SnoozerZ49 wrote:My advice would be to watch your dental fillings, Fortress' track record to date is not very impressive (e.g. CORP, NECR track conditions).
New England Central has done their share to increase the business on
that raillroad. Maybe the track is not quite as good as it once was but it
is not exactly falling apart either. They are not in the same league as the
Florida East Coast.
I will stick to my opinion that the Florida East Coast will continue to do
very well. They are a huge player in South Florida.
For those who are not aware, the FEC all of the intermodal traffic, all of
the automobiles, and the lion's share of other freight traffic in and out of
south east Florida. They are still operating around ten round trips in the
Fort Lauderdale area including 5 trains in and out of Hialeah, 3 rock trains
out of Medley (down from 5 because of a decline in business) and 2 trains
out of Fort Lauderdale. They have three local/yard jobs in Fort Lauderdale
as well so we have a fair amount of activity here.
In contrast, CSX has one or two round trips north out of Miami, a local job
in Fort Lauderdale and a number of jobs in Hialeah but I do not know just
how many.
There is a reasonable amount of local business on both lines.
CSX locomotives tend to be gruby and dirty as a rule while Florida East
Coast locomotives tend to be very clean and appear to be very well
maintained as well. I had a tour of their New Symrna Beach shop a few
months ago and it was clean, well equipped and well organized. They can
do very heavy work on their fleet of EMD locomotives (100 per cent EMD).
The Florida East Coast main line is very well maintained, single track with
CTC, ATC, cab signals, concrete ties and heavy rail. Track speed for all
trains is generally 60 MPH. They have controlled sidings fully signaled
about every 10 miles and a few stretches of double track as well. They
are well equipped to handle the business that they have been handling
over the past several years. The railroad is well equipped to handle a lot
of hot and sensitive traffic such as UPS and other hot cars on a daily basis.
All trains run on a schedule and are most likely on time. Train 107 just
went by here (Fort Lauderdale a few minutes ago, I heard the dispatcher
with him on the radio and he will make it on time into Hialeah where he
is scheduled to arrive at 3:00 AM. It is really neat to go to a location with
a schedule and not usually have to wait long for the train in question to
show up although sometimes they run ahead of time.
Noel Weaver