A northbound Union Pacific freight enters Albany Station Saturday just as I was getting a photo of the new passenger platform.
It had been some time since I stopped at Albany Station on a bike ride. I did that Saturday and noticed that the second half of the new passenger platform had been completed, probably months ago.
I was taking pictures of the platform with my phone when suddenly:
When I posted this video clip on YouTube, somebody responded he had just seen the train in Shedd. “That was an empty grain train,” he wrote, “Probably hauled canola meal to a feed lot in central California last week.”
That was a pretty long train, it seemed to me, even for a freight.
On the passenger rail front, there was bad news this week for the Amtrak Cascades service between Eugene and Portland and beyond.
Here’s what Amtrak posted on the Cascades website:
“Amtrak has determined its fleet of Horizon trainsets will immediately be taken out of service, due to identified concerns with this aging equipment. A total of 70 passenger cars across the country are affected, including 26 cars on the Amtrak Cascades route.
“This leaves just one non-Horizon trainset in service on Amtrak Cascades. This affects nearly all trips on Amtrak Cascades daily service to 18 stations between Vancouver, British Columbia and Eugene, Oregon. In the short-term, buses have been secured to transport passengers to their destinations through March 30. The only trips that will be served by the one remaining non-Horizon train are #503 and #508 traveling daily between Seattle and Eugene.
“Amtrak is determining how to replace the grounded Horizon trains by redistributing other trains in its national fleet. Amtrak will notify the states of Washington and Oregon as soon as a plan is in place to move replacement trains to the Pacific Northwest.”
Train No. 503 goes south and leaves Albany just before 1 p.m., headed for Eugene. Then it goes north again as Train No. 508 and stops in Albany at 5:11 p.m.
Reports elsewhere said the problem with the Horizon cars was one of corrosion. Amtrak said “intensive inspections” turned up “additional areas of concern.”
Before this, Amtrak Cascades made two daily round trips that stopped in Albany. Now there’s only one.
In addition, though, Amtrak’s Coast Starlight stops in Albany each afternoon on its runs up and down the West Coast. Train 11 comes through about 4 o’clock going south, and No. 14 stops between 1 and 2 going north.
Here’s hoping Amtrak finds equipment to quickly restore the full Cascades schedule. One hates to see a nice platform go to waste. (hh)
And here’s a look at the eastern half of the new platform.
About 1/2 of the routes through Albany have been busses for years, so nothing is really that different.
How much money did we CONTINUE to invest in the “Transit Center” after Greyhound pulled out? Now we park 3 City Busses next to Target (blocking the bike lane) and have 1? City bus stop by the train station. I guess their ultimate plan was free parking for City Employees on our dime.
Let’s make it a pay lot for anything over 2 hours. (and hope AMTRAK isn’t any later than that.)
You realize that 3 ATS routes, 2 Loop routes, Coast to Valley, Linn Shuttle and Pointe routes all use the transit center right?
I go through there frequently, and other than the workers that work out of that building, i dont see any city people using it as a parking lot.
Then why are they blocking the bike lanes next to Target instead of using the “Transit Center” as a “Transit Center” that the TAXPAYERS were forced to pay for.
Why aren’t the Albany police enforcing the law?
Not that you will need to get to close. But please revisit the switching train horn issue as it is getting out of hand,Monday morning @6am I believe it will start .I believe a rule change is that now the horn must be blown from edge of road to edge of road. While using the last dash of the Dash Dash Dot Dash system which results in longer blasts.
I made the mistake of complaining to the engineer @ his 13 sec long blast only to be bombarded by 30 and 40 sec long more personal blasts.
Ps.stop by for coffee.
According to another news story I saw, the problem with the Horizon trains is that the original build had aluminium metal mounted to steel with any protection to stop it. Per Google:
“It’s an electrochemical process where one metal corrodes faster when in contact with another metal in the presence of an electrolyte (a conductive liquid like water or saltwater). ”
It’s either the initial design specs, or in the construction, someone failed to follow basic requirements.
Hi Hasso,
I enjoy reading your posts. Amtrak neglected the scheduled maintenance of the equipment.
Regarding abandoned track. Do you know there is abandoned track near the Oregon Electric depot on 5th Ave and Baker st.
Embedded in the asphalt is a turning wye.
Sometimes the asphalt breaks revealing it
Yes,thanks. I’ve done a couple stories on that turning wye.
There should be ROUGH ROAD signs where the railroads cross Queen Avenue south of the Albany station.