Today was a little less productive that I had hoped for, traffic on CSX through Cordele was nearly non-existent today. The only train I did see was a local that picked up about a dozen cars on a siding about a half mile away. Other than that, nothing. After spending more than an hour waiting in Cordele we decided to leave and head for Folkston, Georgia.
Looking at the map I noticed that there was a branch line running from Waycross, GA. out through small towns here and there. After driving through a town where the branch line ended my hopes to find some small-town switching operation drifted away. All the tracks where pulled up and piles of ties and rail where everywhere. A sign of changing times. Then, several miles east of the area where the tracks where pulled I spotted a train…or what I thought it was…it turned out to be miles and miles of rejected cars, covered hoppers, box cars, tank cars, gondolas, etc. There where hundreds of cars of every kind. They looked as if they where waiting to be re-built some day many years from now…another sign of changing times I guess. It was sort of sad, seeing all the cars just lined up awaiting their fate after years and years of service on the high-iron!
After passing through Waycross, GA. it was a short 30 miles to Folkston! The whole way to Folkston I never saw a single train…odd for a major mainline in and out of Florida. Finally we where there, and not a train in sight! About 30 minutes later the signal’s just north of Main Street changed to clear…shortly there after a loaded Molten Sulfur train barrels past with a CSX GEVO leading. After the Sulfur train passed it was about an 45 minute wait until the next train came through, this time it was a short local with an HLCX SD40-2 and UP SD40-2 3045…jeez, even in Georgia I can’t escape UP…LOL.
About an hour passed before another train came by, this time it was a hot shot intermodal train lead by two CSX GEVO’s, the third unit in the consist was from the new order of 200 units. Once again the signals displayed clear…but it was more than 35 minutes before the train passed. It turned out to be another hot shot, but this time it was lead by two CSX AC6000CW’s…quite impressive power!
By this time it was already getting late and we needed to get back on the road, overall in the two and a half hours we where in Folkston we saw a total of five trains…not exactly what I had hopped for, but it was still enjoyable!
Overall it was a fun day and more relaxing that the past two days!
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed.
