January 11th, 2018
We explored along an abandoned line eastward until finding the tracks back and a CSX local working at Waycross, before heading south to the railfan platform at Folkston. After having supper with friends in Jacksonville, we finished the day at the The Ponce, a railfan-friendly hotel in Saint Augustine with its own viewing platform for the Florida East Coast.
Saint Augustine, Florida
(map) Saint Augustine is an hour south of Jacksonville on the Florida East Coast.
video
Florida East Coast at Saint-Augustine, FL.
video
Florida East Coast at Saint-Augustine, FL.
January 12th, 2018
We started the day on the FEC in Saint Augustine before heading to Kennedy Space Center.
video
Florida East Coast at Saint-Augustine, FL.
video
Florida East Coast at Saint-Augustine, FL.
video
Florida East Coast at Saint-Augustine, FL.
January 4th, 2020
A light train day as we headed south, stopping only briefly to shoot the parked power of the Florida Northern.
Ocala, Florida
Ocala is home to the Florida Northern Railroad.
January 5th, 2020
Disney World.
Orlando, Florida
The home of Disney World and so many other attractions -- and an interesting selection of unusual trains...
January 6th, 2020
We traveled out to Port Canaveral to board the Disney Dream for a tour and caught one at Titusville on the return to our hotel.
Port Canaveral, Florida
Port Canaveral is the cruise ship terminal near NASA's Kennedy Space Centre on the coast of Florida.
Titusville, Florida
Titusville is a bit north of Cocoa near the Kennedy Space Centre along the FEC.
video
We just caught an FEC local at Titusville.
January 7th, 2020
Disney World.
Orlando, Florida
The home of Disney World and so many other attractions -- and an interesting selection of unusual trains...
video
DisneyWorld's trademark monorails orbit the park.
video
DisneyWorld's trademark monorail trains orbit the park.
January 8th, 2020
Traveling from Orlando to Miami, we stopped at Port Salerno to see the spot where I started watching trains (unsuccessfully) up close as a kid. This time, we did catch one northbound.
Stuart, Florida
Stuart is in Martin County on the FEC and home to a peculiar roundabout with the railway through the middle and the Stuart drawbridge on the railway, both of which I have not yet photographed but have seen.
video
We couldn't find an angle to see the draw bridge on time and settled for a crossing just south of it in Stuart for what turned out to be a light power move.
Port Salerno, Florida
Port Salerno is a smaller community in Martin County and is where it all began for me. As a kid, my grandparents had a condo at Emerald Lakes on SE Cove Road where they wintered. Every Christmas, we would drive down as a family to visit them, and whenever I could I would take the bike down to the crossing and wait, hoping for a train on the FEC tracks. In all my Christmas holidays of doing that, I never once saw a train there, though did once chat with a track foreman who got off to inspect why his truck had triggered the crossing gates. All night long I would hear trains pass and so the next day I would try again...
video
A Florida East Coast manifest freight crosses Cove Rd northbound in Port Salerno, Florida - my daughter's video.
video
A Florida East Coast manifest freight crosses Cove Rd northbound in Port Salerno, Florida.
January 9th, 2020
We explored Miami before boarding the Disney Magic for a five day cruise.
Miami, Florida
Miami has a surprising amount of rail, with FEC, CSX, and a variety of passenger services in a complex network through town.
video
TriRail comes into the terminal at Miami airport.
video
A tugboat pushes a fuel barge up the channel at the port of Miami.
video
The Celebrity Infinity slips by us out of the Port of Miami.
video
Florida East Coast's port of Miami job heads up the pier light power.
January 11th, 2020
Our first port of call was Key West, which is famous for once having been the end of the Florida East Coast's sea route, destroyed by a hurricane in the 1930s. In honour of this history, there are local tourist road trains in large numbers floating around the downtown.
Key West, Florida
At the southern tip of Florida, 90 miles off the coast of Cuba, was once the end of the Florida East Coast. The railway has been gone almost a century, but it remains a tourist town with plenty of road trains to entertain.
video
January 14th, 2020
Our trip nearly over, we got off the ship in Miami and wandered north to Jacksonville, stopping only once for a train at West Palm Beach.
Miami, Florida
Miami has a surprising amount of rail, with FEC, CSX, and a variety of passenger services in a complex network through town.
video
A tugboat heads up the channel at the Port of Miami cruiseship terminal.
video
A fuel tender heads up the channel at Miami's cruise ship terminal.
West Palm Beach, Florida
West Palm Beach needs no introduction and is along the Florida East Coast, also served by several passenger services.
video
Brightline heads through West Palm Beach.
video
A Florida East Coast manifest heads through West Palm Beach.
