What was abandoned line in Miami (not Port line)

There is a line of the FEC that was recently torn up. The ROW is still evident. It ran due south from the MIA airport and stub ended just south of SW 80th St by the Dadeland Mall.

Can anyone give me info / history on this line. Thanks.

This line once continued all the way to Key West but was so badly damaged in the hurricane of September, 1935 that it was
cut back to Florida City. In the 80's it was further cut back to Kendall and in more recent years it has been cut some more
so that today it only serves a couple of customers south of Hialeah and an interchange with CSX in that area.
Interesting enough this is the only interchange connection between the two railroads south of West Palm Beach. They also
cross each other at Iris which is just south of the Tri-Rail Metro-Rail transfer station and is visible from that point but there
is no track connection between the two railroads, just crossover diamonds.
Noel Weaver

Ah, so this was the line that, prior to the 1935 hurricane, ran down to Key West on all those bridges. How interesting!

There seems to be quite a few potential customers along the line which basically paralelled Rt 1. But it seems the mindset of the RRs today is rip up the branchline tracks, forget about trying to get customers, and concentrate on TOFC.

carajul wrote:Ah, so this was the line that, prior to the 1935 hurricane, ran down to Key West on all those bridges. How interesting!

There seems to be quite a few potential customers along the line which basically paralelled Rt 1. But it seems the mindset of the RRs today is rip up the branchline tracks, forget about trying to get customers, and concentrate on TOFC.

I should probably clearify myself, this line was the belt line around Miami which operates through Hialeah and south from
there. The passenger line once went directly south from the old station in downtown Miami, crossed the Miami River on a
drawbridge and met up with the belt line in the area of Kendall. The line via downtown has been gone for a long, long time.
Although the Key West Extension went before I was even born, probably the freight trains used the line via Hialeah and
the passenger trains used the line south from the Miami passenger station. I will have to dig out an old timetable to see
what the operation was like but not tonight.
Noel Weaver

The line south from Kendall along US 1 was still in service in 1981. I used to frequently see a local with a pair of GP38s along Brickell Avenue during the year I worked in the Miami area.

CSX still has a line to Homestead that runs inland of the former FEC. The remaining FEC ROW from Dadeland Mall south is now a busway that goes most of the way to Homestead.

Noel Weaver wrote:Interesting enough this is the only interchange connection between the two railroads south of West Palm Beach.

I thought for sure that the FEC Market Extension in Pompano (paralleling south of NW 15th st) interchanged with CSX just west of I-95 near the concrete plant, but on further inspection of Google Maps, looks like the closest they actually come is just to the north of said concrete plant when the line turns and parallels CSX by 20 or 30 feet for about a mile before coming to an end near Copans Road. Interesting indeed. (Sounds like they may be making something out of the extension if they ever bring passenger rail service back to the FEC.)

NellieBly wrote:CSX still has a line to Homestead that runs inland of the former FEC.

And someome just used it to make their great escape!

You lock a car, but you don't lock a locomotive. After all, where can you take it? Sounds logical, but logic didn't stop a thief from stealing a CSX Locomotive sometime after 11:30 Sunday night and taking it for a noisy joy ride, in Miami's version of the Great Train Robbery.

The diesel locomotive, number 2617, was parked on a CSX siding in the Kendall area, awaiting an assignment, when it came up missing. It was there Sunday night, but missing when the railroad went working for it Monday.

Weighing in at more than 120 tons, locked on a track which took it to Miami to Homestead, all the railroad had to do was follow the steel ribbon until they found it.

They did, about 7 miles to the south in Homestead. Miami-Dade police surrounded the out of place locomotive and looked for clues about who took it for a spin, but the driver was long gone.

CSX Transportation spokesperson Gary Sease said it appears the locomotive was taken by an 'unauthorized individual', but as most people don't have experience starting and driving one of the behemoths, investigators believe their thief is someone with more than with a passing fancy for trains.

One police officer who spoke about the theft said it was the first time in 20 years as a cop that he'd seen a stolen locomotive.

Even though the locomotive was driven without the approval of the CSX train tracking system, there was no traffic on the line at the time and luckily, no collision.

http://cbs4.com/local/locomotive.theft. ... 42230.html


I'm not that familiar with south Dade, but how often does CSX get that far down from the airport? Safe to say they weren't the shiniest rails in town?

I think CSX is doing OK on the Homestead Subdivision, knowing CSX if they wern't they would be looking to cut it and so far
as I know, they have not complained about it at least recently.
Noel Weaver

This line currently ends about 6ft north of the SW. 12th street crossing. I believe the only customer that is still in service on this branch is a lumber yard between SW. 4th street and SW. 8th street.

That lumber yard (Everglades Lumber) is actually bordered on its west side by the CSX tracks -- but for the fact that FEC serves it with a short siding on the east side, this branch would have completely disappeared some time ago. The CSX tracks in Homestead proper have not seen service in some time, judging by their rusty state when I tromped around down there a few weeks ago. Most of the line through the Redlands is like that.

I heard about this after my last post here -- the Miami-Dade Metropolitan Planning Organization's Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee gave a presentation/released a study this past January on using the ROW for a transit connection between Dadeland and the new MIC, either as a busway, elevated rail, or at-grade rail.

http://www.miamidade.gov/mpo/docs/MPO_ctac_presentation_20110112_fec_connection.pdf

It's actually not a bad idea -- at least if rail were chosen -- because it would complete a Metrorail loop around a fairly large part of the county.