Throughout the year, within the scope of my life I have been able to focus on trains quite a bit. I'm not sure if it's more than I should but at least for me to have maintained decent grades, I guess it will do.
This blog post will reflect on the "Winners" and "losers" of the SFL area in terms of industry...
First, the losers... Yes, we gotta get that over with.
The Lehigh Spur has not been taking in nearly as much as it did back in the day. When I started filming in the spur, activity occured 3-4 times a week, just as much as the Homestead Sub. This was 2009. 2011 presented the biggest flop when FRKX stopped producing rock trains and since then, there have been only two rock trains to date coming from the Lehigh Spur's plant. Coal ash/flyash/whatever goes in the First Union hoppers or "Green Gons" of the past has been down since 2009 but has not shown much picking up. It may appear given the current schedule that the Lehigh is all but abandoned, but the thing is now Y322 works the spur in weekday mornings. Carloads have topped 2-3 per week of the construction material on average. There was one Q453 (Dec 2) that brought optimism given it had about 9 loads, and the 29th had one load.
The coal on the other hand has been in good shape and unit trains have been maintaining a mostly monthly pattern. V149, 48, 47, and 45 have run in total January, February, April, June, July, August, October, November, and December. 9 coal trains have run this year which is pretty good compared with years past as I think the annual records were about 8. But what could deceive things is the December coal train came at the very end of the month so perhaps there could be one less expected train in January.
The Downtown Spur has been so-so this whole year but has been in better shape come the end of the year. Any cuts that look like it on Q452 trains seen throughout have been fairly short especially in the summer. However, the number of cars have really shot up at the end of the year with up and coming railfan Timothy Duggan bagging a Y322 with 13 cars. I have also noticed back to back Q453s with high scrap gondolas for Miami Iron in the "Last Railfanning Weekend of 2012" (Video coming soon). Things appeared as though Trujillo, Family & Sons, Sun Gas, CBI, Miami Iron, FPT (which had 2 gons on Q453-28 December), et al are receiving, in the end.
The Homestead Sub south of Sterling has spelled desolation, desolation, desolation. AFEC appears not to be taking in much if any at all, even though they had cars in January. Part of this could be noticed by O721 having 6-axle power most of the time, whereas the 75lb section of track is 4-axle only. Properties that once housed Stock and a boxcar customer in proper still carry For Lease signs, current to last Saturday the 29th.
The Winners:
Homestead Sub between the GPC Spur and Hialeah has been strong industrially. Almost every time I catch O721, it would have something additional to its mix for Conrad Yelvington. Covered "Tubs" (gravity discharge covered hoppers) have shown up much more frequently, and so did Probuild's centerbeams. At times they would receive two maybe three beams of gypsum. Cars for Orr have also started showing up on Sundays as they would most others and shipments could top 10 cars (July 31). I have also at times seen cars for Seal-Tite Plastics.
East Rail held out strong especially around SALCO. The demand for freight apparently prompted CSX to add job Y121 beginning June 2. However, I believe that job is either rare or no longer. Cars are still delivered almost daily on job Y220. Tompkins has also been very strong, especially whereas in June I saw a whole line of boxcars spotted at an industry.
The biggest winner is the Pompano corridor. O717 has always had its work cut out for it, rain or shine, and 2012 was no exception. Especially towards the end of the year, there would be ample freight waiting for it in Dania's "Middle Track" and "Back track". The cut of cars has been recently noticed to go to the curve in front of the airport's runway whereas it hasn't for much of the year. I have noticed at year's end plenty of cars for Cross Dock, Boise-Cascade, Home Depot, and Amerigas. Amerigas is one really active customer, sometimes prompting the train to work weekends to set out cars for it.
Rock has slowly shifted upwards, especially at years' end. There has been a time peaking in the Summer where both FEC and CSX rock shipped well, but at some point CSX rock went mute for some undisclosed reason (end of July). K996 has been the most prominent rock train, probably for the 618-I-4 connector construction.
In the end, this was a great year for railfanning and business is slowly improving, even though the signs are subtle. Let's hope 2013 will be even better!
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