Led by googly-eyed Engine 9058, a Union Pacific freight passes the Burkhart Street pedestrian crossing on Friday evening, July 8, 2025.
There I was, riding my bike through the Willamette Neighborhood of east Albany just before 7 o’clock Friday evening. Then, for a while, I waited at the Burkhart Street pedestrian crossing of the Union Pacific and Portland & Western tracks.
I had just left the crossing when I heard the raucous blast of a horn. I hustled back, dumped the bike and was rewarded with this:
The train was what I think railroad guys call a “manifest.” That’s a train made up of several different types of railcars carrying various kinds of freight.
This manifest was headed south, as you could readily see in the video. But as for its destination, I have no clue.
UP 9058, the locomotive leading the train, was built in 2013, according to the caption of a photo published online.
The eyes and other graffiti on the engine’s nose appear in a photo posted June 23 on a Facebook page apparently maintained by “Arkansas Railfans.”
Watching trains roll through Albany may not seem like the most exciting entertainment there is. But I like it and it’s free. (hh)
I like Googly-Eyed Engine 9058. No other train engine will ever surpass that!!
Thanks Hasso, Love watching your trains.
That was excellent! Thanks.
Hasso, I appreciate your personal tours through our town. I’ve never written anything to you but I greatly respect your interest in areas that interest you on your bike journeys. Thank you.
Another great train video, Hasso. And like you, I could watch them all day as well. Like I did as a kid growing up in Shedd.
Yaa, O.K., but do we have to put up with those gawd awful train horns day-n-night!! All street crossings have lights, bells & cross arms. So the need to blast a horn at each IS..???!!
The blasts of the train horns at night lull me to sleep. I like them.
I appreciate the pun in your article title.