I was on the section of Seventh Avenue paralleling the Union Pacific’s mainline. And I nearly jumped over the handlebars when a UP freight, pounding up the tracks behind me, let loose with its horn, twice. Then I stopped and watched a long line of war-fighting equipment being hauled north.
This is something you don’t see all that often: Flaggers keeping an eye on traffic where Albany’s Cox Creek Path ducks under the Union Pacific mainline.
If you’re anxiously waiting for that new bike and walking path under the Pacific Boulevard overpass — and even if you’re not — you’re going to have to wait a while longer. Construction was to have started in May. But nothing’s going on at the site. The reason: The project apparently needs a permit from the […]
So I’m sitting in a queue at the Queen Avenue crossing, one car back. Just when the switch engine looks like it’s about to clear the road so we can go, a Union Pacific freight barrels through on the track we can’t see, on its way south.
Pity the poor people who do not live in railroad towns. They miss the fun of sitting at a crossing and watching a freight rumble past.
Passersby can see that work has resumed on the so-called Santiam Lead, a stretch of new railroad track parallel to the Union Pacific Mainline in Albany. High time, too. Under an agreement between the Portland & Western Railroad and ODOT-Rail, the project is supposed to be completed by Dec. 31.
Quiet zones in Albany: Better not
Albany has been a railroad town since 1870. Some people don’t like the sound of that. Train horns at crossings bother them. But turning the entire city into a “quiet zone” might cost in the neighborhood of $14 million.
Tags: Albany City Council, Railroad quiet zones, Union Pacific