Following the end of the Space Shuttle Program in 2011, the railroad’s primary traffic source of hauling solid rocket booster segments ended. The segments were shipped to the Florida spaceport by rail from Orbital-ATK in Wasatch, Utah. Following each space shuttle launch, the boosters were dropped into the Atlantic ocean where they were picked up by boat, washed and disassembled before returning to Utah. There they were refurbished and reused on future shuttle missions.
NASA’s next program, the deep space, Space Launch System, will require the use of solid rocket boosters, however the flights will be much less frequent and the boosters will no longer be reused. This led to NASA’s decision to dispose of the locomotives.
Locomotive No. 1 is going to the Louisiana Natchitoches Parish Port Commission, and No. 3 will head to the Madison Railroad in southern Indiana. The third NASA SW1500, No. 2, left from Kennedy Space Center in March 2014 for the Gold Coast Railroad Museum in Miami, which also has one of NASA’s original Alco S2s.
So what does this mean for the future of the Kennedy Space Center rail service? The NASA Railroad as an entity is no more, however the trackage will still be in service as an active government rail line.
According to a NASA spokesperson, Florida East Coast will likely deliver the hardware for the first and possibly second Space Launch System missions and also provide Kennedy Space Center with any interim deliveries by rail. The track will continue to be maintained to NASA standards.
Over the long term, Kennedy Space Center rail service will likely depend on the Canaveral Port Authority’s proposal of operating 11 miles of new rail line south of Kennedy Space Center to Port Canaveral, which would also use 17 miles of the existing Kennedy Space Center trackage.
An Environmental Impact Study for that project is underway by the Surface Transportation Board.
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It was apprpriate to keep one of the locomotives in Florida,although it can't run. Bringing it to the Gold Coast Rail museum was a good decision.
Sad indeed – I have been in the Space Program for over 40 years and a lot of that time at KSC. After one mission to Mars, a local USA worker and close friend and I were traveling around KSC site seeing. He was a worker with the crane ops on the base. We went by the railroad repair location and he indicated that he knew the guys that worked there. And one of the engines was out. So we traveled by the track going north and there it came rumbling back. I was excited to see it and was taking pictures. My friend told me to pull down a dirt road and got out and flagged it down. They crew knew my friend and offered to give me a ride. I could barely control the camera! As we rumbled on down towards the VAB. Never will forget it.
Definitely makes sense to just have FEC switch that trackage, especially with the port coming online soon.
The three NASA SW1500s were originally Toledo,Peoria & Western (TPW) 303, 305 and 306. Sad to see them out of work, Hope the powers-that-be will see the value of retaining the rail infrastructure at the KSC for future use.