RAILforum: Florida Railroading: "Tracks in the Sand"

This is topic Florida Railroading: "Tracks in the Sand" in forum Eastern US at RAILforum.

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Posted by BloomerLiz (Member # 3049) on :

I recently purchased a set of 5 cars and matching mail card, made by Walthers, they say "Tracks in the Sand" and is supposed to be a passenger line that runs from Miami to Orlando, I can find nothing on this line, who pu;;s it or anything. I thought it would be nice to have since I live in Fl and was actually born here also. Is there someone out there who can shed some light on this for me?
Thanks,
Liz

Posted by George Harris (Member # 2077) on :

Have no idea if this thing is supposed to have any connection ot reality or not. There are two railroad lines north out of Miami, and that is all there ever have been.

The original is the Florida East Coast, which runs exactly as its name implies, Jacksonville to Miami along the east coast. It was built in the late 1800's originally as a narrow gauge and standard gauged and greatly improved by Henry Flagler, the namesake for the Flagler everywhere naming of things in Florida. It dose not go to Orlando. It is generally quite close to the coast between Miami and West Palm Beach. It used to be the host of the major passenger service from virtually everywhere to south Florida. It is currently freight only.

The other line north of of Miami is the line currently used by Amtrak and Tri-Rail. It was originally the Seaboard Air Line, and currently CSX. It did not enter Miami until the late 1920's, and is located a few miles inland from teh FEC. It did not originally go to Orlando, either. but went north through the middle of the peninsula more to the west. The Atlantic Coast Line had a Jacksonville to Tampa line that went through Palatka, Sanford, and Orlando on its way to Tampa. This is now also CSX. This line and the former SAL line cross at Auburndale. The through Jacksonville to Miami route used by Amtrak utilizes this combination, to that there is now through service between Orlando and Miami. Actually, the through service began unintentionally after the 1962 (or was it 1963?) strike against the FEC. At that point the ACL began running their through florida trains on their Tampa line and then onto the SAL at Auburnale to complete the run to Miami on the SAL.

Try some of the railfan web sites for SAL and ACL fro more information. There are also maps of the various systems that would help.

[This message has been edited by George Harris (edited 02-09-2004).]

Posted by espeefoamer (Member # 2815) on :

This could be the name for the Tri Rail commuter service, running north from Miami.The cars are painted with pictures of palm trees along the beach.

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Trust Jesus,Ride Amtrak.

Posted by Rudbeck (Member # 3624) on :

Hi!

This is a little late, I know, but I just now saw this topic while doing a search.

The cars you have were from a commemorative train that Walthers released in 2002 in honor of the NMRA convention in Ft. Lauderdale that year - theme: "Tracks in the Sand" of course. There is no actual prototype.

Also released was an engine that is hard to find. It was an AMD-103 made by Athearn and painted to match the cars. If anyone has one for sale, please let me know!

Regards,
Keith

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"My train of thought has left the station!"