Transatlantic pics

5th April 2005

CSX 2633 a GP38-2 is the yard pilot at Orlando Taft yard. This loco was in pristine condition, presumably fresh from the shops.	Not a good picture really but this GE Dash 8 was standing alongside us at Sanford when I shot it through the window of the Amtrak car.	Seminole Gulf GP10 number 578 rests on the stabling point at Fort Myers in the company of newly acquired cab control car 601 (DVT to us Brits !!!) 601 was built in the 1950s by General Motors as an "F" unit. It was gutted and used as a driving car for an operation in New Jersey. It has since found use on the North end of the dining train which operates out of Fort Myers on selected days	The Southbound Amtrak
While stayin in Orlando one year I ecided to take a little trip. My journey passed through Sanford where some power was stabled. Here is CSX 2155 - an EMD GP38 known as a "geep". This was the "stealth" colour scheme which has been usurped a couple of times since.

I've visited the USA a few times and have managed a few pics of trains over there. Not too struck on the modern behemoths - I prefer the older Geeps and SDs which are becoming increasingly rare.

One of my favourite destinations in the USA is the Gulf Coast of Florida. There is a railway operation based at Fort Myers named the Seminole Gulf Railroad, started out operating a handful of GP7s and GP9s.

For the unitiated, US rail operations are predominantly privately owned and are to a large part established as freight carriers. The few Amtrak trains which operate in the USA generally run on the freight railroads at 79mph, although the Northeast corridor in the New York, Philadelphia, Washington area allows 125mph electrified running.

A trip to Palm Springs in May 2005 provided some absolutely stunning displays of North American railroading. A pair of 4400hp locos flat out upgrade at around 15mph is breathtaking, as are consist of seven diesels on the front of a mile long doublestack container train !!

Palm Springs is referred to as an oasis in the desert where temperatures are quite often 100+ F during the day. Massive farms of wind turbines populate the landscape as you will see in some of these photos.