Train watching in Florida / Eastern Seaboard

[Tim R-T-C]

Hi all,

I'm off to Florida in November for my wife's birthday. Not to the themeparks mind you, she wants to go see the NASCAR finals:

I've got five days then to pass afterwards. Are there any top railroad locations in Florida or accessible via the Amtrak trains. I'm currently thinking of playing on the Tri-Rail in Miami, take the Silver something up to Orlando to ride on the Sun Rail then going overnight up to Washington DC and the NE Corridor.

Any suggestions more than welcome.

 

[theageofthetra]

The Gold Coast railroad museum near Miami zoo is well worth a visit. In Fort Lauderdale you can get good shots of trains crossing the lift bridge over the intracoastal & canal-check the timings.To be honest Tri Rail runs through some very high crime parts of Davie/Broward Counties and is best avoided. Those that ride it don't do it out of choice.

 

[ac6000cw]

I'd concur with being careful around Miami - there are armed guards for a reason....that said, (some time ago) I've ridden Tri-Rail and the elevated rapid transit in Miami and it was fine.

The mainline of Florida East Coast (FEC) railroad runs north-south between Jacksonville and Miami - it's freight-only but reasonably busy so worth a look if you are on the east coast. It carries a lot of intermodal traffic to/from Miami (double-stack containers), plus construction materials and general freight. It used to be all-EMD motive power, but recently it's acquired 24 new GE ES44C4 locos - http://www.fecrwy.com/news/fecr-acquires-24-new-ge-es44c4-tier-3-locomotives

CSX has most of the other mainline trackage in the state - the Orlando area is probably the easiest place to catch some of the action. The suburb of Winter Park (just north of Orlando) is nice and upmarket with a CSX mainline running through the middle of the town park - also served by passenger trains.

If you haven't visited it before, Cape Canaveral is a must-see - you don't realise just how big a Saturn 5 rocket is until you see it in the flesh.....

Rail map of Florida (in 2006) - http://www.dot.state.fl.us/rail/Publications/Maps/FloridaRailMap2006.JPG

 

[Harpers Tate]

http://www.orangeblossomcannonball.com/

 

[b0b]

The Walt Disney World Monorail? its outside the parks and you can use it free of charge - but you'll pay for parking

 

[Tim R-T-C]

Thanks for the advice all.

Certainly adding Cape Canaveral to the list.

Is the Tri Rail from Miami to Fort Lauderdale a reasonably safe section?

 

[Bevan Price]

Never been to USA myself, but I have heard occasional reports about some railroads being "a bit sensitive" about photographers, and police turning up, even in remote locations. Don't even try to argue with police if that happens to you.

 

[ac6000cw]

Never been to USA myself, but I have heard occasional reports about some railroads being "a bit sensitive" about photographers, and police turning up, even in remote locations. Don't even try to argue with police if that happens to you.

Personally, in over a dozen visits to the US, about half of those serious 'railfan' trips (to use the local term), I've never had any real issues with taking photos or video. My understanding is they can be a bit touchy about it in New York (for understandable reasons) but to be honest in big cities I'd be more concerned about personal safety than worrying about photography issues. I was once approached by an Amtrak station employee who asked (politely) what I was doing - when I said I was a railfan from the UK he was quite happy and carried on sorting out the checked baggage . There are jobsworths and slightly paranoid people the world over and I don't think the US is any worse than here from that point of view.

Just take heed of the 'No Trespassing' signs, be sensible about where the railroad property boundary line might be, and out in the country give the engineer (driver) a friendly wave - you'll quite often get a wave back or a toot on the horn - and you should be fine.