The Florida East Coast Railroad 's Key West Extension

[92kid1]

It'd be cool to restore the bridges and use them for high speed rail.

[ferlenarab]

If Mr. Flagler had been alive, the rr would have been rebuilt, it was his pet project. It never was a financial sucess as the trade between the Key West and Havana never really took off as he planned, so the hurricane was a good reason not to rebuild. Previous hurricanes had did damage before, this one was an exceptionally bad one.

[Jamersonde]

RIP Key West Extension. I wish they hadn't decided to replace it with concrete!

[Gulftango11]

It was freakn hot I almost passed out a few times during constuction

[slippy2009]

history

[megatwingo]

5*****!

[zigzag74]

Brings back a lot of memories. We used to jump off Bahia Honda and swim back over to the beach, as long as the current was coming in !! The problem with the old RR bridges was Flagler used SALTwater to mix his concrete. He didn't know just 50-60 years down the road his bridges would crumble. At Bahia Honda beach I saw chunks of concrete fall out of the bottom of the bridge when trucks went over in the 60's. Sadly, they can not be saved. I agree, Bahia Honda is the most beautiful.

[Elodea]

@zigzag74 You are incorrect about Flagler. Flagler was highly criticized at the time of construction because he insisted upon using German portland cement mixed with fresh water brought down the railroad in cypress tanks. The resulting mixture is still so strong, that the Corp of Engineers in effect, gave up when they tried to remove the seven mile bridge viaduct after the new road open. Bahia Honda problem was the substandard materials used to pave over the bridge after the railroad "died."

[boazrg]

@Elodea A lot of the old construction methods were better than the "hurry up" stuff they do now! When they were remodeling a Boston Subway station at Haymarket some years ago, it took forever to revome the old concrete from 1906, because it was so hard! That's what happens when engineers make decisions instead of acountants!

[OceanRailroader]

@boazrg When they built the big dig they had a section cave in on top of a car and kill someone. The sections where eposyed in to the tunnel ceiling and the weight of the sections pulled the eposxy and bolts out and killed someone it cost over 56 million to fix this fatal flaw. The Holland and Linicon Tunnels where built in the 1920's and 1930's and they where state of the art at the time but never ever had a tunnel section cave in on a driver and kill them and they are over 80 years old

[Elodea]

The "rescue locomotive" FEC 153 is on display at the Gold Coast Railroad Museum in Miami.

[Steam501]

@Elodea The same government that wants to rescue us with health care may want to have obama pose with it for a photo postcard for healthcare. LOL !!

[OceanRailroader]

The Bahia honda bridge could have light rail go though it while a bike path goes over the old road bed. Also the whole Key West railroad could get brought back in the from of low speed rail linked up to Florida's high speed rail system.

[nucj007]

Great video!

[OceanRailroader]

The man who helped me get the photos from his website for it I think I saw him on Modern Marvels on the History Channel.

[railstoruin]

Fantastic...  Thanks!

[prmass1]

One of the best videos I have seen. Very well put together. Thanks.

[dgl1962]

Whenever I drive to Key West,I have trouble keeping my eyes on the road due to wanting to see all of the bridge work that Flagler made.

Had it not been during the depression years(1935),it's possible that the FEC would have rebuilt the 40 damaged miles of track(the bridges weren't touched!,only some fill was washed away).

Also,it was just before the more efficient diesel locomotive era which added to its demise.

[swampfox320]

Great video. I too model railroad and intend on doing a fictional modern KWE using my own proto-freelance railroad. Should Obama decide to try and lift the trade embargo on Cuba, I could see having Flagler's dream coming true again. Sadly, I doubt the FEC will ever rebuild it.

[OceanRailroader]

The railroad could be rebuilt as a light rail line though the keys there are about 20 times more people living there then there were in the 1900's

[Boss302fan]

If Cuba opens up FEC will profit based on increased traffics through the port of Miami. I don't see Cuba having anything to do with anything happening on the old Key West line.

[OceanRailroader]

Most likely some sections of it could find a new life as a streetcar line or a light rail line for passangers considering how fast the keys have been built up with condos and hotels.

[Boss302fan]

Possibly. I don't know that part of the FEC as I deal only in freight and current operations.

Sounds like an extremely expensive undertaking though, but maybe I'm wrong.

[OceanRailroader]

I'm hording railroad bridges to make a HO scale Train set with a Key West Railroad Theam.

It's amazing how in such good shape the bridges are. If the could close the gaps that made for the boats they blasted out of the bridges they could reopen the bridges to the public.

[woodencoasterfan]

Beautiful video. The sad part is that most people don't realize those "old bridges off the the side" were a very historic piece of turn of the century, American engineering. The Overseas Railroad was the first railroad to "cross the seas" as Henry Flagler said.

[twix9211]

I live in Key West and I wish that the state would provide with some money to help repair the original bridges and use them again, maybe for a train service.

[OceanRailroader]

The Seven mile bridge would become the longest pedestrain and bike bridge in the world.

The old bridges could be set up for light rail also

[OceanRailroader]

The railroad bed right now is slowly getting turned into a great overseas bike path. The only thing is that they took out sections of the birdges for the boats so that the bikes can only use a few birdges. I feel that they should repair the missing sections in the birdges and let bikes be able to cross the full lenth of 7 mile birdge and the two mile long key birdge

[McMike321]

exactlly my point restoe all the things Henry Flager worked to create, Im pretty sure if he were alive today he would gladlly restore the railroad.

[McMike321]

it would be cool to restore railroad service to the keys.

[OceanRailroader]

I feel that they should restore railroad services to the keys the cars entering them have turned into a river of metal killing off the keys.

A Train across the ocean would be a safer and more fun way to get people to the keys. Also there are about 20 times more people living there then there were in 1935

[RheartsS]

i love Lugia Song it seem to made me feel better and feel great

very peacefull song

[Tundramensch]

This is really nice. A stirring tribute.

[OceanRailroader]

I made this video to show respect for the Key West Extension. This is the railroad my fan fiction based Orange Islands Railroad is based off of.

[kflick54]

Nicely done