Click on the Thumbnails for a full size pic:
12/25:
We heard that Tri-Rail was going to be running trains on Christmas, so we went out in the early evening before dinner to try and catch them.
Tri-Rail is a commuter railroad that runs from Mangonia Park, just north of West Palm, to Miami. It was started in 1989 as an alternative to highway construction in the area, and it proved so popular that it is still running today. One other thing I should mention is that all of the tracks south of Mangonia Park are owned by the state of Florida, and dispatched/operated by CSX. North of Mangonia the track is owned by CSX.
Anyway, we missed the train we were looking for at Mangonia Park, but we did figure out a good route to get there from where we were staying, which would come in handy the next day.
Here's Tri-Rail's Mangonia Park station, built in 1996:
The state of Florida is in the process of finishing up a massive double tracking project on the entire length of the line from Mangonia Park to Miami. Most of it is done now but they still have a little more to do in the Miami area.
Anyway here's a view of some of the new Track and Crossover's located just south of the station. Compare the track on the left, with the track closest to me:
12/26:
This was the day that we were leaving back to Orlando, and eventually back here to Michigan, but Dad and I went out again in the morning because I really wanted to see Tri-Rail in action.
We went back to Mangonia Park and found Tri-Rail F40PH-2C #807 sitting at the station with a three car train waiting to go south:
Builder's Tag on the 807:
These Bilevels are awesome!
There was no crew on board, and they were not supposed to leave for a while, so we went to the station in the West Palm to look around.
When we got there, we found out that we had just missed a northbound CSX freight train
We heard that there was an Amtrak Silver Service train due in within the hour, but we didn't want to wait that long, so we just did a quick tour of the station.The station at West Palm Beach was built in 1925 for the Seaboard Air Line, and has been in use by the railroads ever since. Today it serves Amtrak, Tri-Rail, and Greyhound, and even has its own little deli restaruant too!
Here's a picture I took of the historical marker after getting off of Amtrak on the 23rd:
Picture of the station itself:
After looking around the station, we started to leave, but as we leaving the lot, I heard a horn. I looked up and saw an Amtrak train approaching from the south. Bailed out of the car and ran back to the platform to get the following:
This is Train No. 92...The Silver Palm and it was running about 25 minutes EARLY!
Anyway, I went down to the other end of the platform to watch them loading up the baggage car, and get a few more pictures of the leader:
While I was up there taking pictures, I noticed that the crossing signals behind me were starting up.
Well well well....Here comes that Tri-Rail train from Mangonia!!
Meeting the Palm:
Both trains left at West Palm at the exact same time too!
The Palm departs West Palm for points north:
The Viewliner cars are cool:
The last stop we made before going back to Palm Beach Gardens where we were staying was the Florida East Coast yard on Lake Avenue.
Here we found a ton of cars, and FEC GP38-2 #502:
Another pic:
And that's the end.
Hope you enjoyed!