On Tuesday the 31st of December my dad and I left our relative's home and drove to Sanford, FL arriving at the Amtrak yard around 11:45am. In the yard there were several P42DCs and a switcher. At the Amtrak depot there was CSX 5886 sitting all alone. We met Bonnie and Stephanie (at the depot and the Amtrak yard respectively) from the SERAILS yahoo group. At 12:30 we heard a horn off in the distance and thought it was an Amtrak since it sounded like one. But when it approached we could see that it was N177 a northbound empty coal train (CSX 34, 5116(new paint scheme)). We learned that CSX’s whistles sound the same as Amtrak’s so we could not tell them apart. An Amtrak did show up at 12:40pm. It was southbound with 3 engines (Amtrak 1, 4, 66). We left the station and headed south towards Orlando and met a northbound Amtrak (Amtrak 5, 135). We then proceeded all the way down to Taft where we saw the northbound Silver Star (Amtrak 65, 165). In the Taft yard there were 8 CSX units including an ex-EMD 4687 still dressed in EMD’s paint. A southbound Amtrak (P0192) breezed through Taft at 4:20pm(Amtrak 133, 157). We waited around for a long time and finally saw Q187 (CSX 687, 675) southbound with stack and TOFC at 7:25pm. It stopped to drop off several cars in the intermodal yard in Taft and so we tried some night photography even though it was raining and I had forgotten my tripod back at the house. After that we headed back to our relative's house.

The next day we went to see the Kennedy Space Center. There was a space shuttle on one of the launch pads but the big arm was still up in front of it so that you could only see the top. Saw all the other buildings and everything and it was really cool.

On Thursday January 2, 2003 we (my dad and I) left to go to Plant City, FL. We actually didn’t decide to go all the way over there until we were in Sanford so we saw the southbound Silver Star (Amtrak 84, 17) at 10:45 at the Sanford depot. We also saw CSX 5863 moving several coal hoppers around. In the Amtrak yard the southbound Sunset Limited (Amtrak 14, ??) was almost ready to depart. We arrived at Plant City at 12:25 and saw some cars on the main line (A-line). They proved to belong to a local with CSX 4302. In Plant City there are 2 lines: the A-Line and the S-Line. They cross each other at a diamond near downtown and that is where we stayed all day. The A-Line runs east and west through Plant City. It runs west to Tampa and east to Orlando where it turns north. The S-Line runs north and south through Plant City. It runs south just a little bit and then turns west to Tampa and it runs north all the way to Jacksonville, FL. The first train we saw after the local was a northbound on the S-Line. It was a vehicle (CSX 7680, 7482(still in CR paint), 675, 687) which came through at 12:45pm. We then got some pizza and on the way back to the diamond saw a southbound (coming off the S-Line and onto a branch line) gondola train (CSX 8012, 8015) with around 45 or 50 cars. After that we had to wait a while before the next train arrived. It was a northbound (CSX 6900, 2315) coming off the branch line and onto the S-Line with 21 cars of phosphate. At 7:00pm a southbound manifest (CSX 758, HLCX 6100) barreled past the diamond with 89 cars on the S-Line. Then at 7:20pm an eastbound stack and TOFC (CSX 8772, 663) arrived on the A-Line. After he was lost to sight we headed back to where we where staying.

Friday we where originally going to the Holy Land but decided to see some more trains instead. In Taft yard there were 5 CSX units and 1 HLCX. Also in the yard was the Florida Central RR local with FCR 53. A southbound Amtrak (Amtrak 69, 145) sped through the yard with 14 cars at 12:00pm. We then drove up to Winter Park in Orlando where we saw a northbound Amtrak (Amtrak 84, 17) with 12 cars at 12:45pm. On the way back to our relative's house we saw FCR 55, 207 and Arkansas Midland Railway 493 and Orlando Mt. Dora 10 in Plymouth FL at 3:15pm. I enjoyed this trip very much and was glad to see some CSX and Amtrak and I would be happy to do it again sometime.