Florida East Coast Railway getting into passenger rai

[amtrak2041864]

Well I was looking into EMD GP38-2 locomotive and I wanted to see who bought them and FEC railroad came up. So I looked up FEC and I glanced over Passenger operations and I saw that they are planning on working on Higher Speed Rail, but not an public organization but themselves a private railroad.
Here is the link, I find that very interesting that a private railroad is going into their pockets to construct HSR with government grants, do you think that if it is successful, the Big four or just mainly BNSF will follow? Lets have an up building conversation, please. I feel CSX will be the last railroad to even consider passenger operations again. What do you guys think of this?

 

[bendorsey]

Restoring pasenger traffic to the FEC has been bandied about for several years and this is not the first thread on this subject. There does seem to be some seriousness to it as about a year ago I was sitting at my favorite dog-n-sudz joint (with the FEC tracks right across the street) and a short Amtrack passenger consist went by. Ya coulda knocked me over with a toothpick, lol. Turns out it was a test train to see what was involved and if it was feasible. OK - obviously its possible and would be a good route as it goes right up the coast as oppoosed to the current Amtrack route thru the center of the state. The only potential problem might be the Stuart, FL Bridge. Its long and single track. All the others are 2 track bridges tho currently only one set of ties and rails are installed so restoring the 1-track line to a 2-track line wouldn't be that difficult. The Stuart bridge used to be served by spring loaded switches on both ends so actualy stopping and throwing atitches wasn't required. No reason that could be done again tho CTC or its current equivalent would probably be prefferable.

The local commuter system called Tri-rail has been talking about extending itself to Jupiter, FL and in reality theres no reason it couldn't be extended to Stuart. As for farther north - again the bridge is the problem. Replacing it with a 2 track bridge would be quite expensive to say the least. At a guess its at least 2000 ft long and has a lift span roughly in the center.

Ben

 

[magickmaker]

Replacing the bridge would be time consuming, but building a second bridge along side it, maybe several thousand feet down from it wouldn't be as expensive. Sure, there would need to be a new alignment for the second track to reach it, but it'd be more cost effective than having to add a whole new double track section.

Having said that, I think the spring switch system would be what they would end up going with. It just makes the most sense.

 

[bendorsey]

Building a new bridge several thousand feet away wouldn't work because of the layout of the area and would cost even more since you'd have to re-align all the tracks to and from it on both ends. The current bridge is smack dab in the middle of town and even goes under a 6 lane highway bridge. Considering the track alingment on both ends - doing anything other then buiding a new one right beside the old one wouldn't work. Besides the inlet to the Atlantic Ocean you have the Intercoastal Waterway to consider. I'd venture to say the current alignment is the only practical alignment. You have to be familiar with the area to understand. Perhaps you can google earth the area and see what I mean.

To give you an idea of the congestion factor - theres an intersection called "confusion corner" because 3 roads all cross at the same place and the track goes right thru the middle of it (its not called confusion corner for nothing, lol). Its also the main drag out to the beaches and Hutchinson Island.

Spring switches have the advantage of never being set wrong (unless they break, lol). Its actually a clever solution to the problem tho I'd imagine they are fairly rare nowdays. Only one I've ever seen was on the Durango & Silverton in the yard throat in Durango. Its clearly marked as a spring switch by a sign.

Ben