FEC crossing Florida Turnpike?

[Noel Weaver]

The Florida East Coast Railway (AAR reporting mark FEC) is a Class II railroad operating in the US Florida East Coast Railwaystate of Florida; in the past, it has been a Class I railroad. The FEC is renowned as the railroad that built the first railroad bridges to Key West that have since been rebuilt into road bridges for vehicle traffic.
Fabulous Tourist Spots WorldWide

The original railroad bridges turned highway bridges have all been replaced by new highway bridges although the old bridges
are still in place. Most of the old bridges are not accessible for walking or for vehicles. The old railroad bridge to Pigeon
Key is still in use but the public is not allowed to drive their vehicle over this bridge.
Actually this makes the ride in a car down to the keys even more interesting as you can appreciate the construction work
that took place in building this wonder and a good view from the highway bridges. Just look where you are going while also
looking at the old railroad bridges.
Noel Weaver

[rainpasses]

That would be Fort Pierce on the K-branch. The closest exit on the turnpike would be exit 152 Route 70/Virginia Ave. The turnpike crosses Glades Cutoff road and the FEC there.

Hi all,

I'm new to this group, and have always been a fan of trains, growing up near the Seaboard track in Hialeah, Florida. Anyway, we now live in western St. Lucie County, in Florida. My wife told me she heard train horns near here a few times. I thought she was mistaken, thinking all the train tracks are near the center of the state, or along the coast. But today I heard the unmistakable sound of a train horn near our house...two longs, a short, and a long.

Come to find out, if I'm reading the openrailway.org map correctly, we live not too far from the K-Branch railroad track, a line that runs around Lake Okeechobee to Fort Pierce, apparently.

What I was wondering was what that line would be used for. The only thing there is around that area is sugar cane and cattle ranches. I have only heard the train once in the past year (today, in fact), and my wife says she heard it only once as well, a few months ago.

Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[chrsjrcj]

There is a Tropicana plant that the FEC serves just west of the Turnpike along the K-line. I do believe that South Central Florida Express (the sugar cane train) makes at least weekly trips up to Fort Pierce, but I don't know what exactly the loads are (it's certainly not cane which is just transported to the factories in the Glades region).

I did find this YouTube clip from 2012 of that operation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T90F5ZiWYI" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;