Wildwood FL Rail Sightings

On Sunday 6/12, I stopped at the public parking lot next to the Wildwood Rail Yard to take a few pictures of engines 907 and 42 that were on a lay up track at the south end of the yard. A few minutes later, a south-bound mixed freight arrived and stopped just south of the yard. Engines 4678 & 7675 backed up into the yard, clearing the main. In the next couple of minutes, I heard the horn blasts from a north-bound approaching the CR44A crossing just south of the yard. It turned out to be 967 & 3047 with the Juice Train and about 30 cars. As soon as the OJ express cleared the yard, the crew of 4678 & 7675 dropped the mixed freight in the yard, switched to another yard track, and picked up 30 auto rack cars. It then left with the new consist heading south-bound. This all happened in about 45 minutes (2:00-2:45 pm).

Ex- Long Islander here, too. Here's a pic I snapped a while back of a freight train that "came apart" at speed near Belleview, FL. Conductor busy working with engineer to "put the pieces back together."

Hello Ocala/Hillside/Deer Park Mike,
I remember you from the LIRR Forum. SR 301 has many good spots to railfan. I've driven that route many times including drives up to Long Island. On one such trip I remember seeing a derailment north of Ocala. It was about a year or two ago, but I didn't get any photos.

Passing through Ocala, the "S" line diverges from US-301 for quite a few miles. I used to have a delivery job that took me south of Ocala (Belleview/Summerfield) most every day, and I got this pic on one of my runs. I also have a pic somewhere of a freight stalled on the main just south of Ocala behind Union Pacific (borrowed) power.

6/14/16 After CSX had dropped a large cut of aggregate hoppers at the Conrad Yelvington Distributors Aggregate Terminal, which is located immediately south of the Wildwood Yard, their old ALCO switcher shuttled the hoppers to be unloaded. The company's other locations in Orlando and Sanford have newer switchers (SW9 and GP30).

Two more Wildwwod sightings, Specialty Rail Transport Caboose, which ships extra large loads like transformers and generators. Second sighting is the MOW's Jordan Spreader, which here in Florida doesn't see any snow, just ballast to spread.

This past week, The Villages Daily Sun ran a page 1 story that said that with the Panama Canal upgrades, there will be increased usage of Port Miami, the CSX S Line, and more traffic thru the Wildwood Rail Yard. Don't know how soon this will happen.

The Port of Miami as well as all other port traffic on the east coast of Florida will ride on the Florida East Coast and not on CSX. The one time CSX intermodal site in Hialeah has grown to weeds with all support facilities long, long gone. The FEC is the big rail operator in these parts and they haul all IM for CSX here as well.
Noel Weaver

Thank you, Noel. This article, although a few years old, explains it pretty well. CSX figures from Jacksonville north.

http://www.progressiverailroading.com/c ... ess--35793" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Noel, Ocala, Thanks for the updated info. I'm just slightly confused, as one night I caught a north-bound double stack train heading thru Ocala. Was it a re-route or was it from another port? Being relatively new to the area, I'm not totally familiar with all the rail operations here in Florida.

Port Tampa Bay - west coast of Florida.

This large cut (30+) covered hoppers have been laid up in the Wildwood Yard for at least 2 weeks so far. Anyone have any ideas as to why?

railfaned wrote:This large cut (30+) covered hoppers have been laid up in the Wildwood Yard for at least 2 weeks so far. Anyone have any ideas as to why?

Appear to be phosphate cars from Bone Valley.