![]() South Central Florida Express crossing Moore Haven Swing Bridge over the Caloosahatchee Canal | |
Overview | |
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Headquarters | Clewiston, Florida |
Reporting mark | SCXF |
Locale | Southern Florida |
Dates of operation | 1994– |
Predecessor | Atlantic Coast Line Railroad CSX Transportation Florida East Coast Railway |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
Length | 171 miles (275 km) |
The South Central Florida Express, Inc.( reporting mark SCXF) (originally known as the South Central Florida Railroad( reporting mark SCFE)) is a common carrier shortline railroad in southern Florida run by U.S. Sugar Corporation. Its trains operate from Sebring to Fort Pierce via Clewiston around the southern perimeter of Lake Okeechobee, and serves customers at 26 locations. With 171 miles (275 km) of track, the SCXF is the largest private agricultural railroad in the U.S.
The railroad began operation in 1994 on tracks previously owned and operated by CSX Transportation; in 1998, operation expanded on to tracks leased from the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC). In addition to the SCXF, U.S. Sugar has its own private tracks known as the U.S. Sugar Railroad( reporting mark USSC), which consists of multiple branch lines connected to SCXF tracks. In 2021, the SCXF began operating the Sugar Express( reporting mark CHOX), a heritage tourist passenger train featuring a steam locomotive pulling historic passenger cars.
The South Central Florida Express (SCXF) is at its busiest during the main sugar harvest, which usually runs from October to March each year. [1] U.S. Sugar is the only sugar company in the continental U.S. that transports sugarcane by rail.
In addition to the SCXF, U.S. Sugar has its own private tracks known as the U.S. Sugar Railroad, which is made up of several branch lines running from SCXF tracks to sugar fields near Clewiston and Bryant. Unlike the SCXF, the USSC is not a common carrier and is not subject to Federal Railroad Administration regulations. [1]
Sugarcane harvested from fields along the line on the west and south sides of Lake Okeechobee is taken by rail in specially designed rail cars to U.S. Sugar's refinery in Clewiston for processing. [2] The SCXF refers to these trains as "cane trains", which then take empty cars back out to the fields.
On the east side of the lake, sugarcane is collected the same way and loaded cars are brought to Bryant Yard near Pahokee, where cars are combined on to longer trains before being sent to Clewiston. This movement of trains from Bryant to Clewiston is referred to as the Bryant Turn. Since the junction switch at the entrance to Bryant Yard is oriented north on the main line, Bryant Turn trains are backed out of the yard on to the main line before heading south and west to Clewiston. During harvest season, Bryant Turn trains can run as often as every four hours. [1] [2]
Refined by-products such as sugar crystals and molasses are shipped from the refinery by rail to interchanges on each end of the line, where they are sent throughout the United States. Chemicals for refining sugar are also brought in to the refinery from the interchanges. SCXF's western terminus interchanges with CSX on their Auburndale Subdivision in Sebring, and the eastern terminus in Fort Pierce interchanges with the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) in Fort Pierce. The SCXF also has haulage rights with the FEC to Jacksonville to further interchange with CSX and Norfolk Southern.
The South Central Florida Express operates eight EMD GP11 locomotives (road numbers 302-305, 308, 310, 312), six EMD GP38 locomotives (404-405, 407-410), six EMD GP40 locomotives (501-506), and two EMD SD40 series locomotives (6323 and 6324). U.S. Sugar also operates one SW1500 and one MP15AC switcher engine. To haul raw sugarcane, SCXF and USSC operate about 800 specifically designed rail cars. [3] Nearly all locomotives on both SCXF and USSC tracks carry the USSC reporting mark. [1]
South Central Florida Express / U.S. Sugar Railroad | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Note: Not to scale |
The South Central Florida Express operates on 171 miles (275 km) of track, making it the largest private agricultural railroad in the U.S. [4] The SCXF owns the tracks between Sebring and Pahokee, and leases the tracks between Pahokee and Fort Pierce from the FEC. The main line is divided into east and west sides, and the Miami Canal on the south side of Lake Okeechobee in Lake Harbor is where the two sides officially connect. The milepost numbers on each side are independent from one another and remain as they did under predecessor companies.
The 82 miles (132 km) of main-line track on the west side of Lake Okeechobee begins in Sebring at a connection with CSX's Auburndale Subdivision just south of Sebring's Amtrak station. A short distance south from Sebring is Desoto City Yard, a small three-track switching yard. CSX has trackage rights into Desoto City Yard where interchange between the two companies takes place. [5]
From Desoto City, the line continues south running mostly parallel to US 27 through Lake Placid and Palmdale. Just south of Palmdale, at a point historically known as Harrisburg, the line turns southeast towards Moore Haven. The line crosses the Caloosahatchee Canal on a small swing bridge in Moore Haven.
The line continues southeast from Moore Haven winding through sugar fields before reaching Clewiston. Clewiston is the location of U.S. Sugar's refinery which is co-located with SCXF's Clewiston Yard. The yard and refinery are located off the main line on a wye known as Sugar Junction. SCXF's maintenance facility is also located in Clewiston along W.C. Owen Avenue. [1]
South of Clewiston, the line winds south and east through more sugar fields before coming to a point known as Keela. At Keela, the line splits with a 16-mile (26 km) branch line heading south and east to Okeelanta while the main line heads east from Keela to Lake Harbor, where it crosses the Miami Canal and connects with the east side.
The northernmost 42 miles (68 km) of the west side between Sebring and Harrisburg was built in 1916 by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad as part of an effort to extend their Haines City Branch south to Immokalee. Harrisburg was named after the Harris track-laying machine used to construct the line. Trackage south of Harrisburg to Immokalee, which went as far south as Everglades City at one time, was abandoned in 1989. [6]
The Atlantic Coast Line built tracks from Harrisburg to Moore Haven in 1918. In 1921, the Moore Haven & Clewiston Railway was built, which extended the Coast Line's tracks to Clewiston. The Coast Line leased the Moore Haven & Clewiston Railway in 1925, and extended it to Lake Harbor in 1929. Even in its early days, the line mostly served U.S. Sugar (and its predecessor, the Southern Sugar Company prior to 1931), who built and operated their own small branch near Clewiston and Lake Okeechobee that connected to the Coast Line (the USSC tracks). By 1944, the Atlantic Coast Line completely bought out the Moore Haven & Clewiston Railway. [6]
Through mergers, the Atlantic Coast Line network would become part of CSX by 1986. CSX operated the line as their Sebring Subdivision along the main line to the sugar fields and Okeelanta Subdivision on the branch line to Okeelanta. [7]
The west side was bought from CSX on June 2, 1990, by the Brandywine Valley Railroad, a Lukens Steel Company subsidiary, and sold to U.S. Sugar on September 17, 1994. U.S. Sugar then spun off the railroad into a separate company with its own board of directors to operate independently from the 119 miles (192 km) of branch lines U.S. Sugar already owned (USSC trackage).
The 71 miles (114 km) of main-line track on the east side of Lake Okeechobee continues the line from Lake Harbor east to South Bay and then north to Belle Glade, Pahokee, and Canal Point.
Located just off the main line on a spur between Pahokee and Canal Point is Bryant Yard. Bryant Yard is used to sort cars and consolidate trains from a number of nearby fields before being sent to Clewiston. [2] Bryant Yard was co-located with the now defunct Bryant Sugar Mill, which closed in 2017. [8]
The line crosses the St. Lucie Canal on a small lift bridge in Port Mayaca. The line then continues to follow the lake a short distance before turning northwest to a point known as Marcy. The line crosses CSX's Auburndale Subdivision at Marcy before continuing northeast directly to Fort Pierce, where it connects to the FEC.
When the FEC ran the east side, it referred to the line as their K Branch. It was the southernmost segment of the FEC's Kissimmee Valley Line to Lake Okeechobee, which originally branched off the FEC main line near New Smyrna Beach and ran south through the Kissimmee Valley. [9] It reached Belle Glade by 1923, and was extended to the Miami Canal in Lake Harbor in 1929 to connect with the Atlantic Coast Line. Most of the Kissimmee Valley Line north of Marcy was abandoned in 1947, and the remaining track was connected to the FEC main line by way of a new track from Fort Pierce known as the Glades Cutoff. [10] The SCXF began leasing the east side line from the FEC on March 2, 1998, and now fully operates the line from milepost K 15 (Cana) south, and has trackage rights into FEC's Fort Pierce Yard where the interchange takes place. [1]
In late 2016, U.S. Sugar reacquired USSC No. 148, a 4-6-2 steam locomotive that they previously owned from 1952 to the 1970s. [11] [12] U.S. Sugar originally bought it from the FEC, which ran the locomotive on its Key West Extension. [11] After being reacquired from the Denver and Rio Grande Historical Foundation in Monte Vista, Colorado and a three-year restoration work performed by the FMW Solutions, the No. 148 locomotive now runs on recycled vegetable oil and began its first revenue service, pulling the last cane train of the 2019–2020 harvest season on May 28, 2020. [13] [14]
The South Central Florida Express now runs the No. 148 locomotive as part of USSC's heritage tourist passenger train named the Sugar Express. [14] During the summer months of 2021, U.S. Sugar acquired an ex-Wabash turntable from St. Louis, Missouri, which will eventually be used to turn the No. 148 locomotive around at Clewiston. [15] In need of rolling stocks for the Sugar Express, U.S. Sugar initially leased the Georgia 300 observation car. [16] They also acquired an ex-Pennsylvania Railroad lounge car renamed from William Penn to Palmdale, along with an ex-Santa Fe and Amtrak baggage car converted into an open-air car and named the Miami Locks. [16] Additionally, USSC acquired three ex-Great Northern Railway passenger cars and an ex-Pennsylvania Railroad observation car from the United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey and the Galveston Railroad Museum, respectively. All of the rolling stock will be repainted in an Illinois Central City of Miami homage livery. [16] [17] [18] U.S. Sugar also purchased a second 4-6-2 steam locomotive, Atlantic Coast Line 1504 from the North Florida Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society in Jacksonville, Florida, which will become part of the Sugar Express after it is restored to operating condition. [19]
On December 12, 2021, the Sugar Express ran its first public excursion, featuring the No. 148 locomotive pulling the Lake Placid Limited train from Clewiston to Lake Placid and back. [20] [21] On January 29-30, 2022, U.S. Sugar and Trains Magazine hosted a private photo charter of the No. 148 locomotive pulling passenger and freight consists. [22] On April 23-25, the No. 148 locomotive participated in taking the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners' (AAPRCO) special Sugarland Limited train on a multi-day tour around the Lake Okeechobee counties. [23] [24] Sugar Express continues to operate a full season of events, including special holiday train events for Lake Placid, Sebring, and Clewiston, Florida, as well as short trips and all-day excursions in and around the Lake Okeechobee region. [25] [26]
Clewiston is a city in Hendry County, Florida, United States. Its location is 80 miles (130 km) northwest of Fort Lauderdale on the Atlantic coastal plain. The population was 7,327 at the 2020 census, up from 7,155 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city in the Clewiston micropolitan area.
CSX Transportation, known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles (34,000 km) of track, it is the leading subsidiary of CSX Corporation, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.
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The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida, currently owned by Grupo México.
"Juice Train" is the popular name for unit trains of Tropicana fresh orange juice operated by railroads in the United States.
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The Seminole Gulf Railway is a short line freight and passenger excursion railroad headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida, that operates two former CSX Transportation railroad lines in Southwest Florida. The company's Fort Myers Division, which was previously the southernmost segment of CSX's Fort Myers Subdivision, runs from Arcadia south to North Naples via Punta Gorda, Fort Myers, Estero, and Bonita Springs. The company's other line, the Sarasota Division, runs from Oneco south through Sarasota. Seminole Gulf acquired the lines in November 1987 and operates its own equipment. The company's first train departed Fort Myers on November 14, 1987.
The Silver Star is a long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak on a 1,522-mile (2,449 km) route between New York City and Miami via Washington, D.C., Richmond, Virginia, Raleigh, North Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, Jacksonville, Florida, and Tampa, Florida. The Silver Star and its sister train in the Silver Service brand, the Silver Meteor, are the descendants of numerous long-distance trains that operated between Florida and New York for most of the 20th century.
The Treasure Coast is a region in the southeast of the U.S. state of Florida. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and comprises Indian River, Martin, and St. Lucie counties. The region, whose name refers to the Spanish Treasure Fleet that was lost in a 1715 hurricane, evidently emerged from residents' desire to distinguish themselves from the Gold Coast to the south.
U.S. Highway 27 (US 27) in Florida is a north–south United States Numbered Highway. It runs 496.352 miles (798.801 km) from the Miami metropolitan area northwest to the Tallahassee metropolitan area. Throughout the state, US 27 has been designated the Claude Pepper Memorial Highway by the Florida Legislature. It was named after long-time Florida statesperson Claude Pepper, who served in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. The stretch running from Miami to South Bay was originally designated the Thomas E. Will Memorial Highway by the Florida Legislature in 1937 when that portion was known as State Road 26 (SR 26). Thomas E. Will, the founder of Okeelanta, had worked for almost 20 years to get the state to build a road from Miami to the area south of Lake Okeechobee. For most of its length in the state, US 27 is a divided highway.
U.S. Route 98 is a major east-west thoroughfare through the U.S. state of Florida. Spanning 670.959 miles (1,079.804 km), it connects Pensacola and the Alabama/Florida state line to the west with Palm Beach and the Atlantic coast in the east. It is the longest US road in Florida, as well as the longest US road in any state east of the Mississippi River.
The Florida Heartland is a region of Florida located to the north and west of Lake Okeechobee, composed of six inland, non-metropolitan counties—DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Highlands, and Okeechobee. In 2000, The US Census Bureau recorded the population of the region at 229,509. In 2010, The US Census Bureau recorded the population of the region at 253,399, a growth rate of 11.0%. The most populous county in the region is Highlands County, and the region's largest cities are Avon Park and Sebring, both with slightly more than 10,000 people. Unlike the coastal areas to the east and west, the rural nature of the Florida Heartland is culturally closer to the Deep South than the rest of South Florida and has traditionally been inhabited by Americans of predominantly English ancestry. While located in Palm Beach County, the nearby rural cities of South Bay, Belle Glade and Pahokee as well as the census-designated place of Lake Harbor, located on the southeastern shore of Lake Okeechobee, are more associated with the Florida Heartland than the remainder of South Florida. The same could also apply to the Collier County communities of Immokalee, Ave Maria and Harker as well as to the Martin County community of Port Mayaca. Occasionally included are the southern Polk County communities of Fort Meade, Frostproof and River Ranch as well as Yeehaw Junction in Osceola County.
The USRA Light Pacific was a USRA standard class of steam locomotive designed under the control of the United States Railroad Administration, the nationalized railroad system in the United States during World War I. It was the standard light passenger locomotive of the USRA types, with a 4-6-2 wheel arrangement in the Whyte notation, or 2′C1′ in UIC classification.
Bryant is an unincorporated community in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. Bryant is located on State Road 700 near Lake Okeechobee, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) northeast of Pahokee. Bryant had a post office with ZIP code 33438.
The Seaboard–All Florida Railway was a subsidiary of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad that oversaw two major extensions of the system in the early 1920s to southern Florida on each coast during the land boom. One line extended the Seaboard's tracks on the east coast from West Palm Beach down to Fort Lauderdale and Miami, while the other extension on the west coast extended the tracks from Fort Ogden south to Fort Myers and Naples, with branches from Fort Myers to LaBelle and Punta Rassa. These two extensions were heavily championed by Seaboard president S. Davies Warfield, and were constructed by Foley Brothers railroad contractors. Both extensions also allowed the Seaboard to better compete with the Florida East Coast Railway and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, who already served the lower east and west coasts of Florida respectively.
The Florida Western and Northern Railroad was a subsidiary of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad that expanded their network in the 1920s by building a rail line from Coleman, Florida all the way to West Palm Beach via Auburndale and Sebring, a distance of 204 miles. The line would be extended to Miami by the Seaboard-All Florida Railway, another Seaboard Air Line subsidiary, shortly after with the full line from Coleman to Miami becoming the Seaboard Air Line's Miami Subdivision. The line is still in service today from Auburndale to West Palm Beach and is now operated by Seaboard successor CSX Transportation as their Auburndale Subdivision.
The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's Haines City Branch was a railroad line running from their main line in Haines City, Florida south through southern Central Florida. The line notably ran through Lake Wales, Avon Park, Sebring, and Immokalee and would stretch as far south as Everglades City upon its completion in 1928. Everglades City would be the southernmost point the entire Atlantic Coast Line Railroad system would ever reach. The Haines City Branch was one of the Atlantic Coast Line's major additions to its Florida network, much of which was previously part of the Plant System.
Atlantic Coast Line 1504 is a 4-6-2 steam locomotive built in March 1919 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) of Richmond, Virginia, for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL) as a member of the P-5-A class under the United States Railroad Administration (USRA) standard. No. 1504 was assigned to pull ACL's premier main line passenger trains during the 1920s to early 40s and even main line freight trains in the late 1940s until it was retired from revenue service at the end of 1952.
U.S. Sugar 148, formerly Florida East Coast 148, is a 4-6-2 steam locomotive built in April 1920 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) of Richmond, Virginia, originally for the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC). It hauled passenger and freight trains on the FEC's Overseas Railroad to Key West, Florida until the line was destroyed in 1935. The locomotive was sold in 1952 to U.S. Sugar Corporation (USSC) to haul sugarcane trains in Clewiston, Florida.