List Of Florida Railroads

Common Carriers

Commuter Railroads

Florida East Coast Railway

The Florida East Coast Railway (AAR reporting mark FEC) is a Class II railroad operating in the US state of Florida; in the past, it has been a Class I railroad. The FEC is renowned as the railroad that built the first railroad bridges to Key West that have since been rebuilt into road bridges for vehicle traffic. It was originally known as the Florida Coast and Gulf Railway and then the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railway.

Florida Coast Line Canal And Transportation Company

Florida state law chapter 3641, approved February 6, 1885, gave the company the ability to extend its canal from Biscayne Bay to Key West, and gave it land grants for that part.

Florida state law chapter 4284, approved May 27, 1893, extended the time limit for the company to construct the canal from St. Augustine to Biscayne Bay from June 1, 1894 to June 1, 1897; any sections completed after that date would not receive land grants.

Florida state law chapter 4283, approved June 2, 1893, authorized the company to give the portion along the Indian River between Goat Creek and Jupiter Inlet to the United States government, which planned to improve it.

Florida's Turnpike

Florida's Turnpike (also called the Florida Turnpike) is a toll road that runs 265 miles (426 km) down the Florida peninsula through 11 counties, from Interstate 75 at Wildwood, to near Miami. It runs through Orlando, where it crosses Interstate 4; and West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, where it parallels Interstate 95, often literally next to it. The Homestead Extension (HEFT) runs from north of Miami down through the western suburbs, to near Homestead. The original Turnpike is known internally (and sometimes shown on maps) as SR 91 and the HEFT is known as SR 821.

The first 110 miles (177 km) from Golden Glades to Fort Pierce opened in 1957 as the Sunshine State Parkway, under the former Florida State Turnpike Authority. The second section from Fort Pierce to Wildwood, was finished in 1964. The 47 mile (76 km) Homestead Extension was completed in 1974.

Tolls on the turnpike are set at 6¢ per mile (about 3¾¢ per kilometer) for two-axle vehicles, and are lifted when it is being used for a hurricane evacuation route. Payment is via coins and SunPass electronic toll collection near the urban and suburban areas of Miami and Orlando, and via ticket the rest of the way (south of Kissimmee and north of Lantana).

The system is operated at a significant profit for the state, which then uses the money for other road projects. Management is by the Florida's Turnpike Enterprise, part of the Florida Department of Transportation.

Exits on the highway are on the mile-log system. The Turnpike started using this system long before Florida's interstate highways were on the system, but originally used a sequential system, and then a hybrid where adjacent exit numbers differed by 4 south of SR 60 (exit 60 at the time) and 5 north of SR 60. Motorist-aid call boxes are located on both outside shoulders of the road every mile (1.6 km), and send only a signal indicating the need for gasoline, repair (tire or engine), or emergency services (police, ambulance, or firefighters).

Service plazas are open 24 hours per day, most having Burger King and other fast food. Other services include Internet access, travel and tourism info and tickets, picnic areas, TV news, Florida Lottery, and of course restrooms and public phones. SunPass transponders are available at all locations.

In 1998, the Florida Legislature designated the turnpike the Ronald Reagan Turnpike, after the 40th U.S. President. However, this designation did not replace the turnpike's existing name, only appearing on a few signs along the route.

wStreetcar

Streetcar is a railway vehicle designed to carry passengers on tracks, usually laid in city streets. The term is most widely used in North America and is similar, but not identical, to the term tram used elsewhere. In the U.S. a tram is a tourist bus in the appearance of a heritage streetcar, a suspended cable car (aerial tramway), or a rubber-tired people-mover used for parking lot shuttles at theme parks and major events.

The term streetcar is generic to most forms of common carrier rail transit that runs or has run on streets, providing a local service and picking up and discharging passengers at any street corner, unless otherwise marked.

wHorsecars

The first streetcar lines developed from city stagecoach lines that were developed into omnibus lines that picked up and dropped off passengers on a regular route and without the need to be pre-hired.

Some of the earliest streetcars appeared in Baltimore, Maryland in 1828 and in New York City in 1832. These streetcars were an animal railway usually using horses and sometimes mules to haul the cars, usually two as a team. Rarely other animals were tried, including humans in emergency circumstances.

The horsecars were necessary but had problems. One of the best advantages over earlier forms of transit was the low rolling resistance of metal wheels on steel rails, allowing the animals to haul a greater load for a given effort. Problems included the fact that any given animal could only work so many hours on a given day, had to be housed, groomed, fed and cared for day-in and day-out, and produced prodigious amounts of manure which the streetcar company was charged with storing and then disposing of. Since a typical horse pulled a car for perhaps a dozen miles a day and worked for four or five hours, many system needed ten or more horses in stable for each horsecar. New York City had the last regular horsecar lines in the U.S., closing in 1914. A mule-powered line in Celaya, Mexico operated until 1956.

wCable Car (Railway)

The next type of streetcar was the cable car, which sought to reduce labor costs and the hardship on animals. Cable cars are pulled along a rail track by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed and on which individual cars stop and start by releasing and gripping this cable as required. The power to move the cable is provided at a site away from the actual operation. The first cable car line in the United States was tested in San Francisco, California in 1873.

Cable cars suffered from high infrastructure costs, since a vast and expensive system of cables, pulleys, stationary engines and vault structures between the rails had to be provided. They also require strength and skill to operate, to avoid obstructions and other cable cars. The cable had to be dropped at particular locations and the cars coast, for example when crossing another cable line. After the development of electrically-powered streetcars, the more costly cable car systems declined rapidly.

Cable cars were especially useful in hilly cities, partially explaining their survival in San Francisco, though ironically the most extensive cable system in the U.S. was in Chicago, Illinois, a flat city. The San Francisco cable cars continue to perform a regular transportation function, in addition to being a tourist attraction.

wTrolley Cars

Trolley cars, so called for the trolley pole used to gather power from an unshielded overhead wire or cable, were first successfully tested in actual service in Richmond, Virginia in 1888, in an installation by Frank J. Sprague. There were earlier commercial installations of electric streetcars, including one in Berlin, Germany, as early as 1881 by Werner Siemens and the company that still bears his name. The earlier installations, however, proved difficult and/or unreliable. Siemen's line, for example, provided power through a live rail and a return rail, like a model train setup, limiting the voltage that could be used, and providing unwanted excitement to people and animals crossing the tracks.

Since Sprague's installation was the first to prove successful in all conditions, he is credited as being the inventor of the trolley car.

Trolley car systems in the U.S. and Canada became quite extensive, but, hit by the Great Depression, automobile competition, hostile politicians and predatory practices, declined precipitously after World War II. Some systems never closed however, with lines surviving in several cities even at the trolley's nadir in North America.

Concern about automobile traffic, fossil fuel availability, pollution and quality-of-life issues began a trend back to urban electric rail travel in North America during the 1970s, and a significant number of new lines and extensions and upgrading of other lines has occurred.

A rare but significant variant of the trolley car was the conduit car, which drew its power from an underground third rail.

wThe Maglev 2000 Of Florida Corporation

Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) is a new mode of transport, in which high speed vehicles are magnetically levitated and propelled along elevated guideways. Maglev can transport passengers and freight over long distances at speeds of hundreds of miles per hour. Maglev promises to be a major mode of transport in the 21st Century, even more important than autos, trucks and airplanes.

The Maglev 2000 of Florida Corporation is developing and implementing this new mode of transport. The M-2000 system is an advanced second generation maglev system based on recent inventions by Gordon Danby and James Powell, the original inventors of superconducting maglev. The M-2000 system is low-cost, includes freight transport, and is capable of high speed (300 mph) electronic switching.

Also See:

Airways