Transfixed by trains, these hobbyists linger for hours along tracks and collect sightings.
By CORY SCHOUTEN
Published June 30, 2003
[Times photo: Kathleen Flynn]
Brian Hankey of Orlando takes video of a train in Plant City, where rail fans gathered recently.
PLANT CITY - It's nearly 2 p.m. on a Saturday, and a crowd huddles under an awning at the Plant City Union Depot, trying to stay out of the rain.
Les Keegan shares a photo album with people he just met, and Kent Weissinger explains a computer simulator program. Brian Woodruff, 11, retreats from the crowd to play his Game Boy.
Suddenly, scanners begin to crackle.
Everyone stops to listen to the chatter. Somewhere down the tracks, an engineer calls out his position. The men have been waiting for this for nearly four hours. They open umbrellas and ready cameras. Weissinger smokes his pipe, pacing.
A train is coming. It's still seven minutes away, but already they know how long it is, that it's CSX O821 and that it carries a full load of phosphate ore, bound for a fertilizer plant near the Pasco County line.
Down the tracks, crossing lights flash and a wooden arm drops in front of traffic.
The ground begins to vibrate as the locomotive appears in the distance. The engineer blasts the horn. The train roars. Seventy or so cars whoosh past the gaggle of spectators. The engineer waves, but the men hardly notice. They stare at the train until the last car disappears.
The roar fades in minutes, leaving only the steady patter of rain.
It's their eighth train of the day and not a particularly impressive one, but to these railroad enthusiasts, a train is never just a train. They linger near railroad tracks all over the state, hoping to collect more train sightings.
They have come from as far as Jacksonville and Miami, as early as 7 a.m., choosing Plant City because its crossing of the Atlantic Coast and Seaboard rail lines remains one of the busiest in Florida.
Some know each other; others are strangers linked by a common passion.
"It's like any other kind of thrill - like the thrill of watching a football game, or the thrill of backyard barbecues or the thrill of fishing," said Tampa resident Danny Harmon, 46, who organized the Plant City gathering. "For us it's the thrill of seeing those big trains."
There's a sense, too, of adventure - wondering where the train has been and where it is going, Harmon said. But at the root of the passion is power.
"You've got this gigantic power plant that's carrying a neighborhood behind it," Harmon said. "It's really an amazing thing to think about it."
Some are retired rail workers. At least one works for the railroad but won't give his name for fear of ribbing from co-workers.
Most carry scanners, two-way radios, cell phones, railroad atlases and cameras.
Occasionally a wife comes along, if only to wait in the car.
"He could have a worse hobby, more expensive," said Anne Hankey, 28, of Orlando, sitting in a Toyota while her husband, Brian, 29, watches trains.
In the hours ahead, some will see about 15 trains and talk about many more.
They'll break briefly at the Whistle Stop Cafe before seeing the orange Tropicana juice train and another they call the "truck eliminator" because it frees semitrailer trucks from payloads of dangerous anhydrous ammonia.
But most of the time will be spent sharing train stories and talking about recent sightings.
"It's just like any other kind of party or gathering," Harmon said. "Everybody's sharing stories and exchanging information and swapping lies."
When the sun goes down, they'll watch a slide show of train photos that Mike Woodruff, 49, and his son, Brian, have taken over the years in Plant City.
While the town's depot sees quite a few trains, it's tame compared to Folkston, Ga., a favorite of rail fans. Folkston has built covered platforms and picnic tables to encourage train tourism.
Before the Internet, rail fans thought their hobby was rare. Now they find hundreds of thousands of train enthusiasts all over the country, Harmon said.
"It's a lot like NASCAR," he said, "except without the beer."
Harmon, a relatively new rail fan, has turned his interest into a business. He has taped and produced three videos of unusual trains. Away from the tracks, he works as a voiceover announcer for WTVT Ch. 13 in Tampa.
Weissinger, 51, spent five months creating a virtual replica of his favorite train route - from Waycross, Ga., to Jacksonville. Almost 5,000 fellow train enthusiasts have downloaded the program from an Internet site.
While rail fans come from a variety of backgrounds, most of them remember a train experience from their childhood.
Nick Mayer's grandparents lived a block from railroad tracks.
"It's just something that sticks with you," said Mayer, 23. "You don't grow out of it."
There are also specialized interests within the hobby - some are interested only in locomotives, others in graffiti on boxcars.
Orlando resident Scott Latoski, 36, collected model trains for years before he decided to chase trains.
The paint scheme on the CSX O821 locomotive matches a model train at home, he said, making the whole trip worthwhile. "If I don't see another train today, I'll be happy," Latoski said.
Brian Woodruff, the youngest rail fan in attendance, rattles off details of the CSX O821: the brand and horsepower of engines, the number of cars, the cargo. But he's stumped by one question: What kind of brakes?
"I don't want to know how to stop the thing," said Brian, who wears a CSX hat with railroad pins. "I just want to know how to make it go."
Many of the rail fans will stay until 11:30 p.m., some having tracked trains for 15 hours.
"You've got to get here early and stay late," Latoski said. "Or you'll miss something."
Later, they'll meet online to plan the next outing.
On the way home, with any luck, they'll see lights flashing and a stop arm dropping.
Other Florida motorists curse trains that hold them up at crossings.
