Last Mile Switching On The Florida Central

it's a chilly December Monday morning in Orlando GP 9rm 7063 and GP 11 1802 set running and waiting in Florida Central Rail road's Modelo yard these engines will be leading the Eustis turn today delivering cars brought up the night before by Z 9:15 the interchange train with CSX from its Orlando taft yard Florida Central's Modelo yard is on an X seaboard airline route that ran from Wildwood to Orlando the seaboard called it Modelo Park at the beginning of the 20th century the Orlando area was a huge winter fruit and vegetable producer seaboard tapped into this lucrative perishable business already well served by rival Atlantic coastline by coming in the back door through Leesburg off their big s al Maine at Wildwood this morning our engineer is David McDaniel the conductor is rich twice their first piece of business is putting the train together and in order cars for each customer stacked in order of when they'll be dropped off it takes three trips up and back to get this train solid and ready for departure the last shove will send the contest over the road crossing at the bottom of the yard and even though it's a signal crossing rules say it's still got to be protected by a person with a flag when cars lead the train across so rich is walking it back to the crossing rich will spend most of his day walking the tracks while a road conductor spends most of a shift riding a local conductor will spend most of his walking we leapfrog the Train north about a mile and a half to catch him at speed my guide today is Christian Johnson Orlando area rail fan had recognized as an expert on the Florida Central even railroad employees will tell you that this line was all foreign territory to me but Christian was able to put me right on photo locations every time our adventure today will take us north and west on the Florida central main line from Modelo Park in Orlando to Apopka and Zellwood pretty much following us for 41 the whole way the line is easy to chase if you know where to stop and shoot Christian led me to the next stop a delivery to Dixie plywood wholesale lumber the railroad calls this all America as that's the name of the industrial park here rich had already made the cut remove the derail and David was backing the train in the Eustis turn is running with two engines this morning but it won't be that way all day rich ylides the switch back from mainline movement locks it up and has david back onto the train many of the crossing signals on the Florida central our radio activated the engineer transmits a tone from the locomotive cab radio and that turns on or off crossing signals this is helpful in situations where he's switching on the crossing circuit he can manually turn off the signals to let road traffic pass christian knew where the next customer drop would be and led me to Overland Road where it flies over the railroad we are technically in Apopka now in a pocket of heavy industry surrounded by endless tract house developments David and rich are dropping a cut of empty gondolas for scrap metal processors and rich is doing most of his work on foot this short siding is named thin frock for the giant design-build company that creates structural elements for parking garages and other buildings and it looks like business is pretty good [Applause] [Applause] the crew backs on to its remaining train laces up and moves on we spread up to a crossing west of Bend Brock to catch him come by at Vulcan Road we ran into Florida central train master bill Dusenberry bill gave us some info on what this train would be doing this afternoon and the best places to shoot them working up ahead the Eustace turn would drop many of these cars and engine 18:02 into a siding that we couldn't see we stopped in downtown Apopka because I wanted to see the old seaboard passenger station built in 1916 this structure served until the end of SCL passenger trains through here it is now privately owned and being preserved this line meanders up past both residential and industrial parcels just west of Lakeview Drive at the st7 99.3 the Plymouth yard limit begins not really a switching yard Plymouth is home to the Florida Central's engine shop and maintenance base the track splits a coca-cola syrup and orange juice plan on one side and a giant cold storage warehouse on the other just this side of those tank cars as an artifact of the old railroad still in service a piggyback loading ramp these were all over the seaboard and the coastline at one time truck trailers were backed up this ramp and onto flatcars circus-style a Florida Central uses it to occasionally load equipment the railroads still use the term ramp for modern intermodal terminals even though nowadays flat cars are loaded and unloaded with cranes and tractors and not ramps Christian and I went one crossing too far for our next catch the drop was actually one customer back newton oil to spot a single loaded tank but first the little track maintenance was needed a storm the night before washed a lot of mud across the rails and in rare occasions that can cause a wheel flange to climb up and off the track luckily one of the industry employees had a shovel and cleared the rail head in short order rich and David backed down the spur and the cars had no problem over the dirt crossing engine 7063 as an EMD GP 9rm built in 1958 for the canadian national railroad it worked for a while at fort manatee on Tampa Bay and is now serving the Florida central next up were two customers on a spur and Zellwood the first chemical systems a foodservice cleaning company getting a tank car when you take your three free card we pick three threes with them unfortunately we were on the sunny side of the other customer and saw almost none of this first switching a third industry here makes its presence known each time the winds kick up a cattlemen who are compound piled up for distribution this stuff makes excellent plant fertilizer but you can't say much for its fragrance finally after several ups and backs they're ready to switch out the second customer grace construction products these guys distribute coatings sealants and concrete additives the customer just needs their empty car pulled out and one of the loads spotted at the spout this is we're thinking ahead is crucial because a mistake could cost you a half an hour the railroad is the best way to move large amounts of heavy stuff but it's all in a straight line so everything must be stacked in the right order first we're gonna drop the first customers empty tank about two car lengths from the switch then line for the closer track and back on to the tanks rich and David have done this dance thousands of times but you can't get it perfectly every time three-step protection apply train breaks place the reverser lever in neutral and open the generator field switch these three actions ensure the train doesn't move while rich gets in between the cars to lace up the air brake hoses then he walks back to knock off the hand brakes and David pulls the whole contest out past the switch [Music] now he backs down the other track to the empty tank from the other customer rich then walks up one car the empty they just pulled out and makes a cut a very loud cut the original cut - the empty has pulled past the switch and then back down into the new spotting position [Music] rich calls for three-step protection one last time then climbs up and ratchets down the hand brakes I hope you've enjoyed our day on the Florida Central Railroad my thanks to Christian Johnson for his expert tour guiding and to Train master Bill Dusenberry for his info please hit the like button if you like this show and I'll see you next time in Zellwood Florida this is Danny Harmon out

Channel: Distant Signal

Views: 168,598

Rating: 4.9679632 out of 5

Keywords: Florida Central RR, Short Line RR, FCEN, Pinsly, Orlando, Railroad, Trains, railfan, railfanning, Modelo Yard, Zellwood, Apopka, Tank Car, Dixie Plywood

Id: zj-NitO_XLQ

Length: 15min 34sec (934 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 06 2019