I grew up listening to my grandfather tell railroad stories .
My great-grandfather helped build the railroad across Canada and settled in Fort Frances . My grandfather began working for the Canadian National Railways at 14 years old . He took time off to fight in WWI and then continued to work for CNR in Fort Frances until being transferred and promoted to freight agent in Duluth MN and retired as General Agent after fifty-three years .
I ’ ve always loved riding on trains . Though I became a professional photographer in 2003 , I didn ’ t photograph my first train until 2012 . I was instantly hooked on train photography and in 2018 made train photography a major part of my business .
In April 2024 , I traveled to Clewiston Florida to photograph US Sugar 148 .
U . S . Sugar 148 started out as Florida East
JEFFREY STONER SUGAR EXPRESS , CLEWISTON FLORIDA
Coast 148 , a 4-6-2 steam locomotive built in April 1920 by the American Locomotive Company ( ALCO ) of Richmond , Virginia .
She started working in Florida hauling passenger and freight trains on Florida East Coast ’ s Overseas Railroad to Key West , Florida until the line was destroyed by a hurricane in 1935 . In 1952 she was sold to U . S . Sugar to haul sugarcane trains in Clewiston , Florida .
During the 1970s , No . 148 was sold and worked in New Jersey , where she served excursion services on the Black River and Western ( BRW ) and Morristown and Erie ( ME ) railroads . Between 1983 and 2005 , the locomotive was sold multiple times to various owners in Connecticut , Michigan , and Colorado who attempted to restore No . 148 to operation but never succeeded .
In late 2016 , U . S . Sugar reacquired the No . 148 locomotive and restored her to operating condition by 2020 for use in excursion service on their South Central Florida Express short line railroad as part of their heritage tourist passenger train named the Sugar Express , touring visitors all around the Lake Okeechobee counties .
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