From time to time I’ve wondered about the speed that the Portland & Western’s freight trains maintain on the line down the middle of Albany’s Water Avenue. Now, based on some fortuitous data gathering, I have a pretty good idea.
Things have been quiet on my waterfront beat, but there’s stuff going on, mainly including the installation of a new and improved railroad crossing at Water Avenue and Hill Street, a main entrance to the Edgewater Village development.
The Oregon Transportation Commission is poised to approve a project to make Albany’s Queen Avenue railroad crossing safer and, for cars, smoother. But it won’t deal with traffic delays when the gates are down.
Albany’s busiest railroad crossing on Queen Avenue will be improved for safety one of these days. But it won’t be soon, and when it’s done it will still be a bumpy ride for cars.
A day after the Albany City Council narrowly confirmed its longstanding commitment to an off-highway bikeway from Spring Hill to Scenic Drive, I got on my bike and took another look at how things are now.
Eighteen years (or so) of tagging…
If memory serves, these woodchip hopper rail cars got their new paint schemes — honoring the Oregon Ducks and the anti-drug DARE program — in about 2000 or before. And look at the colorful messes created by taggers in all the years since.
Tags: DARE rail car, Dave Clark Path, Oregon and Oregon state rail cars, Portland & Western