Yard Goat Images Hi-Def Steam DVDs
Steam Stars
WM 734 - Carl Franz Fall Photo Freight Soo Line 2719
on the North Shore Line 87 minutes
$24.95 + shipping
www.yardgoatimages.com Write for free brochure/order form 112 3rd AV NE, Minneapolis MN 55413
Or call 612-623-0167 Now Available — 60 pages, softcover
in April, when the light is low and the skies generally clear. The train action shown is al- most all trackside runbys and includes many intermodal trains plus manifest freights, auto racks, locals, and rock trains. Flat switching in the yard at Jacksonville is well covered. Diesels seen include GP38-2, GP40, GP40-2, GP40-3, SD40-2 and quite new SD70M-2 models. Paint schemes vary from clean, dark blue dip jobs to the modern SD70M-2 blue, gold, and silver livery to ex- Union Pacific engines lettered FEC to one GP40 painted in a variant of the classic orig- inal FEC scheme. We also see a few shots of connecting railroads Norfolk Southern, CSX and the South Central Florida Express. Four minutes of appropriate scenery shots help showcase the coastal scene by visiting his- toric St. Augustine, ocean and inlet scenery, and several well-maintained lighthouses. Our visit starts at St. Augustine and over the course of the program, we spend a fair amount of time in this area. Interesting curves and backgrounds add visual variety. Intermodal trains run past, most with matched power, although when the SD70M-2s lead they are trailed by an ex-UP SD40. We watch flat switching at Bowden yard in Jacksonville and see a few NS and CSX transfer runs, the latter around the St. Johns River. CSX uses MP15 switchers while NS uses six-axle main line units. The journey south along Route 1 takes us to Bunnell, Holly Hills (near Daytona Beach ), New Smyrna
Beach, Titusville (think
NASA), Cocoa, Melbourne (the Crane Creek bridge), Roseland (Saint Sebastian bridge), Vero Beach, Fort Pierce, and Stuart. At each location,
northbound and southbound
freights pass at speed and the occasional lo- cal passes, powered by a single locomotive. Rock trains are common, bringing construc- tion material northbound, and one CSX unit coal train is seen. Stuart is at MP 262 and the railroad ends at MP 351, so we don’t get a chance to see about 90 miles of the FEC in- cluding West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, and the more congested Fort Lauderdale, Holly- wood, Miami, and Hialeah Yard areas. But the more than 50 runbys give a good feel for the line and its traffic. As a bonus, two run- bys of South Central Florida Express GP11s are shown near the interchange with FEC. The South Central runs 159 miles into the Florida interior and deals with the U.S. Sug- ar plant, among other things. The
videography, image quality and
sound are excellent. The narration is to the point and describes each train’s number, ori- gin,
destination, motive power, type of
freight and so on. This is a runby oriented program with most action of the three-quar- ter wedge variety. This stretch of Florida presents little scenic variety along the rail- road so that other than a name change, many places look like many others. Howev- er, the photographer did take advantage of visual enhancements, such as signals, bridges, and passing sidings (some up to 20,000 feet long). And while the FEC runs parallel to the coast, it is far enough inland that there are no beaches or surf action along the right of way; at best, the railroad passes rivers and the intra-coastal waterway. Those who are interested in seeing what normally un- heralded and uncovered first class main line railroading looks like in Florida should ap- preciate this program. —TOM KELCEC
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