The "Sugar Express" at speed. South Central Florida is certainly the "sugar capitol" of the US, with endless cane fields, water-filled canals and massive processing mills at strategic locations. In this image, US Sugar's "Sugar Express" charges westbound with a mixed consist of cane cars and passenger equipment, passing a competitor's sugar mill in Okeelanta, Florida. Running this line at track speed of 40 mph, this train would reach US Sugar's much larger processing facilities, a few miles distant in Clewiston, in just a few minutes time. While Locomotive #148, seen here, is not typically used on the normal cane trains, she does occasionally make ceremonial runs at the beginning and end of the cane harvest, mostly for public relations purposes. Back 70 years ago however, this very locomotive did indeed haul regular cane trains on this very line, and did so for perhaps a dozen years before being replaced by diesels.
