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.
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.
Yes, there’s no shortage of trains on the Union Pacific’s western Oregon mainline. And if you move around Albany much at all, whether on four wheels or two, or on foot, trains and you are often going to cross paths.
It has been a few weeks since you last saw a train on this site. So let’s make up for lost time.
On Dec. 16, 1890, the Southern Pacific’s southbound freight due in Albany at 2 p.m. was two hours late. And before it would have reached town, it crashed through the bridge on Cox Creek at 4 p.m.
The train horn in the distance sounded like it came from the Union Pacific’s mainline. I was in the Willamette Neighborhood on a bike ride, so I hustled over to my favorite grade crossing to see what I could see.
Having torn myself away from the national news Saturday night, I was taking my usual bike ride through the east end of old Albany when I heard the horn of a train coming down from the north.
Watching railroads work, where we still can
Putting aside the perennial grumbling about noise and delays, we in Albany should be glad we still have functioning railroads to watch as they work, relieving highways of some of the burden of moving heavy freight.
Tags: Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad, CORP, Railroads, Siskiyou line, Weed to Ashland