Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Video - Train Meet in Seattle


Captured this video footage along the BNSF Mainline of a Train Meet between Spokane and Horton Streets in Seattle. It was a surprise meet between the southbound Garbage Train and the northbound Coast Starlight (which appeared to be on time).

Montana has "The Night Gas." Powder River Basin has "The Coal Train." I find it funny that an eco-friendly area like Western WA is known in rail circles for "The Garbage Train." Does that resonate with anyone else?
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4 comments:

  1. Robert in Port TownsendApril 15, 2009 at 11:52 PM

    "Coast Startlate" on time? That IS noteworthy! The wife of a friend of mine almost delivered a baby just before they arrived in LA. And she wasn't even pregnant when they got on in Portland!

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  2. Steve EshomApril 16, 2009 at 3:32 PM

    I've been waiting for the environmentalists to discover the garbage train and make a big deal out of it. Nearly 20 years on they really haven't said much.

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  3. Robert in Port TownsendApril 19, 2009 at 9:11 PM

    Perhaps the environmentalists have figured out that it is more user friendly to have a two man crew move a hundred truck trailers by rail rather than by highway. We we first moved to Portland, the garbage dump for us was over on 82nd Avenue. Then Jack Gray Transport was awarded a trucking contract to haul garbage 85 miles up the Columbia Gorge (http://arcweb.sos.state.or.us/governors/goldschmidt/box013/goldschmidt_013_042.pdf). Plenty of people saw the frigging folly of 1 man, 1 truck, up to 100 trucks per DAY taking up space on I-80, hundreds of trucks to get rid of Portland's garbage, rather than running a 2-man garbage train out of the giant re-cycle center in Clackamas - via BNSF Toaster Ovens. Now, all these years and two operators later, Walsh Trucking (http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/02/troutdale_trucking_company_tak.html) has just been given a 20-year contract to continue the nonsense spewing diesel fumes into the air. Oh, yes, barge and rail were considered. But then Portlander's are notorious for having their heads misplaced. And as for Vancouver; 5 mile truck ride from Central Transfer on 122nd Ave to Tidewater Barge Lines. Two man crew hauls a BARGE loaded with containers up the Columbia River to the landfill. Amazing how one side of the river can reason, whilst the other side can't.

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  4. Robert in Port TownsendApril 19, 2009 at 9:47 PM

    Cape Cod garbage is hauled out by train (2 man crew) a dozen cars. The height of re-cycling. Old box cars were modified with their tops removable, and rotary couplers installed. Just like a coal car, entire box car (60 tons of crap) rotates for dumping. Yep, Portland did a lot of studying on the problem of garbage removal! See http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1215/is_n8_v190/ai_7902155/

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