Nice video! I agree it sounds like the FEC does lack vision because what do you railroads pulling these days? Containers, containers full of merchandise, raw material, you name it trains can carry it. If they can ship frozen orange juice they certainly can ship produce and at 500 miles to the gallon I think they make it profitable. Every time I see the Chicago to Miami express container train with 150, 200, to 300 containers go by that represents that many semi trucks that aren't on the highway.
Mike Fartuletta Ya and that would be a lot of trucks. And not just the pollution from those, but the wear and tear on the highways which we are going to pay for in the form of more taxes levied on us and the fuel that we use. Also all that more traffic also brings forth the possibility of injury to us and other motorists and pedestrians from these added trucks on our highways with them having blown tires or tires falling off of them or the drivers falling asleep or distracted and causing sever accidents. Or where trucks are constantly involved with grade crossing accidents. And with the few more trains that would be needed to replace all the trucks the chances of a grade crossing accident involving cars is not caused by the train being there, we know they are going to be sometime and have warning devices for that. It's the persons fault that besides all that is not paying attention or is just a dumb ass and thought they could beat the train. So ya it is an incredible difference!
Mike, I have to agree. A train can transport large quantities of what it would take several hundred trucks to do across the country and at less fuel cost. The only advantage of trucks is they can take a load to a freight yard to be transported by rail, and at the other end deliver the load to the receiver.
Awesome. Take a spray bottle of water with you. Wet the rail where the info is stamped. It makes the old hard to read stamping on that old rail easily readable.
You know something I like doing is going to like overhead views and seeing how far you can follow the old pathways of railroads. As a lot are still visible even though they have been gone for decades.
RailRol82 Good Afternoon Roly Another amazing video Mr Railroad archeologist This is one awesome video that you have shared, To think of how it would have been back in those days to ride this railroad across the overseas railway I could only have imagined another piece of history gone but not forgotten by any means, You always do the best in finding abandoned and unused railroads You my friend are the best, You are one hard working man keep up the good work Roly a Big thumbs up 👍👍👍👍👍
I have seen a couple of shows on TV about this railroad and its founder, who I thought his name was Flanders or something like that. Also read some on it. But you bring this history right to our faces personally. Very very nice job. Loved the rail with the tree growing around it. You were a lucky little boy to have gotten to grow up around the railroads and you can tell how much you liked and were amazed by them when you were younger by hearing it in your voice. We played all around and on the railroads when I was a kid as we had two railroads in our town when I grew up an a third years before my time and a fourth within two miles from way years past. It was a great part of my childhood. When I was small we had the single track IC and the double track Milwaukee Road now the single tracked CP. keep up the good work my friend! I'm glad you decided to call yourself the "Railroad Historian" that is a great title to have chosen !
Love your channel, all the old rail rotting away or being removed in South Florida is a real shame. My wife worked for one of the MPO’s down here and is now a private sector transportation planner. The excuse all the beaurocrats used for not using rail more for public transportation was lack of infrastructure and expense of creating or acquiring it. Your videos of the abandoned FEC and old Seaborn lines goes to show how short sighted they and the rail companies have been. Brightline running to Florida City and Tri Rail to Homestead would be a game changer. The congestion on the Turnpike, Palmetto, and Don Shula are nothing short of excruciating on a good day! Rail service would provide a much needed reprieve to this congestion. Instead we have a worthless busway with hardly any ridership and a missing railroad. On another note, have you ever explored the right of way that is still visible in satellite imagery from the end of the busway through Krome and a perfectly straight line of trees that ends at US-1 when it curves back to align with the old railroad route? I wonder if there are any remnants there to be explored?
Look where the busway ends at Palm Drive in Florida City. There’s an elevated path that looks to be built on top of the old railroad grade which ends at SW 3rd Ave as it connects back to US-1. Beyond the road, you can see a perfectly straight line of trees that continues until it reaches US-1 again as the highway curves and realigns to the original railroad alignment. Historic Ariels shows this area as it was originally too, interested to see if there are any remnants, ties, tie plates or even rails leftover. That would be really historic and an exceptional find if so!
@@railrol82 well even though its abandoned it's still there! The overseas railroad just has a few parts left of it! I guess I should've said one of my favorite past railroads!
Great video! I'm a bit older than you, I grew up and still live in South Florida. I remember driving down US 1 from the end of the Palmetto Expressway down to Key West and the rail road ran past all the farms along the way through Perrine, Kendall, Naranja, Homestead and Florida City. Thanks for bringing back memories☺
I remember eating at a Howard Johnson on rt 1 in Coral Gables would see the trains on this line across the street, there was alot of crossing in this area
There was a lot of crossings, I vividly remember the ones at Sunset Dr and Kendall Dr. Do you remember the old connector track between CSX and FEC at what is now SW 48th ST?
@@railrol82 no i do not remember this connection, I worked In the Omni mall checking out some areas in downtown there were still tracks in the area of the old FRC station area some were paved over this was early 1970"s
Since that right of way is pretty much abandoned and most of the track removed. That little bit of rail left behind, would that be fair game to anyone willing to haul it off? So would love to have a foot or two an old rail. KenS.
FEC lost interest in passenger trains after the 1963 strike. They ran a 3 car passenger train from North Miami to JAX from 1965 (end of the strike) to 1968 by State or Federal order. The mainline from MIA to JAX was double-track back then. Now it is single track with passing sidings. Most of the sidings are really just leftover sections of the old double-track.
This railroad was most likely a passenger line from Key West to the main land, not a freight line. The rail looked like it was for light service (112 - 119 lb), else it would've been beefier (127 - 140 lb). I guess that railroad was no longer feasible since the 1970's when most people chose to drive themselves to wherever they had to go. Passenger train ridership is low today across the US, even with Amtrak on the mainline between New York City, Albany and Buffalo, NY. I could only imagine how much worse it is there in Florida with a smaller population.
Interesting study on the Ludlam FEC corridor: miamidadetpo.org/library/studies/fec-transit-connection-study-executive-summary-2009-12.pdf Light rail connecting dadeland metro rail and MIA was in the cards as well as a busway, but some how a bike trail won out? Incredible given the tremendous traffic burdens we all endure down here. Rail is the answer, is anyone in transportation planing reading this?!?! We have Tri-Rail and Bright Line both with access to the Ludlam FEC corridor via the Iris interlocking, I just don’t understand how it can be so difficult.
If you really want to touch a ghost from the past; it’s very likely that Henry Flagler himself rode along those tracks in his private railcar rumbling down to Key West in 1912! Also; the ubiquitous Krome Ave. is named after William J. Krome the engineer who surveyed the route over the Keys for Henry Flagler.
Nice video! I agree it sounds like the FEC does lack vision because what do you railroads pulling these days? Containers, containers full of merchandise, raw material, you name it trains can carry it. If they can ship frozen orange juice they certainly can ship produce and at 500 miles to the gallon I think they make it profitable. Every time I see the Chicago to Miami express container train with 150, 200, to 300 containers go by that represents that many semi trucks that aren't on the highway.
Mike Fartuletta Ya and that would be a lot of trucks. And not just the pollution from those, but the wear and tear on the highways which we are going to pay for in the form of more taxes levied on us and the fuel that we use. Also all that more traffic also brings forth the possibility of injury to us and other motorists and pedestrians from these added trucks on our highways with them having blown tires or tires falling off of them or the drivers falling asleep or distracted and causing sever accidents. Or where trucks are constantly involved with grade crossing accidents. And with the few more trains that would be needed to replace all the trucks the chances of a grade crossing accident involving cars is not caused by the train being there, we know they are going to be sometime and have warning devices for that. It's the persons fault that besides all that is not paying attention or is just a dumb ass and thought they could beat the train. So ya it is an incredible difference!
Mike, I have to agree. A train can transport large quantities of what it would take several hundred trucks to do across the country and at less fuel cost. The only advantage of trucks is they can take a load to a freight yard to be transported by rail, and at the other end deliver the load to the receiver.
Definitely right. They were short sighted. Once the rails are gone it becomes 10 times more difficult to rebuild
Awesome. Take a spray bottle of water with you. Wet the rail where the info is stamped. It makes the old hard to read stamping on that old rail easily readable.
You know something I like doing is going to like overhead views and seeing how far you can follow the old pathways of railroads. As a lot are still visible even though they have been gone for decades.
Hopefully they will leave what is left for it’s huge historic value.
Nice work my friend!
RailRol82 Good Afternoon Roly Another amazing video Mr Railroad archeologist This is one awesome video that you have shared, To think of how it would have been back in those days to ride this railroad across the overseas railway I could only have imagined another piece of history gone but not forgotten by any means, You always do the best in finding abandoned and unused railroads You my friend are the best, You are one hard working man keep up the good work Roly a Big thumbs up 👍👍👍👍👍
Thanks for the video of this remannt of the FEC.
Wow, awesome find of that piece of history ROL82!!
I have seen a couple of shows on TV about this railroad and its founder, who I thought his name was Flanders or something like that. Also read some on it. But you bring this history right to our faces personally. Very very nice job. Loved the rail with the tree growing around it. You were a lucky little boy to have gotten to grow up around the railroads and you can tell how much you liked and were amazed by them when you were younger by hearing it in your voice. We played all around and on the railroads when I was a kid as we had two railroads in our town when I grew up an a third years before my time and a fourth within two miles from way years past. It was a great part of my childhood. When I was small we had the single track IC and the double track Milwaukee Road now the single tracked CP. keep up the good work my friend! I'm glad you decided to call yourself the "Railroad Historian" that is a great title to have chosen !
I hope they leave that great piece of history and great video railrol
Love your channel, all the old rail rotting away or being removed in South Florida is a real shame. My wife worked for one of the MPO’s down here and is now a private sector transportation planner. The excuse all the beaurocrats used for not using rail more for public transportation was lack of infrastructure and expense of creating or acquiring it. Your videos of the abandoned FEC and old Seaborn lines goes to show how short sighted they and the rail companies have been.
Brightline running to Florida City and Tri Rail to Homestead would be a game changer. The congestion on the Turnpike, Palmetto, and Don Shula are nothing short of excruciating on a good day! Rail service would provide a much needed reprieve to this congestion. Instead we have a worthless busway with hardly any ridership and a missing railroad.
On another note, have you ever explored the right of way that is still visible in satellite imagery from the end of the busway through Krome and a perfectly straight line of trees that ends at US-1 when it curves back to align with the old railroad route? I wonder if there are any remnants there to be explored?
Look where the busway ends at Palm Drive in Florida City. There’s an elevated path that looks to be built on top of the old railroad grade which ends at SW 3rd Ave as it connects back to US-1.
Beyond the road, you can see a perfectly straight line of trees that continues until it reaches US-1 again as the highway curves and realigns to the original railroad alignment. Historic Ariels shows this area as it was originally too, interested to see if there are any remnants, ties, tie plates or even rails leftover. That would be really historic and an exceptional find if so!
Always enjoy your videos
Great job Roly! You know that's my Favorite railroad and I'm very happy to see you going back and doing an update!
@@railrol82 well even though its abandoned it's still there! The overseas railroad just has a few parts left of it! I guess I should've said one of my favorite past railroads!
Great video! I'm a bit older than you, I grew up and still live in South Florida. I remember driving down US 1 from the end of the Palmetto Expressway down to Key West and the rail road ran past all the farms along the way through Perrine, Kendall, Naranja, Homestead and Florida City.
Thanks for bringing back memories☺
Nice video! It is a shame to see old track that probably had a lot of action in the past.
Even though I dislike defunct railroads being removed, I could see value in converting this to a light-rail extension as an alternate path to MIA
awesome video R, I remember when you did the first one R again you rock guy, You the man :-)
I like the descriptive pictures you put at the start of the vid, very educational.
@@railrol82 Sounds like a deal! :]
I remember eating at a Howard Johnson on rt 1 in Coral Gables would see the trains on this line across the street, there was alot of crossing in this area
There was a lot of crossings, I vividly remember the ones at Sunset Dr and Kendall Dr. Do you remember the old connector track between CSX and FEC at what is now SW 48th ST?
@@railrol82 no i do not remember this connection, I worked In the Omni mall checking out some areas in downtown there were still tracks in the area of the old FRC station area some were paved over this was early 1970"s
@@dougow3061 And the SCL/FEC connection near the Port of Miami was around there too!
Awesome video.
It's funny you watched this video. I just finished filming an update video on it!
This history is great. It would have been a fun way to travel the Keys. Thank you for sharing.
Happy Easter! Keep on track hunting.
Very interesting video. Thanks
Man that sucks! I’d love to see it reactivated, but I know it won’t happen :P
I can't believe the section heading North towards the airport hasn't been rail-trailed or bus-wayed yet!
Nice video, as always!
awesome video railrol82 :) so said that this rail line will most likely never be rebuilt ever ?! :
Since that right of way is pretty much abandoned and most of the track removed. That little bit of rail left behind, would that be fair game to anyone willing to haul it off? So would love to have a foot or two an old rail. KenS.
FEC lost interest in passenger trains after the 1963 strike. They ran a 3 car passenger train from North Miami to JAX from 1965 (end of the strike) to 1968 by State or Federal order. The mainline from MIA to JAX was double-track back then. Now it is single track with passing sidings. Most of the sidings are really just leftover sections of the old double-track.
There is a rr in central New Mexico that still has the old arm semaphore signals. You should check it out sometime
I can't remember the exact location, I will check a map.
I always visit there and remiss good times.
Damm so that's the only FEC rails to the keys left and that's crazy how the last FEC ran through there in the 80s.
Nice video mate
This railroad was most likely a passenger line from Key West to the main land, not a freight line. The rail looked like it was for light service (112 - 119 lb), else it would've been beefier (127 - 140 lb). I guess that railroad was no longer feasible since the 1970's when most people chose to drive themselves to wherever they had to go. Passenger train ridership is low today across the US, even with Amtrak on the mainline between New York City, Albany and Buffalo, NY. I could only imagine how much worse it is there in Florida with a smaller population.
Interesting study on the Ludlam FEC corridor: miamidadetpo.org/library/studies/fec-transit-connection-study-executive-summary-2009-12.pdf
Light rail connecting dadeland metro rail and MIA was in the cards as well as a busway, but some how a bike trail won out? Incredible given the tremendous traffic burdens we all endure down here. Rail is the answer, is anyone in transportation planing reading this?!?!
We have Tri-Rail and Bright Line both with access to the Ludlam FEC corridor via the Iris interlocking, I just don’t understand how it can be so difficult.
Sad I would of want to go to Key West that easily and that would be a good way to get to the keys
I noticed you changed your youtube profile
Nice video, but at 16:15 it went dark and no sound, till the end credits.
the track wasn't used much, after the last relay, rail edges
are still sharp & defined
Good Video. 🇮🇳
The over sea railroad 7 mile bridge some is still standing
interesting video!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@railrol82 please keep uploading your videos and can you please tell me why you don't ask for $$$???
There is a certain fascination about derelict railways, the imagination just takes over.
If you really want to touch a ghost from the past; it’s very likely that Henry Flagler himself rode along those tracks in his private railcar rumbling down to Key West in 1912!
Also; the ubiquitous Krome Ave. is named after William J. Krome the engineer who surveyed the route over the Keys for Henry Flagler.
RailROL82 All we can know is history. If I knew the future, the lottery would be broke!
? Will you go back and see if it's still there
Thieves did not steal ? All the best from Poland, +
Say hi to my buddy Snake if U C him! He lives in that neck of the woods!
👍8