Yep, Rainier is the town, and the Lewis & Clark Excursion Train will be using it this summer. (As already reported)... Besides that, the former Oregon Electric route (now also operated by Portland & Western RR) runs down the street in Salem (Front Avenue, north of downtown), Albany and Junction City. Expect one-two freight RTs a day on this track. AND, the P&W also runs down the street in Independence, on the former SP Westside Line. One RT a day, the Westsider uses this trackage. In Corvallis, the SP Westside Line travels down the center of Sixth Street but is separate from the street (there are curbs on either side of the rails and ballast). SP Newsprint, in Newberg, runs an industrial spur from their paper mill to the P&W line, an interesting operation to watch. Nearly the entire route is in the middle of the street, which escapes my mind right now; however if you travel through downtown on Highway 99W you will cross it. And last but not least... the Willamette Shores Trolley used to run on street trackage just south of downtown Portland, however due to several major construction projects the trolley route stops right at the beginning of the street trackage, which will probably be removed this summer. This trackage is the former Southern Pacific Jefferson Street Branch, abandoned by SP in the mid-1980s.
Seems like I remember pure street running in at least Tarboro, N.C.... however, there are lots of N.C. cities that have tracks in the "median" as opposed to the streets... Harold
Don't forget Harrisburg... The line crosses Territorial (shown here) at the north end of town, and runs down the middle of 4th Street for seven blocks. This first block has the track separated from the road, but the rest of track is embedded in the road.
Afternoon all, There are several places in California that I know where there was or still is street running. The most famous is the SN in Modesto Calif. My friend Ted Benson took many photos of the SN street running and even the UP until the tracks were torn up, I think in 2000. An other is in Eureka,Calif. My wife and I rode then Eureka Southern passenger excurssion from Willits to Eureka for the start to our honeymoon. Went up on Sat. came back on Sunday. They let us off in the middle of the street. The Santa Fe (BNSF) did and still does some street running in my home town of Fresno, Ca. From the depot west to Belmont. Also in Oakland after the UP quit running down the old WP tracks on Third Street they moved to the SP. There is still a little street running from the depot at Jack London Square to about four blocks east. And I think the Santa Maria Valley Railroad on the Calif coast still does a bit of street running. They did in 1995 when I was there but I am not sure if they still do. Shannon WP LIVES (no matter what the UP says)
Pentrex put out a tape about two or three years ago on Street Running. The tape is aptly named Street Running. There are great shots of all over the country. Albany, GA; Modesto, California (now gone); Erie, PA (also gone); St. Mary's WVa and numerous other places. I don't know if the tape is on DVD. It is a great tape. There is one scene where the trains have to obey the traffic lights in Modesto, California (ok guys you think we can go stop light to stop light with that SD40-2 next to us ). I grew up in a N&W town but my best memories were watching the B&O do some street running in that same town. Nothing will scare you quicker than making a turn and find yourself sharing the street with a GP9.
whoops, I didn't pay attention to there being a second page. Well, I'll leave my post for postarity. This sounds like the Port of Tillimook Bay railroad. They run excursions during the summer from Banks out to Tillimook. This line is all ex-SP track though. It goes through a couple of small towns in the Coast range before it gets to Tillimook. At banks it connects with the W&P which has some street running track in Hillsboro, but not much. It could also be the former SP&S, now W&P/P&W line from Portland to Astora. This is the line that had been closed east of Astoria due to a rock slide and was recently reopened. This has service I think provided by Amtrak out to Astoria. The service started last summer with a commeorative Lewis and Clark train. The picture in the brouchure from Amtrak should RDCs, but I seem to recall that the actual train used different power. The line does now end in Astoria. There is some sorta street running in Astoria proper with the track running out onto the fishing docks and the local trolley running there. I assume that P&W runs here as well, because I would assume freight would be the main reason the line was reopened. I'm not sure where the passenger stop is though.
There is street running in Redwood City, CA from the former SP mainline to the port of Redwood City. It runs down Chestnut St and under Highway 101 to the port.
The key here is that most of the current street running occurs on low-traffic rail routes, most with just a local or one or two freights a day. Indiana still has a good bit of street running left. In Michigan City the South Shore still operates a portion of its electrified route on city streets. In Warsaw the NS Marion Branch has a two-block stretch of street runnign just north of the CSX diamond. Down south in New Albany the CSX Louisville Terminal Sub has a stretch of street running. Here's a shot of a southbound crawling through New Albany in June of 2003. N80, 24mm f/2.8D AF Nikkor, Provia 100F.
I'm not an expert, but my impression is the line through Fort Collins, CO is a main or branch line with intermodal and other "big" trains, and more than a couple times a day to boot.
I have seen a lot places thoughout Indiana, that still has street running. Most of it seems to be more towards southern indiana though.
As Brian and Mustangman say the CSX Hoosier Sub is still fairly active and they run through the streets of New Albany. CP also has trackage rights and they keep the tracks busy too. This shot also relates to Brian's topic on foriegn power. These UP units just look out of place. Photo taken 2/18/04 This is old Monon trackage. This auto rack train is about to hit K&I junction and then cross the Ohio River on the old K&IT Bridge. This is a cool double track bridge that has a lane for car traffic on the outside of the rails, one each way (auto traffic no longer permitted). It would have been cool to have been driving some old Ford pick-up and keeping pace with an old steamer the length of the bridge!
JD: Tunnel motors in the street, too? Or just geep types? Thanks. This thread goes all the way back to January, 2004. How did I miss this one? Good thread! [ December 14, 2005, 06:05 AM: Message edited by: sapacif ]
Five miles north of me is Renton and the BNSF local goes thru every day, and also the "Spirit of Washington" dinner train! It's only a short 1/4 mile stretch, but it sure scares the heck out of non-locals!!
Erie,Pa,didn't completly loose its street running trackage.The NS West 19th St.street running trackage is gone. CSX(ex-CR)has street running trackage on East 10th St.It serves one customer,Erie Crate Company that only sees a local .The CSX street trackage has been overlooked by many fans for a long time. BTW,that CSX trackage is former PRR trackage..
Given that it's industrial trackage it is probably much harder to get a train on it than it was on the NS street trackage in town. You'll find that a lot of the nation's street trackage goes unnoticed because most railfans can't be bothered with a line that "only" has six trains a day -- or less -- on it. That's fine by me, though. I'd much prefer to have a shot practically nobody else does.
As already mentioned, here's a shot from Ft Collins, Co. Looking to the south. Siding is just that. Dead ends about half a block behind me. Also forms a wye, for turning as well as a dead end connection with the UP. Google Earth - Ft Collins, Co. Go to 40*35'30.34N 105*04'43.06W From these coordinates, you can see the BNSF main and the UP branch etc...The open field on the right side of photo is where I park then walk into middle of street for pic(s)!
I know that NS still runs in the street in Albany GA as does CSX and NS in Augusta GA. NS stopped the street running in Savannah GA about 8 yrs ago or so. I think that there is one or two other places in GA that trains run in the street.
One piece of street running I have not seen mentioned is about a 3/4 mile stretch in West Brownsville, PA along the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh. It sees trains coming from coal mines south of there. Not very busy but have seen trains on that line recently. A nice overhead shot of the street track is in the old "Conrail Commodities" book on page 89. Not far from there, in Uniontown, is a 1/4 mile stretch that doesn't seem active but was in good condition when I was last there. Satellite coverage is sketchy in this area and ends within a mile of both these locations. As for streetcars, there is no better place to go than Toronto, ON. They have a large network of mostly double tracked street running. Parts are in dedicated ROWs, but the majority of it is in mixed traffic. Fan site Transit Toronto has alot of information.
