Florida Railroad Museum?/CSX/ACL Bridge over Little Manatee River

Jess 20170205

Birds-Eye View

CSX has a mainline along the Gulf Coast that goes south of Palmetto, FL. Their is a remnant of the former Seaboard Air Line route from Palmetto through Parrish, FL and Willow, FL. The track in Willow, FL used to be a switching lead for a branch that served the Siemens Energy power plant with coal trains. Given the two big tanks north of the plant, I wonder if the two boiler units were converted to fuel oil. The plant hasn't used coal for a while because there is no evidence of a coal storage pile. Siemens still maintains water in the man-made lake for cooling water. So I assume the two boiler units are still being used. They have added gas turbine generators, which are normally used to help meet peak demands.

Judging from the engines and cabooses I saw in a satellite image in Willow and on the power plant's industrial lead, this remnant must now be part of the Florida Railroad Museum.

The railroad bridge is another bridge to nowhere because the tracks stop on the other side. Fortunately, my daughter got some pictures of it during a Kayak trip upstream of the Canoe Outpost on the Little Manatee River while it still exists. She was able to get some perspectives that you can't get from the shoreline.

Lattice and rivet detail from the top photo:

Screenshot form CSX Inetractive Map

Either the CSX map is not up to date, or the museum is leasing the ACL remnant that served the power plant.

Looking at a satellite image, they are clearly not bothering to keep the map up to date because the branch they show to the west of the north/south mainline has been abandoned.