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EdRingwald uploaded a new video
(2 months ago)
It's Thanksgiving week, and I was out and about in Tampa's historic Ybor City district. A major rail line runs through this area and Tampa's Union...
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It's Thanksgiving week, and I was out and about in Tampa's historic Ybor City district. A major rail line runs through this area and Tampa's Union Station is located just to the west of Ybor City; from what I understand this rail line gets a lot of traffic daily not only from the scheduled Amtrak trains that stop here twice a day but the numerous CSX trains that pass through.
On this video we see Amtrak's Silver Star - which is Train 92, the northbound train to New York City - as it makes the backing move into Tampa's Union Station. Amtrak trains are turned at a location about two miles east of where I took this video (East 20th Street) which is called the Neve Wye.
For you railfans out there, a wye is a track where trains can turn around. At the Neve Wye, an Amtrak train will proceed from the mainline into the wye. Once the train is north of East 7th Avenue switching takes place (it is done from CSX in Jacksonville without any effort of the Amtrak crew) and the train does its back-in move.
Once the Amtrak train arrives at Tampa's Union Station it will be there for around 15 minutes, discharging as well as receiving passengers as well as their baggage. From what I understand, a crew change takes place as well as the Silver Star is a long route between Miami and New York City and there are several crew changes that do take place.
Amtrak 92 is then ready to press northward towards its next station stop, Lakeland, where it will take on northbound passengers. (Ironically, before Tampa the train stops in Lakeland to discharge passengers coming from Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Deerfield Beach, West Palm Beach, Okeechobee, Sebring and Winter Haven). Major station stops on Amtrak 92 include Orlando, Jacksonville, Savannah, Richmond, Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City, the Silver Star's northern terminus.
Today's Amtrak 92 consist is: Two locomotives, one baggage car, three sleepers, one dining car, one cafe car, and five coach cars. You got that right, five coach cars. Being Thanksgiving week, Amtrak plans for heavy demand by adding more coach cars as needed and when I saw the train push on north, I noticed a good ridership turnout as more and more people are getting fed up with the hassles of going through security as part of air travel.
After Amtrak 92 leaves Tampa on its northbound journey, it's not too long before a CSX train makes a move southward towards Port Tampa, a little port on the western side of Tampa's Interbay Peninsula just north of MacDill Air Force Base. What I have noticed is that the CSX locomotive is carrying just a tank car; from what I understand CSX is supposed to put an empty box car between the locomotive and the tank car for safety reasons.
The rail line that passes through Ybor City is what is called the A Line, a major rail line from Richmond to Tampa. CSX kept this identifier back from its old days as the Atlantic Coast Line until a series of mergers over the years created what we know today as CSX Transportation. From what I understand, at Tampa's Union Station - which is Mile Post 882 - the A line transitions from main line proper to an industrial spur which takes CSX freight trains through downtown Tampa, across the Hillsborough River at the Cass Street Drawbridge, then the line turns southwest and follows the Selmon Crosstown Expressway and continues southwest past Gandy Blvd., eventually terminating at Port Tampa.
After the CSX train passes by it's getting a little late for me, and it was time for me to be on my way. I did not do any narration on this video; instead, I decided to let you experience watching the trains go by as it was meant to be. Information on the A Line west of Tampa's Union Station is from YouTube user distantsignal's (he's got great railfan videos; you will enjoy every minute) video on the A Line.
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