Railroad Crossings of the FEC Mainline (Part 1)

Описание: The Florida East Coast Railway, better known as the FEC, runs along a mainline from Jacksonville, Florida to Hialeah, Florida over a distance of nearly 350 miles. The line mainly runs within miles of the Atlantic coast, passing numerous cities such as Daytona Beach, West Palm Beach, and Fort Lauderdale along the way. Within the last two years, Brightline, a privately owned intercity passenger rail company, has begun operations from Miami to West Palm Beach.

Unfortunately, as a result, the FEC line between the said places has lost most of its charm. All of the older searchlight signals and many, many older crossing signals were replaced for the project, and virtually all of Brightline's trackage has been made a quiet zone. To make matters worse, Brightline's daytime operating means most FEC trains have to run at night. In addition, precision scheduled railroading, or PSR, has reduced the number of trains. Consequentially, FEC trains have become all the more elusive.

As for the railroad crossings along the line, they are unlike any others in America. The largest quirk is that every crossing signal will have a bell. Even if two signals are directly next to each other, such as at Hollywood Boulevard (03:21), they will both have a bell. Next, quad gates have been installed at many crossings along the line. These videos were all filmed in late 2018 when the quad gate project was about half complete. The exit gates have an exorbitantly long delay to lower, and the inverse is true when the signals deactivate. The exit gates rise first, and then the entrance gates. Finally, the use of mechanical bells is very unique. A common thing, seen especially well at 3rd Street (01:46), is the re-use of the original roadway signals as pedestrian signals. The older bells, which are often mechanical bells, are re-used on those signals. The same is true for Filmore Street (05:29).

This compilation contains videos from my three South Florida travels. This compilation begins with the southernmost crossing I filmed on the line and works its way north. The next compilation will feature fort Lauderdale, Lake Worth Beach, and West Palm Beach.

📘 Click the link for further reading about the FEC Railway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida...