Well, quick one today. Jill & I went out for a bagel down at Einstein’s Bagels in Boca Raton, which just happens to be right next to the Florida East Coast’s main line. And on the way there, there’s an intermediate signal just past the Deerfield Beach/Boca town line. Well, on the way past, I noticed that the north facing signal was showing a high green. Interesting – something was coming. But when?
As we pulled into the bagel shop parking lot, the scanner let out a chirp of a marker. I guess that southbound FEC was a couple miles away. So we did a quick turnaround, and I headed for the Deerfield Canal – right on the Deerfield/Boca line. Well, that was probably a bad choice on my part. Not necessarily for the photo angle I chose. More on that in a bit.
So I parked the car, grabbed my gear and made my way down under the Dixie Highway bridge, and got an angle at water level. A second later, the train began sounding for the crossings to the north. Here they come!
A half minute later, the southbound came rolling across the bridge, and I got only one shot, but I think it was a pretty good one.
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But now the bad news. Typically, from what I’ve seen, if there’s a pair of the ex-UP SD40s on the point, that’s it for power. Well, not today. As I watched the second unit roll onto the bridge, the car on the headpin wasn’t a freight car, but rather it was a switcher! I’m not sure what it was, as I only got a glimpse, and by the time I got out of the river, it was out of sight. It looked like an EMD SW-8, but was in a Bicentennial like theme – cab in blue with white stars, and stripes along the hood. Oh, well, you can’t win ’em all. I’m still happy with the shot I did end up getting.
Thanks for looking!
Tom
