Train testing begins

Locomotive will stop between Miami, Orlando

Brightline has begun testing an express train that will eventually whisk passengers between Miami and Orlando within three hours.

The first of five color-themed train sets, named BrightBlue, began dynamic testing Thursday on a ninemile stretch of track along the Florida East Coast Railway corridor between Park Place in West Palm Beach and Central Boulevard in Lantana.

The 500-foot long train, with two locomotives and four coaches, will travel up and down the track, periodically stopping between grade crossings. There will be no passengers during these dry runs. Instead, more than 100,000 40-pound bags of sand will be substitutes.

“These coaches are unique, brand new, off the shelf,” said Keith Warncke, with Brightline. “We’re going to put weight in each seat simulating [passengers].”

Several weeks of practice runs are designed to gauge the performance of the train, the tracks and the computerized sensors that activate the railroad crossing signals.

“We can go 20 mph and do service stops, emergency stops, do 40 mph, 60 mph, and 79 mph — which will be our maximum authorized speed,” Warncke said. “We will increase that when we do Phase Two service, which will be exciting.”

The next phase of testing will see Brightline trains reaching speeds of 110 mph from West Palm Beach to Cocoa Beach and 125 mph from Cocoa to Orlando by 2019.

Patrick Mawhinney is at the controls of the 4,000 horsepower, diesel/electric hybrid engine for the first series of tests.

“Basically, a locomotive has the same features as your personal automobile,” he said. “You have headlight switches, wipers, A/C, a bell, a horn, the throttle which makes the thing go, [and] the automatic brake.”

He will be training other engineers next.

Initially, there will be five trains. Three will be running between the Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach beginning this summer.

One train will be a “hot spare” on standby in case one of the other trains needs a quick replacement, Warncke said.

The fifth train will rotate through the workshop with the other four as each gets maintenance every six months.

Plans call for 10 Brightline trains to eventually run between Miami and Orlando.

The number of coaches could increase from four to 10 on each train during the winter tourism season, carrying up to 66 passengers per coach.

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MIKE STOCKER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER The first of five Brightline trains began testing on a nine-mile stretch of track along the Florida East Coast Railway corridor between West Palm Beach and Lantana.