Pretty Lady hauls Santa Claus in Florida!

T. Mahan · December 10, 2011, 03:32:07 PM

Gang,

A little off NS topic, but not really since the Florida East Coast Ry is a major partner in NS operations. Last year marked the first Toys for Tots Santa train run by the FEC. The train makes a run from Jacksonville south to Miami along the FEC system with stops along the way to drop off toys donated from FEC employees. This year was the second trip, and their newly repainted SD40-2 714 had the honors, here are a few pics from today's chase...enjoy!

1) Ponte Vedra, FL The train passing under a shifted load DD
2) Just outside of St. Augustine, FL

T. Mahan · December 10, 2011, 03:38:47 PM

3) Outside StA, Fl
4) through the marsh at StA, FL

thpbears · December 10, 2011, 05:04:46 PM

Very nice.

MotoLinz · January 02, 2012, 01:50:04 PM

Does this (not the Santa train, obviously, but the railroad) run regularly through St. Augustine? If it's on a pretty regular schedule, what are some decent spots for watching one roll by?

I was born and raised in Gainesville (and spent a WHOLE lot of time in St. Augustine) and am heading down with my kids to visit my family this week. I'm planning to take the boys over to St. Augustine for the day on either Thursday or Friday and thought it would be fun to spot this one, if possible. As it is, I'm trying to locate some good spots in Gainesville, too, so my four year old doesn't get the DT's from not having seen a train for a week.

T. Mahan · January 02, 2012, 08:21:38 PM

Moto,

Hopefully I can provide some info. I'm not the FEC kool-aid drinker as many in the area are, but can provide some help....

Yes, the FEC main runs on the western outskirts of town along US 1. There are many places to watch the FEC in the area. Mainly anywhere up and down US 1. Best is to follow US 1 north out of town. You can pace the trains from StA all the way to highway 9A in Jacksonville, with a few places to pull of for photos along the way.

In StA specifically there is a Walgreen's next to the crossing at SR16 (the main road west from StA) and US1 where you can park next to the trackswatch trains. There is a nice little bridge over the San Sebastian river, and a parallel road bridge with a sidewalk, but road work has the area a mess and closed to pedestrians.

The main FEC intermodal train schedule can be found at the following:

http://www.fecrwy.com/intermodal-customers/train-schedule

And more FEC info, including another schedule of almost all trains:

http://www.fecrs.com/index.html

Of course things change, and extras and second sections may run, but for the most part FEC is a timely outfit!

Have fun, enjoy StA and the FEC...

Lastly, there is a very in depth and active FEC Yahoogroup, with many employees that wil share train info and heads ups!

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/FECrailway/

E.M. Bell · January 02, 2012, 10:40:01 PM

Also, the entire FEC mainline is covered by a ATCS server, which seems to make it pretty easy to see whats running where (not that I have ever been there or plan on going)... I have loaded up that profile a few times just to watch though.

If you really want to go that far to find the trains, maybe our ATCS guru can guide you on getting that set up...that would be Paul on our ATCS section. Its intimidating at first, but fairly simple when you get the hang of it.

MotoLinz · January 03, 2012, 10:53:47 AM

Groovy. Thanks for all the info! We will see how our day in St. Auggie goes and perhaps go after one of these. I am very familiar with the area between St. Augustine and New Smyrna from my good 'ol skippin'-school-to-go-surfing days (I don't recommend that), so we might try around there.

Regarding the ATCS stuff, I was actually reading about that yesterday, but it kind of made my head hurt.

I get that it is a program that I can use to somewhat track train traffic on systems that use the ATCS business - but, do I need a radio/scanner/whatever to make it work, or does the train movement info just come through my computer? I was a little unclear on that bit.

Such a program would be particularly useful for our piddly Knoxville NS train watching since my kids expect me to scramble into the car and try to catch trains going into the city when we hear them from our house (in extreme SW Knox County). It would be nice to know they're coming before we hear them at Anchor Park.

csx6900 · January 03, 2012, 12:57:27 PM

Lindsay-

Unfortunately, ATCS is not available for NS in Knoxville for several reasons. The most outstanding is that the type of dispatching they use on the West End (Track Warrant Control with Automatic Block Signalling) is not compatible with ATCS. Since the dispatcher does not control the signals and switches via his desk, there are no radio transmissions to intercept.

The second reason is that, although not all of the NS (or CSX) lines in Knoxville are TWC/ABS, there has not yet been a server installed to monitor the required radio transmissions. I have heard rumors of Knoxville being on a "waiting list" of sorts to get an ATCS server, but nothing concrete yet.

As to your questions about installing/using ATCS, I'll leave that to Paul. For now though, using your scanner is your best bet. Let us know if you need help with setting that up and what to listen for as well.

-Evan

MotoLinz · January 03, 2012, 01:27:02 PM

Well, shoot - thanks for the info, Evan! I would have been super annoyed to get that all set up and then realize it didn't have exactly what I was looking for.

I have seen our scanner exactly once. I'll have to badger my husband about it again and get him to set it up. ...although, I have to say, for lacking technological finesse, our drive-between-the-signals method has yielded quite a bit of decent train action lately.

steveiez · January 03, 2012, 01:37:37 PM

Does the FEC have a business train?

T. Mahan · January 03, 2012, 02:10:03 PM

The FEC 'Business Train' consists of two cars, the Azalea and St. Augustine. One being a round end stainless observation car, the other being an 'Air Force One' painted open platform observation car. Both were used on the Santa train and seen in the pics as above. Both are accompanied by an intermodal well car with generator for HEP.

The 'Orange and Yellow' SD40-2 #714 is the only one in active service with this paint. There is a GP40-2 in similar paint, but I believe it is stored at the moment. There are 4 other FEC paint shemes. The all blue FEC as seen on all of their GP40-2s, the modified Union Pacific paint job on their SD40-2s, the Alaska RR inspired SD70M-2s, and the Rail America inspired Red, White, & Blue SD70M-2s. Also on the property are 4 (IIRC) CEFX SD70M-2s in Blue paint.

As for ATCS, there is a website that is essentially a screen shot of the ATCS image for the FEC, and all you have to do is click refresh to update, so near real time! I'm on my work PC, will see if I have the link when I get home...