HASSO HERING

A perspective from Oregon’s mid-Willamette Valley

It’s still there: Bike trap at Queen crossing

Written July 13th, 2025 by Hasso Hering

If you approach the rail crossing on Queen Avenue from the east, beware of the trap they’ve left for people on bikes.


Hub City Experience: Queen Ave. suspense

Written May 11th, 2025 by Hasso Hering

Waiting at the Queen Avenue railroad crossing is part of life in Albany. It’s an essential element, you might say, of the Hub City Experience.


Queen crossing now features a bike trap

Written January 8th, 2025 by Hasso Hering

If ODOT and the railroads ever carry out their plans for the Queen Avenue crossing in Albany, I’ll quit writing about it. But the improvement project at the crossing keeps slipping further back in time.


Queen Avenue: Why the bumps are still there

Written October 26th, 2024 by Hasso Hering

When a section of Queen Avenue was reopened this week after being torn up for utility work and then repaved, somebody complained in a comment here that the railroad crossing was still as bumpy as always.


Stuck on Queen, and seeing the danger

Written May 23rd, 2024 by Hasso Hering

On bike rides around Albany I usually avoid  Queen Avenue because of the rail crossing south of the Albany yard. On Thursday afternoon I did go that way and witnessed motorists practicing amazing patience while the crossing was blocked for what seemed like a very long time.


So what’s the stuff in those black tanks?

Written March 30th, 2024 by Hasso Hering

On a bike ride this month, I stopped at the Queen Avenue crossing to let a Union Pacific freight go by. Standing there, I wondered about all those tank cars heading south.


Locomotives: Old, not so old, and really new

Written June 15th, 2023 by Hasso Hering

Back on March 1, the Albany Parks Commission heard something about an aging railway switch engine that had been at work in the Albany and Millersburg yards for years.


 
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