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Florida Northern Railroad (FNOR)!
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A Little About the Florida Northern
The Florida Northern railroad is located in Ocala, Florida. The Railroad is a short
line system that links many of the areas industries with the CSX mainline, the
railroad was acquired from CSX in 1988. There is approximately 27 miles of track
operated by the FNOR. In the center of the line is the ocala railyard, where the track
has a link to the CSX line. Florida Northern is owned by Pinsly Railroads.
Florida Central is the parent railroad for Pinsly RR of Florida, and since locomotives
are moved around from the 6 different locations.
The track is all interconnected, with Ocala in the middle. The southern half of the
track travels many miles to Candler, SE of Ocala. The northern half of the track runs to
Lowell which is NE of Ocala. The railroad also operates a small spur track, which is in
Ocala, which travels west for a mile or two.
There are many interesting features about this railroad. The one which I like the most
is the street trackage (railroad down the middle of a road) through downtown Ocala.
There are many other interesting features, such as the still remaining old semephore
signals, and amtrak station it passes.
The line going Westward from the CSX interchange point used to be the Silver Star, Ocala
& Gulf Railroad. SSO&G was an old railroad that was absorbed by the Seaboard Air Line when they got
big, then it all became one happy family of railroads in 1967. In the mid-80's the old
ACL line was abandoned and disposed of from Kendrick, North and between Leesburg and Candler
in the South, rendering the ex-ACL line dead and useless. CSX was actually going
to scrap it off, but Pinsly ventured that there was enough business on the line to
warrant operating a shortline operation. That's how the two GP7's 55 and 57 were
purchased, because they couldn't find anymore locomotives without taking them from other
lines. Santa Fe was retiring them after they had retired their CF-7's and they basically
are the same locomotives as a CF7 mechanically speaking, so it was easy to see why FCEN
bought them.
You can find the Florida Pinsly railroads, such as the
Florida Nothern RR Newberry - Red Level; The Florida Northern Ocala (this site),
Florida central RR Orlando area; What is left of the Fl Midland in Wildwood; Florida Midland RR Winter Haven - Godonville;
Florida Midland RR West Lake Wales - Frostproof.
To see more about pinsly railroads go to The Pinsly RR Website.
fnor Lowell Branch Candler Branch Ocala Spur line Csx interchanges The Railyard General Tour Maps of FNOR About FNOR Made By...