Jacksonville, FL

Dave,

If you are on foot, then the best (and only) action that you will be able to see is the rail traffic on the FEC drawbridge across the St. Johns River. In addition to the FEC interchange traffic , CSX and NS also use the bridge for interchange with FEC at FEC's Bowden Yard in S. Jacksonville. As I mentioned in my post, a lot of NS intermodal trains originate and terminate in FEC's Bowden Yard, and use the St. Johns River drawbridge on their routes.

The mainline CSX action is around 1 - 2 miles WNW of your location. And, this is one of the really BAD locations that Nip and I have mentioned in our previous posts to you. Stay out of that area!

The Amtrak station is between 5 - 6 miles northwest of your location.

I thought of the local commuter transit system, but it doesn't take you anywhere that you can see rail action.

All of the real rail action occurs in a half-circle around the City of Jacksonville. Even the once-active industrial lines have been abandoned and removed in the vicinity of the Gator Bowl (or whatever it is called now!).

The worst thing is that walking to any of the good train action locations from your hotel requires that you put your life on the line by having to walk through really rough areas of town! Not worth it!

When are you going to be in Jacksonville, and how much time would you have to train-watch?

ACLfan

ACLfan wrote:CSX Conductor:

As Noel Weaver indicated in his post, there are no active interlocking towers in Florida. All have been deactivated, and most (except 2) have been torn down.

the other one being TN tower

baldwin tower was removed in 2001 I think and beaver street in 1998 or 1999

Conductor - as was stated, the CSX calendar photo is FEC bridge crossing the St. Johns. The photo is on the "South Bank" looking north... and the CSX headquarters- the GOB- is just out of the picture to the right on the north side of the river.

By the way, Baldwin tower is still there (or was a year or so ago)... it's at the end of the Baldwin rail trail/north end of Baldwin yard ~13 miles west of JAX.

they must have moved it then, because it is definetly not at the interlocking anymore...

Yo, Baldwin Tower was destroyed, and replaced with a shiny, metal box (standard issue).

ACLfan

Isn't there a derelict tower where the Baldwin rail trail crosses the north end of Baldwin yard??? When did it get razed?

Everyones' comments were very helpful. My first (of two) to Jax was last weekend. The only train watching I got to do was around the bridge downtown, but I got plenty of it. I got a lot of variety of power - FEC, NS, CSX, BNSF, and UP. Didn't see any of the Tropicana blocks, but maybe next time - the end of December for the Gator Bowl. We also stopped at the old Jacksonville Terminal (convention center now).

I also passed over the (FEC?) line south of downtown near Bolles HS, from which I could see a yard (intermodal?), but had no opportunity to see anymore than that.

Now, what I'd like to be able to do on my next trip would be to get into the CSX HQ if at all possible., perhaps for a tour. I doubt they have a gift shop, but that'd be ideal if someplace around there sold shirts, hats, etc.... Any suggestions on those ideas? In Dec. I will be there on some weekdays as well. Thanks - Dave

Cowford wrote:Isn't there a derelict tower where the Baldwin rail trail crosses the north end of Baldwin yard??? When did it get razed?

I dont ever remember seeing a tower there, unless they moved baldwin tower down the street to the old acl/sal crossing

Dave, the yard you saw was The FEC's Bowden Yard. It is a general purpose yard with an intermodal component. FEC also handles a lot of intermodal traffic, and since Bowden is the northern terminal yard, much of the intermodal traffic visits Bowden for various periods of time, until it heads out on FEC trains to points in Florida, or as NS and CSX interchange traffic.

The Tropicana juice trains, as Crazy Nip mentioned in his post, do not come into Jacksonville, but are routed via the CSX's Callahan Cutoff line between Baldwin and Callahan, bypassing the main part of Jacksonville entirely.

Sorry that you didn't get to see more. The reason that I inquired about your time schedule was if our time schedules might coincide, I was going to offer you a guided tour of the local railroad attractions in Jax.

Well, maybe next time.

ACLfan

Appreciate the (possible) offer of a guided tour. That would've been nice. Might be difficult for me in December, though, as I'll be bringing down about 70 high school kids, which I'm responsible for. Thanks.

A couple of points... though the "juice train" doesn't go through JAX, there is a regular juice block moving to/from Tropicana's plant in Ft. Pierce on the FEC.

About a tour of the CSX HQ... only authorized employees and visitors are allowed. No tours.. and other than some pictures and maps on the walls, there's absolutely nothing interesting to see. If you're thinking about seeing the dispatcher's building, it's in West Jax... and very off-limits.

I made my second trip to Jacksonville, taking my high school band, over Christmas break. Our schedule and rain the only free time I had prevented me from getting any significant train watching time. But, upon leaving, our buses did parallel a line along I-95 as we headed west and eventually northward toward Georgia. Anyway, what I could see on the outskirts of Jacksonville, was a lot of warehousing near a rail line, that I presume to be CSX. There were huge buildings belonging to Michael's, Publix, Winn-Dixie, and beer distributor I think. I couldn't tell if any of them had rail sidings or not, and if they did if they were used. In fact the only place I saw cars for sure at was a huge sawmill. Somewhere naer where we had just passed into Nassau County we passed over what appeared to be an old RR grade, and not far from there was also a CSX yard to the south of the interstate. Not having any reference material for this area, I'd appreciate any insight into what I saw. Thanks - Dave

If you are going north out of Jacksonville toward Georgia, there is one
very great train watching location four miles north of the Georgia State
Line at Folkston, Georgia. If you are going north on US 1/US-301, it is a
left turn at the first traffic light in Folkston I believe and it is only a very
short distance to the tracks.
Double track at this location with a junction just a short distance north
where the line to the west via Waycross swings off from the line north
which goes to Savannah via Jessup.
There are great facilities for train watching on both sides of the tracks,
on the east side is a platform, rest rooms, picnic tables and chairs, a
fireplace or two for cook outs, good radio scanners tuned to the railroad
and maps of the tracks in the area. On the west side are more benches,
tables, a scanner again tuned to the railroad and again maps and
diagrams. There is also an old restored station on the west side.
There are one or two restaurants in town and a store or two for film and
or batteries. The people are friendly and the cops say "hello, how are you
doing?" instead of giving you a hard time over your cameras.
There are 40 plus trains through here every day, probably many more
than 40 most days.
This is absolutely and without exception the very best location in the
entire southeastern United States to watch and photograph trains.
Noel Weaver

its the best place to watch, definetly not the best place to photograph...

even if you go in the middle of the week, the area is just not photogenic, and the light is awful

but it is a great place to sit and watch

now that the secret is out, the weekends are getting out of hand

its a zoo

Dave - sounds like you were not on I-95 but going west on I-10. The yard you saw is Baldwin yard, the north end of which goes under I-10 about 15 miles west of Jax. Those warehouses are, for the most part, not CSX customers (Winn Dixie does some canned goods and perishables, I believe).