First Dose for 2023
There wasn’t anything in particular I had in mind that I wished to shoot to start off the new year, any freight train would’ve satisfied me. However, CSX came in clutch on that January 2nd with an offer that I found hard to pass up on.

Having been chasing them for 30 minutes by then, a pocket of light shines down on CSX L79002 while they proceed west along the Lehigh Spur. Acting as power for that Monday’s rock local is a duo of CW44AC’s, #CSX346 and #CSX422, both in matching YN2 paint, hauling 77 empty open top hoppers from Hialeah Yard to Vulcan Material’s Florida Rock quarry by Tamiami, FL. For the first train to be the subject of my lens in 2023, this wasn’t a bad start at all, let alone trying out a new spot on the Lehigh Spur.

Typically a Sunday - Thursday local, CSX L790 only serves one customer, that being the aforementioned Florida Rock quarry owned by Vulcan Materials along the CSX Lehigh Spur. The Spur itself is a branch coming off of the Oleander Branch at OLEANDER SWITCH, SXH 40.52, deadending about a mile west of NW 137th Ave by the CEMEX Miami Cement Plant, once rail-served by CSX years ago. 

The train is a turn job out of Hialeah Yard, departing around the middle of the day [between 11:30 to 14:00 usually]. They run to the quarry with empties and return to Hialeah Yard in the mid-to-late afternoon with limerock loads that are left ready for them within the yard at Florida Rock; Vulcan Materials has an SW1200 within the quarry to sort, build up and load cars.

Rolling stock on L790 consists of a large assortment of aggregate limerock open top hoppers. The most common cars used are FRKX NSC open-top hoppers, VULX FreightCar America Versaflood Aggregate hoppers, and assorted PMRX Trinity Industries 4-bay hoppers. Car count can be between 30 and 90 cars on a train. 

The locomotive power on L790 can vary: it’ll either be the road power that comes off the overnight M453, or, as of late 2022, any six-axle units based out of Hialeah Yard on dedicated L789/L790 local duty. It all depends on availability; one must take into account if L789 is running on the same day and/or if M453 didn’t make it in to Hialeah Yard overnight to have the road power available to infer what might be the power for an L790.
•
Doral, FL
CSX Lehigh Spur

Date: 01/02/2023 | 13:36

ID: CSX L79002
Type: Local
Direction: Southbound
Car Count: 77

1. CSX CW44AC #346
2. CSX CW44AC #422
•
© Vicente Alonso 2023
csx422 csx346