Former SAL/ACL lines now Fla Central

greenspun.com : LUSENET : ACL and SAL Railroads Historical Society : One Thread

Fla Central RR operates over former SAL track Orlando-Tavares, then splits and runs 2 lines over former ACL, 1 north to Umatilla and 1 east to Mt. Dora and Sorrento. There appear to be few customers left north of about Zellwood, just the citrus plant in Umatilla, and the tourist operation (steam! and a trolley) in Mt. Dora. However, my brother-in-law lives next to the line just south of Tavares, and on Friday he said a NB train of 55 low gondolas went by. He has seen this once before. Imagine that ACL/SAL or even CSX would have loved to have that traffic years ago. Anyone know what kind of run this was, what the Fla Central is hauling, and who/where the customer is?

-- bob lowry (rlowry98@aol.com), August 27, 2000

Answers

thanks bill. Too bad its only car storage and not real business hauling something.

-- bob lowry (rlowry98@aol.com), August 29, 2000.

CSX is going to store about 700 freight cars on the Florida Central. The Sorento branch will hold 150 plus of them, the Forest City branch is getting about the same number, and the Umatilla branch will be getting some as long as Golden Gem is not getting cars. I do not know where the rest will be stored. The cars will be mostly gondola's and military flat cars from Savannah from what I have been told.

-- Bill Dusenbury (sclbill@hotmail.com), August 28, 2000.

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