It has been a few weeks since you last saw a train on this site. So let’s make up for lost time.
It’s rare that the Burkhart Street bike and pedestrian railroad crossing in Albany is blocked by a stationary train, but on Wednesday afternoon it was.
Guess what: It’s time to watch another Portland & Western freight train make its way, slowly, past the Sixth Avenue crossing in Albany.
The Queen Avenue railroad crossing, long the bane of Albany motorists because of its extreme bumpiness, is finally going to get fixed starting next week.
On a leisurely bike ride through old Albany the other day, I noticed something that wasn’t there. Where the Portland & Western Railroad crosses Sixth Avenue, there are no warning lights, bells or arms that come down when a train comes through.
Last week, somebody went across the lowered gates at an Albany railroad crossing and lost his life, and people were shaking their heads why anyone would ignore all the warnings at grade crossings. And then I came across this today: Gates, flashing lights and bells being activated at the Main Street crossing without a train anywhere in sight.
What, another train? Already?
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.
Tags: Burkhart Street crossing, Railroads, train length, trains, Union Pacific