South Eastern Railcar Operators, Inc. Florida Central Railroad Florida Northern Railroad Motorcar Excursion December 3, 4 & 5, 2021 South Eastern Railcar Operators, Inc. is sponsoring a motorcar excursion on the Florida Central and Florida Northern Railroads which are a part of the Regional Rail, LLC group who have graciously allowed us to operate. FRIDAY - Florida Central Railroad - Eustis, FL The tourist train is not currently operating. This will eliminate much of the coordination necessary on previous runs. We will have to coordinate our operation with the location of stored cars. For this reason, our schedule is uncertain and may change. Participants will be notified of any change in the set on time well in advance of our operation. Plan on arriving at the set on location at Orange Avenue in Ferran Park by 09:00 we will complete our paperwork, park our trailers, Set on and conduct the safety/job briefing. We plan on running to Tavares, then taking the north leg of the wye to Mount Dora and if track conditions and car storage permit, toward Sorrento which is the end of track. Turn point will depend on track condition. We will have a lunch stop in either Mt. Dora or Tavares. At your own risk, you’ll be able to leave your motorcar on the track overnight in Eustis. SATURDAY - Florida Central Railroad - Eustis, FL Anyone just joining us can set on at 07:30. We’ll have a 08:15 Safety/Job briefing and leave Eustis at 08:30, proceed along the same route as we did Friday to Tavares, then con- tinue in the direction of Winter Garden. Round trip distance is about 65 miles. Because of many crossings and high volume of automobile traffic, the track we run today is particularly challenging and requires a high level of operator concentration. There are many very busy crossings. A lot, but not all, have crossing gates that we can activate re- motely based on the amount of road traffic observed. It is imperative that when we drop the gates at a crossing, all operators proceed across as quickly and as safely possible without any gaps between motorcars that could tempt impatient drivers to go around the gates. To this end, it is REQUIRED that when we stop to allow the cars to “bunch up”, no one gets out. Remain in your car and insure your passengers do the same so that we can quickly proceed. There are about 70 stored cars which will prevent us from entering Winter Garden as we have done previously. We will make a “pit” stop to use the rest rooms at the railroad headquarters in Plymouth and then proceed to our turn point which is on a spur a couple of miles east of Winter Garden. We won’t be near any restaurants, so plan on bringing lunch. Northbound, if needed, we will stop for rest rooms in Plymouth. Our return will be the reverse of everything we did South bound. SUNDAY - Florida Northern Railroad - Ocala, FL We will set on in downtown Ocala, North of the Highway 40 grade crossing in an area where the track runs down the middle of the street for several blocks starting at 08:00. Departure at 09:00. We will run South to Candler (14 miles each way) and return to the set on location. Anyone on a tight sched- ule can set off at this time. In the afternoon, we will run North about 6 miles to a location where a car blocks the track. The car is positioned there for an industrial purpose and blocks the track to Lowell. We will cross the CSX main on the diamond at the old Amtrack station in Ocala. Hotels - Many hotels art available in the area. Rather than list specific hotels, we recommend that you use an on-line service such as Priceline.com or Trivago.com to find a hotel with the location, amenities and price that you prefer. Schedule Saturday 07:30 Set-on Eustis 08:15 Safety Briefing 08:30 Departure 10:30 Rest room stop - Plymouth 12:00 Lunch - turn cars, 14:00 Depart Winter Garden area 15:15 Rest room stop - Plymouth 17:15 Return - Eustis, Set Off Schedule Sunday 08:00 Set on - Ocala, FL 08:45 Safety Briefing 09:00 Departure 10:30 Arrive Candler - Turn Cars 12:00 Return to Ocala 12:30 Depart Ocala 13:30 Arrive turn point 14:30 Return - Ocala - Set Off Schedule Friday 09:00 Set on - Eustis FL 10:00 Safety Briefing 10:15 Departure TBA Arrive Sorrento - Turn Cars TBA Return - Eustis