Hello: I am Mark Frazier, President of Florida Adventures in Railroading Inc (FLAIRR) I wanted to share with you about our recent acquisition, and a bit about who we are. Three years ago in June a small group of individuals met with the common Idea of doing more for railway preservation in Northeastern Florida. On November 22, 2019 Florida Adventures In Railroading Inc was incorporated as a Florida not for profit corporation. That was followed by identifying potential projects and the long process of filing our 1023 long form with the IRS. The letter declaring our Tax Exempt status from the IRS under 501(c)(3) arrived in the first part of February 2022. With the mission statement of, “Preserving and presenting the experience of 20th Century railway travel to and in within the state of Florida.”
On December 11, 2021 I was invited to be a guest at the 50th anniversary Family Reunion of the original auto-train in New Syrmina Beach, FL. During that event it was announced that the auto carrier/caboose auto-train 3 was for sale in Fillmore, CA and in possible danger of being scrapped. Phone calls were made and by the end of February we had a $7,500.00 purchase agreement in place. FLAIRR also had found a generous benefactor who agreed to finance the project.
Once we had that in place, we needed a place to go. After two false starts we were welcomed by the St. Marys Railroad. At the same time we were managing mechanical repairs from 2500 miles away. Inspections revealed Broken springs and cracked pedestal liners. We hired a private carman to do the work. As he began working he found many more defects. As we began looking into it further it was clear that we were repairing damage that happened in the auto-train wreck March 13, 1973 at Hortense, GA. The estimated three days of repair turned into ten days. On the third day we were informed that the City of Fillmore was baring any further work from happening to the City of Fillmore. The City and Sierra Northern were not getting along with each other and we were caught in the middle. So to Santa Paula we went. The rest of the work thanks to Andy Wilkinson went smoothly.
So here is where we stand today, RPCX 730027 nee auto-train 3 is sitting at interchange all inspections and test have passed. The way bill is in and we are waiting on Union Pacific to puck the car up possibly as soon at tomorrow July 1, 2022. It will be headed to New Orleans, LA then to CSX we are guessing via Montgomery, AL to Waycross, GA then on to Jacksonville and finally First Coast Railroad to Kingsland, GA to St. Marys, GA.
Please visit our web site at http://www.FLAIRR.org we are inviting all and any interested to become a member and we are still looking for donations.
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