Watching a train go by in close proximity is one of the rewards of riding a bike around Albany. You can stand and watch close to the tracks at pedestrian crossings such as the ones at Burkhart or Pine streets.
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.
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.
Loss of rail bridge leads to complaint
Last week I got word of a development regarding the collapsed railroad bridge on the Marys River in Corvallis. So I went over there to take a look.
Tags: Bailrey Branch, bridge collapse, Marys River Bridge, Portland & Western, Railroads, Surface Transportation Board, Venell FArms, VFRC LLC