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the Business Train
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The Business Train in 1990
The F's
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Location / Name:
Jacksonville FL, Duval County
What's Here:
CSX's Business Train
CSX's Dispatchers Office
Data:
GPS Coordinates: 30.328759, -81.705566
ZIP: 32254
Phone A/C: 904
Access by train/transit:
None
The Scoop:
The CSX Business Train is headquartered here in Jacksonville, next to the dispatching center. Maybe someone can let me know if it has always been here off McDuff Ave. Or not. One answer to the question as to whether or not they were always here, listed Waycross GA as a site, but I can not confirm this (yet).
Prior to the F's being used to power the train starting around around 1983 or so, I do not know what the railroad used to haul the Business Train around with, maybe someone can shoot me an email?
The F units came from the Clinchfield RR, down Erwin TN way. Pictures of them are below, which I took in 1980. I was lucky to come across them during the quiet times of one of my many business trips to Erwin TN between 1980 and 1984. Back then, CSX, especially in Erwin, just wasn't bothered by railfans, so you pretty much had the run of the place! :-)
Today, the train has a choice of four former Amtrak F40PH engines for power, numbered 9992, 9993, 9998, and 9999.
According to one comment on the third source below, the names on the side of the business cars are the states that CSX operates in.
One fellow states: The states served by CSX without office cars are: Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, South Carolina, Alabama, and New Jersey.
Ohio is supposedly used on the side of a generator car in the Track Geometry Train.
Other names are:
Greenbrier on a lounge car
Youngstown on a sleeper that came from the Erie and was named "the Spirit of Youngstown", 5 double bedrooms and 10 roomettes.
Websites and other additional information sources of interest for the topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crfTLuQJT8E video of the business train going thru the Folkston Funnel
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=59605
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,1472045
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdlbqy_csx-business-train-ocs-at-cartersvi_auto Caught in Cartersville GA on 2-21-2010
http://jamest4.deviantart.com/art/Working-on-the-CSX-Business-Train-478614523 The business train in Barr Yd, Chicago
Find your way to I-10, and you're almost there. Exit 360 dumps you off on McDuff Ave S.
Take McDuff north until you see the train on the left.
Since I haven't been there, I don't know how touchy CSX is about having railfans come onto the property, but I would try to get what shots I could from the street.
Thanks to Denver Todd for finding the location of the business train. It doesn't look like it uses the old Clinchfield F units anymore - I caught the train in Camden station in Baltimore once around the 1990 time frame..... and a few years earlier (~1981), in Erwin TN (home to the Clinchfield), I caught the engines while they still said Clinchfield on the side!
The Google view shows 14 cars, while the Bing view shows 17.
What you can see from McDuff Ave:
Passing thru the Folkston Funnel in 2010 or so, from video by Schultheis Productions, link upsatirs
Back in 1990, I lived in one of the Baltimore neighborhoods on the east side called Highlandtown. I usually jumped on I-95 to go to work, cause at the time, I worked for Westinghouse in Arbutus on "the other side of" the Ft McHenry tunnel. On this morning, there was a traffic problem with the 95 tunnel (and as a result, the original tunnels too (happens every time)), so I decided to make a detour going through the city - the easiest alternative. In doing so, I decided to jump on 95 from downtown via 395, which takes you along Camden station. Lo and behold, the CSX Business Train was in the station. At the time, the MTA had not done anything with Camden Station, so it still had the ground level B&O platforms in place. I couldn't stop at the time to get pictures, because I had my camera at work, with film in it that had classified photos on it. So I had to rush to work, get the camera out of hte vault, take the classified film out, and get back to the station (hopefully) before the train took off.... phew, I made it!
In the pictures below, you will also notice a MARC RDC car on the left, which unfortunately, I didn't have time to get a picture of. The pictures are scans of prints I took.
The first three photos are shot at Camden Station, the last two, are taken from where I-95 goes over CSX, just after the train had crossed Bayard St in Carroll interlocking.
the F's Before They Were Business Train Engines
With another stroke of luck, due to the fact that I worked for Westinghouse, were my trips to Erwin TN between 1980 and 1984. As you know, Erwin TN is the headquarters for the Clinchfield Railroad. The Clinchfield was one of two major employers in Unicoi County, the other was Nuclear Fuels. They produce fuel rods for the Navy, and that's why I came to be in Erwin, to work as a contractor to working on their security system. As a railfan, it was my duty to make sure I investigated every little corner of Erwin, and fortunately, at the time, the Clinchfield was VERY relaxed about going onto their property. In wandering around in the yard, I came across the F's later used on the CSX business train. Too bad the B-units weren't around to catch! Also in Erwin was Clinchfield #1, a small steam engine, which CSX also "stole", and put on display at the B&O Railroad museum in Baltimore - boy oh boy, were the locals really pissed about that one!The roster chart below shows the Clinchfield engines used on the CSX business train, and comes from: http://clinchfieldcountry.com/resources/dieselroster.htm
Disclaimers:
I love trains, and I love signals. I am not an expert. I do these pages because I love spending my time doing them - although I do a reasonable amount of research to make sure the information presented is accurate! :-) :-)
Please Note: Since the main focus of my two websites is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate them. For those of you into the modeling aspect of our hobby, my indexa page has a list of almost everything railroad oriented I can think of to provide you with at least a few pictures to help you detail your pike.
If this is a railfan page, every effort has been made to make sure that the information contained on this map and in this railfan guide is correct. Once in a while, an error may creep in, oooooooops, oh well! :-)
My philosophy: Pictures and maps are worth a thousand words, especially for railfanning. Text descriptions only get you so far, especially if you get lost or disoriented. Take along good maps.... a GPS is OK to get somewhere, but maps are still better if you get lost! I belong to AAA, which allows you to get local maps for free when you visit the local branches. ADC puts out a nice series of county maps for the Washington DC area, but their state maps do not have the railroads on them. If you can find em, I like the National Geographic map book of the U.S..... good, clear, and concise graphics, and they do a really good job of showing you where tourist type attractions are, although they too lack the railroads. Other notes about specific areas will show up on that page if known.
BTW, floobydust is a term I picked up 30-40 years ago from a National Semiconductor data book, and means miscellaneous and/or other stuff.
Pictures and additional information is always needed if anyone feels inclined to take 'em, send 'em, and share 'em, or if you have something to add or correct.... credit is always given! BE NICE!!! Contact info is here. Beware: If used as a source, ANYTHING from Wikipedia must be treated as being possibly being inaccurate, wrong, or not true.
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