Albany’s Water Avenue is a gift for rail fans like me. The old Oregon Electric track runs down the middle of the street for seven blocks, and right next to it for 14 more, giving us a close look at train operations. And sometimes a different sort of rig. For residents on Water this is […]
For weeks there’s been heavy construction on the Portland & Western’s long trestle bridge across the Calapooia River and its floodplain outside Albany. The work is upgrading and strengthening the structure and will probably make it last many decades more.
Well, that big crack in Pier 1 of the Willamette River railroad bridge in Albany is one less thing we have to worry about. It looked ominous to me when I published this photo in March. But an independent engineer has told the Portland & Western Railroad and its parent company that the pier is […]
There’s a story behind this passenger rail car, which was parked under the Albany overpass a few days ago. To get it, I went to Bob Melbo, who has had the answer to every railroad-connected question I have ever asked him. The lettering says the car belongs to the California Northern, a subsidiary of RailAmerica. […]
What’s that smell? It’ll soon be gone
As I was heading east on First Avenue Wednesday, a peculiar smell in the air made me wonder if there was a fire upwind. Then, after a left on Columbus and another left on Water, the nature and the source of the odor became obvious: Creosote fumes from batches of new railroad ties being stacked […]
Tags: creosote, Genesee & Wyoming, Portland & Western, Railroad ties