Detour in Florida

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According to the news concerning the Amtrak de-railment in Cresent City, FL, CSX had to send trains from Orlando over to the S line that runs up through Wildwood, Waldo, and Callahan.

I have a map that shows branch lines from the S line east to Palatka, one at Hawthorne and the other at Hampton, FL. Could these lines have been used to get trains over the the A line North of Crescent City, or are they no longer in service?

Wes Woodruff Orlando, FL

-- Wes Woodruff (woodruff_wes@bah.com), April 22, 2002

Answers

"A" line re-opened Sunday, April 21. I saw the southbound Sunset go by- first passenger train I'd seen since last week. Rather odd to see dark signals and hear no horns this long- I live about seven blocks awayand I am near the tracks all day driving. CSX has built a shoo-fly around the site with panel track, according to reports- with a 10 mph restric

-- Larry Brennan (LPBrennan@aol.com), April 22, 2002.

by the way, anyone know if the tracks are back open yet? I was gonna go out to zephryhills and catch some heavy detour traffic this weekend, but didnt end up having time. I know MOW work was heavy from tampa-lakeland (or farther east to orlando?) this last couple weeks with tie replacement and new ballast work going on, im sure this couldnt have happened at a worst time for CSX

-- troy nolen (tnolen12@tampabay.rr.com), April 22, 2002.

there was also an ex-ACL line which went from Rochelle - palatka known by the SCL as the "palatka subdivision" of the jacksonville Division, in various years it was cut back, now only operating from hawthorne (where it crossed at grade with the SAL mainline) to EDGAR, now known as the EDGAR spur. Im not sure exactly where the derailment took place, but if it was north of palatka, this stretch of track could have saved trains bound to or from orlando some serious time... The other line you mentioned from hampton was former southern railway, GS&F, later NS abandoned lake butler - palatka in 1990 and torn out in 1992. Now abandoned and gone from lake city airport to palatka

-- troy nolen (tnolen12@tampabay.rr.com), April 22, 2002.

The line from Hampton to Palatka had been on Southern Railway's Coastal Division. Circa 1995, NS opted to route Palatka traffic via Jacksonville-CSX. Traffic volumes south of Navair did not justify maintaining 50 miles of track to serve Palatka.

-- Harry Bundy (Y6B@aol.com), April 22, 2002.

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