The North Leg
The Florida East Coast Railway Little River Wye is situated between the communities of Little Haiti and Little River, comprised of two mainline stretches of track that meet at this location. Coming from the west and turning 90° north is the FEC’s roughly 368 mainline running between Hialeah and Jacksonville. That section of the wye sees the majority of freight movements, daily amount varies depending on the day of the week. Up to six cross-system freights, four rock shuttles, three yard jobs, and a local can be seen passing through the wye in a 24 hour period on the right day.

The stretch of track extending from the north end of the wye headed south is the FEC Port Lead, primarily utilized for Brightline services between Miami, Aventura, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and soon, Orlando. A south leg connecting the Port Lead to the FEC Mainline is in place on the south end of the wye, which is only utilized by FEC yard jobs, those being the Port Trains to PortMiami and the DTN yard job if they need to spin their train around to access customers on the West Main.

On a crisp late November morning in Little River, FL, a Friday edition of southbound FEC 101-25 takes in the tight curve on the north leg of the Little River Wye bound for Hialeah Yard, some seven miles to the west of the location. Trains taking the mainline leg of the Wye are limited to 35 MPH, as the tracks are not superelevated for higher speeds. Leading the somewhat poorly blocked 105 car manifest is #FEC821 [ES44C4], paired with #FEC714 [SD40-2], split by FXE 0013, one of two Ferromex/GrupoMexico liquified natural gas fuel tenders being utilized by the FEC. Such a consist framed from the air at the Wye presents an angle that’s tougher to pull off from ground level.
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Little River, FL
FEC Mainline [CP N LITTLE RIVER]

Date: 11/25/2022 | 10:26

ID: FEC 101-25
Type: Manifest 
Direction: Southbound 
Car Count: 105

1. FEC ES44C4 #821
2. FEC SD40-2 #714
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© Vicente Alonso 2022
fec821 fec714