The train stopped and dropped us on the mainline while the rest of the train was wyed. We were opposite the Okeelanta Sugar Mill, which started production in 1947, using the name of the former town of the same name (which is just northeast of this location). At the time, there were only two sugar houses in Florida and a shortage of labor to meet demand after World War II. It has a generating plant which produces both electricity and steam using biomass as fuel, and it is presently owned by the Fanjul family. I walked back into the Georgia 300 and talked with Jim Wrinn and a few other friends on this trip.
The wye track behind the train.
Information about the Georgia 300 found in the car.
U.S. Sugar 148 pulled the cane cars around the wye to put our cars on the rear end of the train. Lunches were then handed up to the engine crew.
Reverse move number fourteen. Once our train was put back together, we returned to the crossing before Okeelanta Mill for more photo runbys.
Kevin Gilliam planned a posed shot with Okeelanta Mill in the picture.
Reverse move number fifteen.
Posed pictures at the road crossing before Okeelanta Mill.
Reverse move number sixteen.
Photo runby number twelve at the road crossing before the mill.
Reverse move number seventeen.
Photo runby number thirteen at the road crossing before Okeelanta Mill.
Photographers on the photo runby line.
Photo runby number fourteen at the road crossing before Okeelanta Mill.
Reverse move number eighteen.
Photo runby number fifteen at the road crossing before Okeelanta Mill.
Reverse move number nineteen.
Photo runby number sixteen at the road crossing before Okeelanta Mill. We reboarded the train and headed to the curve north of the Okeelanta Block.
Reverse move number twenty at the curve north of the Okeelanta Block.
Photo runby number seventeen at the curve north of the Okeelanta Block.
Photographers including my loving wife in the photo line.
Reverse move number twenty-one.
Photo runby number eighteen at the curve north of the Okeelanta Block.
We were heading back to the Clewiston US Sugar Mill, taking another big curve on the way. We sat for a few minutes as we waited for an empty cane train.
The U.S. Sugar empty cane train with U.S. Sugar GP11 303, ex. Illinois Central 8750, exx. Illinois Central Gulf 9380, nee Illinois Central 9380 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1958 taking it east to be filled with sugar cane.
U.S. Sugar 148 started down to wye to turn the engine and leave the cane cars here.
The Clewiston U.S. Sugar Mill.
U.S. Sugar 148 backs around the northwest leg of the wye.
U.S. Sugar 148 ran light by the photo line.
The final canal before Clewiston.
US Sugar GP38-2 408 ex. Metro East Industries 3806 exx. Indiana Railroad 36, exxx. BHP Copper Company 17, nee Magna Copper Company 17 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1974, at the shop building back in Clewiston before we detrained.
U.S. Sugar 4-6-2 148 comes in for a rest after a great day for our group. The two of us drove over to Beef O'Brady's Restaurant where I enjoyed a top sirloin and Elizabeth had fish and chips. We shared this meal with good friends Doug and Ellen Scott. Elizabeth and I then went to the Hampton Inn for a showing of the Victorian Iron Horse Roundup, a production of Kalmbach Media and Kevin Gilliam, which I already owned. After that we returned to the Best Western for the night. Tomorrow is Day 2 of this event.
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