Fern Park, Florida action

hey everyone, i just have a quick question, what kind of action is there in the fern park area of Florida? here is a aerial veiw:

what kind of trains go through the area and what is the frequency?

and what would this line be called? does it have a name? thanks a lot

matt

Fern Park appears to be in the Orlando area and the former ACL line to
Tampa runs through Winter Park and Orland which are close by.
I am not sure just what CSX runs through there for freight traffic but
"Crazy Nip" can most likely answer your question if he is on here. Amtrak
runs two round trips between Jacksonville and Miami through the area.
Noel Weaver

thanks ...... crazy nip, where are u??? lol

that map you posted, I dont know WHERE that is, but its definetly not anywhere in florida...

fern park did not ring a bell, so I looked it up and found it is roughly between winter park and sanford, closer to maitland.

The railroad line which runs roughly through there is the ex-ACL jacksonville to tampa mainline.

You should see 2 intermodal trains each way daily, 4 amtrak's (91/92 and 97/98). If they ever restore amtrak 1/2 you will see them too. Other traffic is a mixed bag, you may see a unit coal train, a unit grain, a couple mixed freights and a local or 2.

It is not a terribly busy freight line and alot runs at night. Through there, it is single track TCS.

The main yard in orlando is on the west side of town, and not terribly accessible. Plus its not a big yard. I personally find the orlando area pretty boring to railfan. You could easily go HOURS without seeing any action, specifcally at that location.

crazy_nip wrote:fern park did not ring a bell, so I looked it up and found it is roughly between winter park and sanford, closer to maitland.

The railroad line through there is the ex-ACL jacksonville to tampa mainline.

You should see 2 intermodal trains each way daily, 4 amtrak's (91/92 and 97/98). If they ever restore amtrak 1/2 you will see them too. Other traffic is a mixed bag, you may see a unit coal train, a unit grain, a couple mixed freights and a local or 2.

It is not a terribly busy freight line and alot runs at night. Through there, it is single track TCS.

The main yard in orlando is on the west side of town, and not terribly accessible. Plus its not a big yard. I personally find the orlando area pretty boring to railfan. You could easily go HOURS without seeing any action, specifcally at that location.

"Nip", Am I correct from reading this post that most of the freight traffic
in and out of Tampa uses the former Seaboard line through Wildwood?
Was'n never sure just way the bulk of the traffic ran.
Noel Weaver

crazy_nip wrote:that map you posted, I dont know WHERE that is, but its definetly not anywhere in florida...

haha, no it isn't, lol it is BET in Boston, where the MBTA service's their equipment, sorry bout that

oh ok, i was just curious thanks for the information

Just some "housekeeping" items on the above posts:

"Fern Park, Florida is just a community, not incorporated as a city, and the CSX (former ACL) mainline (the "A" line) does not pass through Fern Park. The railroad line is about a mile west, in the City of Altamonte Springs.

The main CSX yard in the Orlando area is located about 5 miles South of downtown Orlando, not west. It is known as Taft Yard, because it is located in the Taft community. For easy map location, the BeeLine Hwy (SR 528) passes over the yard.

All of CSX's intermodal trains in the peninsular portion of FLorida pass through Orlando. The Orlando Intermodal Terminal is located on the east side of Taft Yard.

Yep, Noel, CSX's former SAL line (the "S" Line) is the primary freight line, while the intermodals (and Amtrak) travel the "A" line through Orlando.

ACLfan

Noel Weaver wrote:

crazy_nip wrote:fern park did not ring a bell, so I looked it up and found it is roughly between winter park and sanford, closer to maitland.

The railroad line through there is the ex-ACL jacksonville to tampa mainline.

You should see 2 intermodal trains each way daily, 4 amtrak's (91/92 and 97/98). If they ever restore amtrak 1/2 you will see them too. Other traffic is a mixed bag, you may see a unit coal train, a unit grain, a couple mixed freights and a local or 2.

It is not a terribly busy freight line and alot runs at night. Through there, it is single track TCS.

The main yard in orlando is on the west side of town, and not terribly accessible. Plus its not a big yard. I personally find the orlando area pretty boring to railfan. You could easily go HOURS without seeing any action, specifcally at that location.

"Nip", Am I correct from reading this post that most of the freight traffic
in and out of Tampa uses the former Seaboard line through Wildwood?
Was'n never sure just way the bulk of the traffic ran.
Noel Weaver

just about everything in and out of tampa except for Q188 /189 the jacksonville to Tampa pig trains, the K955/995 rock trains from miami to tampa and a couple locals/transfers (taft to yeoman, winston to yeoman turns) from other yards go via the S-line up the middle of the state

and yes, I guess taft is actually more south than west of orlando, I just have in my mind "up I-4 is west"...

so is it the S line that goes through the fern park area?

MBTA F40PH-2C 1050 wrote:so is it the S line that goes through the fern park area?

no

Crazy Nip,

Believe me, you aren't the only one that gets affected by the I-4 directions in the Orlando area! Officially, it is I-4 east and west. But, in reality, it is actually north and south directions in the Orlando area.

I hate to give people directions on I-4 in Orlando: Like, "Turn left off of SR 50 onto I-4. You'll be going north, but officially, you are heading east." Nuts!

ACLfan

what frequency do the trains in this area use? i forgot to ask this before i went down, but yea, a lot of the traffic went through between 8pm and midnight, i did catch Amtrak and a local job during the day, BTW i was at MP 781