the date is September 1st 1935 and a strong category 5 hurricane is approaching the florida keys and FEC has sent a train to evacuate people living in the keys. then in the early hours of september 2nd as the train is racing back towards the mainland the hurricane suddenly shifts course and slams into the florida mainland near miami. a small portion of the key west extension near miami and caused a large amount of damage south of Miami but the majority of the line was intact. the line was reopened a month later to trains. work on a parralel highway slowly continued slowly throught the 30's but it was finished in 1942 after the outbeak of WW2. the lines passenger service stayed profitable through world war 2 but after restrictions were lifted the passenger trains were slowly abandoned in favor of cars. finally in 1968 the FEC labor strikes put an end to passenger service and the line became freight only.traffic included general freight and agreggates to the port of key west and fuel for the navy station at Key West. during this time traffic became marginal and the line was single tracked. in 1978 a new container port was built on Fleming key and and the navy took over the old port enabling them to station larger ships such as aircraft carriers in key west. the new container port brought the line back from near abandonment and the line was relayed with double track and bridges repaired to handle the new traffic.
in real life of course the labor day hurricane of 1935 slammed into the keys and destroyed much of the railraod, it was too costly to rebuilt and sold to the state of florida to built a highway on.
my route is based on the fictional history described above, the route will be DEM based and if finished will require a medium end computer to run, i hope to release Version 1 when Key West is finished.
anways now for the pictures.
we start our tour of at the Key West roundhouse where we find a GP40-2 taking a spin on the turntable
3 SD70M-2's at the fuel pad
a general view of the roundhouse
GP40-2 doing yard work in the evening, a navy aircraft carrier can be seen in the background
GP40-2 doesnt look so big now!
continued....
in real life of course the labor day hurricane of 1935 slammed into the keys and destroyed much of the railraod, it was too costly to rebuilt and sold to the state of florida to built a highway on.
my route is based on the fictional history described above, the route will be DEM based and if finished will require a medium end computer to run, i hope to release Version 1 when Key West is finished.
anways now for the pictures.
we start our tour of at the Key West roundhouse where we find a GP40-2 taking a spin on the turntable
3 SD70M-2's at the fuel pad
a general view of the roundhouse
GP40-2 doing yard work in the evening, a navy aircraft carrier can be seen in the background
GP40-2 doesnt look so big now!
continued....
