• Fort Lauderdale Airport expansion

  • Discussion relating to the FEC operations, past and present. Includes Brightline. Official web site can be found here: FECRWY.COM.
Discussion relating to the FEC operations, past and present. Includes Brightline. Official web site can be found here: FECRWY.COM.

Moderator: GOLDEN-ARM

  by Noel Weaver
 
The Florida East Coast has apparently gotten a contract to haul two 80 car trains of rock a day to the Fort Lauderdale Airport as part of the expansion of the new runway on the south side. Here is a link to an article in the local rag, I hope it works.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/browar ... 6330.story

Noel Weaver
  by Noel Weaver
 
It starts Monday, July 23rd, the first train of rock, 80 cars of it, headed from Medley (close to Hialeah) to Fort Lauderdale for the new runway, another 80 car train will start next week.
Here is a statement from the president of the FEC:

Ft Lauderdale Airport project
>
> Tomorrow we start hauling our first 80 car unit train from medley to the new track we installed at the airport. This week it will be one train per day then next week we increase to two 80 car unit trains a day that is equivalent to reducing highway traffic congestion by 681 trucks .

Noel Weaver
  by Jeff Smith
 
Construction continues apace: http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2012-1 ... ent-george
Every morning at 6 a.m. and again in the evening at 6 p.m., a train of 80 rail cars full of limestone rocks arrives from Medley, on a special railroad track extension the FEC built to reach the runway site.

"I could hear it from my house,'' said Dania Beach Commissioner Anne Castro, "but I also could sleep through it. My house is three houses in.''

Castro said she immediately complained to the county.

"It's the bucket tractors that get the dirt out of the train cars,'' she said. "You know how they kind of go jj-jj-jj-jj once they dump the bucket? It has that banging noise it makes. The bucket shakes, and it really reverberates.''
  by freightguy
 
Up here in NY on the business networks there is commercials for FT Lauderdale area to grow business for the port. I guess this is all part of that expansion down there. It states Ft. Lauderdale is the gateway to rest of the world. I guess this ties into the Panama Canal
  by MBTA F40PH-2C 1050
 
Might as well post my question here seeing as I'll be right in the area in April. How is the freight service on this line that passes thru the Ft. Lauderdale rail station? I'm going to try and buff, being the first time in this part of FL and would be interested in seeing some FEC/psgr service if possible. Any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated!!! I'll be staying in Hollywood FL for a few days and then traveling down to Key Largo for vacation. Any and all tips/photo spots, train schedules etc would be welcomed with a smile Thanks in advance!
  by Noel Weaver
 
Try looking at my stuff on Railfan South Florida and there will be more but in short here is some from that thread that I typed in some time back, things haven't changed too much.

Out of Hialeah 210, 202, 222 and 226 with IM and anything else as well plus out of Medley 336 the Unit train for City Point. SB 101, 107, 109 and 121 for Hialeah, 335 the empty rock cars for Medley. Sometimes the Unit Train will also carry more rock to drop enroute NB.
Out of Fort Lauderdale 218 and 224 NB and 117 and 123 SB. This makes a total of seven trains weekdays. The Unit trains run Sunday - Friday while the other jobs out of Hialeah run every day. Out of Fort Lauderdale trains 224 and 123 run Sunday through Friday while 218 and 117 run Monday through Friday.
Restoration of 218 and 123 means that 224 is not as long as it was before although it is much heavier than 218, 224 runs non-stop to Bowden while 218 makes stops enroute to pick up more cars, I am not positive just what stops 218 makes except I am pretty sure they do work at Fort Pierce. Southbound 107 was a monster with a big rear end drop at Fort Lauderdale, now 107 gets a straight shot to Hialeah with 117 running to Fort Lauderdale non-stop from Bowden.
On another subject I have heard at a bunch of the 700's are coming back from the CSX lease to the FEC for service or whatever while the four remaining SD-70's might also be coming back but in this case I think it is just to be parked at NSB for storage.
To update a little bit the locals out of Fort Lauderdale run generally in the daytime hours one north and one south, local 970 works the middle shift and stays in the yard. Southbound 121, 123, 109 and 335 are possible in the AM; 123 terminates at Fort Lauderdale the others to Hialeah with 335 empty rock cars to Medley. Northbound 202 in the PM maybe around 1:30 to 2;30, it was somewhat later than that today. Trains 222 and 218 maybe around 7:00 PM usually 222 ahead and 218 originates at Fort Lauderdale. There is construction all over the place so beward of construction debris, track materials etc and some of the scenic areas are just not that scenic today, The Fort Lauderdale Siding is not in use north of the crossover at SW 17th Street for construction of the new passenger station. The lalyout in Fort Lauderdale will consist of one main track for freight trains and two tracks through the new passenger station, went by there yesterday and it looks really sharp but much work remains to be done in this area. Good things coming to the Florida East Coast. As always be careful around railroad tracks, stay OFF railroad property and have a great time.
You will like our nice clean locomotives with the best paint scheme in North America baring NONE.
Noel Weaver