the lot, an old heavyweight baggage car at the end of Train 98, coupled behind a few Viewliner sleepers. It's been a while since I've seen Amtrak rolling stock, so correct me if I'm wrong about the Viewliners.

I came away from this encounter with a few thoughts.

1. Commuter rail in the U.S. is faring somewhat better than it is in Canada. The co-operation between municipalities, states and the federal government is getting a number of commuter lines going, which should serve as a reminder to us here in Canada that intercity rail travel isn't just important in the busiest eastern corridors.

2. Amtrak has a much more extensive roster of long-haul trains, which is a product of a system in the U.S. where states subsidize trains that they feel serve an important purpose. This train, for example, was bound for New York City. It runs daily in both directions between the Big Apple and Miami. I wonder how different Via Rail would be if provinces were allowed more leeway in deciding where passenger services would be useful. I would think Western Canada might be better served, at the very least.

3. Despite these positive points, Amtrak is still at the mercy of government whims, not to mention the timetables of its railway hosts like CSX. You can't help but wonder how passenger rail manages to survive in North America in spite of these two massive obstacles.

4. I really miss the old Amtrak logo and red, white and blue scheme. The latest one is boring.