Tri-County Trip - #O717 Again

I may have stirred focus away from the Model Railroad layout of the O717 corridor, but my outing on Friday brought me very interesting catches of O717, as well as promising and wonderful finds.

O717 at Pompano Beach Home Depot - It went from 12 cars to 13 cars setting out 5 and picking up 6.

After this, I caught it at Deerfield.

On its way back, I scored it for my first time picking up cars from Amerigas.

 The rest of the train is showed here, neatly blocked.

 There was a discovery here too. Southern Grout and Mortar, a sporadic receiver of cement tubs, had a hopper on their siding.

 Fort Lauderdale. Also here, CSX picked up a boxcar from BrickAmerica which hasn't been seen to receive for 9+ months.

It worked Cross-Dock, Home Depot, Sentinel, Fast-Dry, Amerigas, and BrickAmerica. Fast-Dry got 5 loads and put out 5 empties. At the end, this was a recordbreaker similar to Mike's picture with 18 cars, just like he had it, leaving me pretty impressed and hopeful for business.

18 cars:

1 NS box (Brickamerica)

1 Cross-Dock buffer (Amerigas)

7 Amerigas LPG Tankers

1 Fast-Dry empty tank

6 Home Depot

1 Sun-Sentinel.

Also, Boise-Cascade was empty while Publix appeared to be empty as well.

Narrations

Many railfan videos go unnarrated, with just the sound of the rails and train calling the shot. Mine have been with the exception of a select few. I felt that, much like Danny Harmon does for his, that I would take the step and do it for my videos.

I like about narrating that it adds an aspect of information. A video tells a story, and it can certainly be not limited to the train that is the storyteller. My video from Saturday to Tuesday, also a return to week-packaging, is narrated to this end. I like informing people more than by typed words where the trains go, and what the areas and choices were. Eventually I'll add elements of my choices, the drive up, and other interesting elements to make the chase or outing very comprehensive.

Bridges, Voodoo, and Palmettos

CSX O721 through Miami's NW 36th Street at the stem of the Downtown Spur for the Homestead Sub. This is the first time that:

• I catch Tri-Rail @ Ground Level at the Metrorail Transfer Station
• I see O721 doubling out of Hialeah
• I catch O721 facing a CTC block signal
• I catch O721 on the Miami Sub in daylight
• YouTube hosts a clip of a train through the deep NW 36 ST area, and...
• The new Metrorail line in its completion is featured on YouTube;

...and the third time  that I see a non-Yelvington carload get moved on a Sunday.

Well, enjoy this interesting catch, it's got a lot of uniqueness to it for sure. It also continues this feeling of being impressed with decent lengths on Sundays. In two occasions through the YT channel tonymagona334 there were CSX monsters, I had an 81 car train in January, I had a 91 car train last Sunday and now a 79 car train. Let's hope this upward trend can stay.

Almost committing to Railwatch...

For the first time I may finally be able to take an "Into the Wild" or "Into the Rail" experience and find myself in the Promised Land instead of Relay for Life. For years past Railwatch has been a far bet or conflicting to another weekend but this year, as my father cannot take me up to Plant City this year for the annual Spring Trip, I may have a real taste of high volume CSX action, a surely different experience. The difficult part is that it happens on a tight, two-day weekend and right on the eve of a CIE Examination so it will be challenging to survive and recover. Yet I hope that I can try it out.

Railwatch gets hundreds annually to see trains on a particular Saturday; it is a fairly sized event to the capacity of Folkston and is usually fun. There is a cookout and often a speech or two from the likes of Danny Harmon and others. One very foreign thing from the likes of an average person in Doral, it should be a nice try for the first time. The idea of getting the trains coming to me is making the event shine, even though I know by the time the second channel has their videos uploaded, the trains become deja vu and automatically boring to watch. For a videographer like me it should pose a challenge to have one shot "above the rest" for YT.

I am still highly considering Plant City, it's going to be a toughie but I hope I can for the first time see both events in the same year.