NASA Railroad rides into sunset

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CHamilton

CHamilton

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NASA Railroad rides into sunset


The NASA Railroad has reached the end of its line.
Last month, the Florida East Coast Railway pulled NASA locomotives No. 1 and No. 3 from Kennedy Space Center on their way to new homes.

Their departure closed another chapter in the story of the space shuttle program’s retirement.

One of the trains’ primary responsibilities was to haul large solid rocket booster segments from the Jay Jay yard near Mims across the river to the Launch Complex 39 area....

But with only two launches certain to use those boosters, currently planned around 2018 and 2022, and then at most one flight a year to follow, NASA decided there was no need to keep its own railroad active.

The NASA Railroad cost $1.3 million a year to operate and maintain by the end of the shuttle program.

The space agency had already given away Locomotive No. 2 last year, to the Gold Coast Railroad Museum in Miami.

On April 10, Nos. 1 and 3 rolled north past the Vehicle Assembly Building, crossed a drawbridge over the Indian River Lagoon and into the Jay Jay yard for the last time.

No. 1 will be used by the Natchitoches Parish Port in Natchitoches, Louisiana. No. 3 is headed to the Madison Railroad in Madison, Indiana, for regular freight service and passenger excursion train service, NASA said.
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Note that it is only the rolling stock it is getting rid of not the tracks, which incidentally are in excellent shape, way better than some of SEPTA's branch line tracks for example! The tracks still connect from FEC to the launch pads and the area of the VAB. There is also talk of extending one branch through the Cape Canavaral Air Force Station all the way to the north shore of Port Canaveral, and maybe across to Port Canaveral. Net net what NASA is doing is moving from a "we operate our own railroad" model to "we lease the operations to a selected operator as and when needed" approach.

As for access to Port Canaveral, keeping in mind the developments around AAF, I would expect such a connection to be built along the Route 528 ROW rather than through KSC.
 
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The tracks are in excellent shape - like a proper railfan, I took note of the tracks and photographed them while touring KSC last month:



Edit: That's the top of the VAB you can just barely make out in the trees to the left of the tracks.
 
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