Hi,would anybody have info on the Tropicana juice train,such as books magazine articles( dates months ect.)Trains mag,MRR,MRC,and Tapes. I have the tape Streak of Orange. Looks like the yard has change a bit since the late 70s.How many locals,yard jobs are in the area? How far south does the track go now? I used to live in the Bradenton area in the 70s and used to hang out there after school and on week- ends. The yard crew use to take me for rides up north to palmetto to get cars off a siding. When your 12yrs. old its a rush!!

Thanks for your time K.B. MARSHALL

-- K.B. Marshall (tamran@mindspring.com), February 05, 2001

Answers

in answer to your question: the tropicana plant is switched 24 hrs a day by 2 road switchers assigned in bradenton. there are 2 "locals" assigned out of yeoman yard in tampa. the first run, on duty at 4am, takes the empty juice cars (tropicana owned, TPIX) directly to the plant where it is exchanged for a fully loaded train of oj and oj products. all cars are now equipped with mechanical refrigeration equipment. you should have been seeing the newer cars now, painted white with the equipment mounted on the end of the car with an access platform. This early morning train will go directly north, either to Kearney, NJ or Cincinnati, OH. The operation is currently 6 days per week. There is also another job that leaves Yeoman at 11am-noon with dead freight, switched along the line. This train will have interchange traffic for Seminole Gulf RR at Oneco. The line still goes down to Venice, but is under control of SGLR. As you can see, the yard tracks adjacent to Tropicana plant are squeezed in. There is discussion of even more oj traffic soon.

I currently am employed by CSX as a yardmaster at Yeoman. Hope this helps.

-- walt rogers (wjriii@gte.net), March 29, 2001.

This was the cover story for the March 2000 issue of trains. Apparantly it celebrated 30 years of opeation a few months ago.

-- roger smith (raj@magicnet.net), February 05, 2001.