Steam for final 2021 sugar train in Florida
THE last train of the 2021 harvest, carrying sugar cane to the US Sugar Corporation’s Clewiston processing plant on May 31, was steam-hauled using a 101-year-old Pacific which has been converted to run on waste vegetable oil from local restaurants. The loco, built by Alco in 1920, spent its main working life in Florida. Constructed for the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) as No. 148, it was used extensively on the FEC system, including the short-lived line to Key West which was closed following a hurricane in 1935, only 23 years after opening. Bought by US Sugar in 1952, the loco was used to haul cane trains on the company’s private network until the 1960s when it was sold for preservation, first in New Jersey and later in Colorado. US Sugar decided to buy the locomotive back in 2016 and has since restored it to working order. US Sugar runs an extensive private network known as the US Sugar Railroad, serving its sugar cane growing fields on the west and south sides of Lake Okeechobee in southern Florida, with around 800 wagons used to carry cane. It is the only standard gauge sugar cane railway in the world. The company also owns a ‘short line’ rail freight operator, South Central Florida Express, which works for other customers as well as moving sugar cane or products. Both operators rely on a fleet of EMD built ‘GP’ series BoBo diesel locos.
■ Our thanks to Adrian Brodie for some of the information in this report.