"A" Line Update

Just an update to another topic. Portland & western's "A" Line grain trains are now running twice per week. There is no set schedule for the unit grain trains. A few weeks ago there were three trains in eight days then quiet for about a week then another grain train.
There was a 110 car grain train yesterday which went east MTY today.
Power is usually three big GE's either C44-9W, AC4400-9CW, or ES4400-9CW units. Heritage two paint mostly but the new "Swoosh" is showing up as well.
There is no set power consist either. Most of the time there are two units leading and one in DPU on the rear of westbounds but not always. The MTY eastbound trains have all the locomotives in the lead.

 

Before the grain trains there was a daily except Sunday local from St. Helens to Wauna. There is a paper mill at Wauna that gets chemicals by rail. Everything else goes either barge or truck. The paper mill gets switched once a week. In Clatskanie there is teh Simpson lumber mill that ships out about two cars per day of timbers.
In Rainier there is the USG plasterboard plant that ships out about a dozen cars per day of plasterboard. USG receives boxcars of paper a couple of times per week
There is the daily log train that serves Teevin Brothers log sort. The logs come in by rail and truck and go out the same way.
Before P&W took over the BN ran the local whenever they felt like it. The line west of Wauna is still in place but there has been no train since 2006 when the Lewis & Vlark Explorer stopped running.
The locals here in Rainier would like the railroad taken out. They are short sighted as there would be none of the industries and the jobs and taxes they produce without the railroad.
The unit grain trains clear "A"Street in eight minutes and the local less than that.

 

Oh... you don't have to be in a small town for that to happen. People here in medium-sized metropolis Portland, Oregon, often complain about trains, never mind all the ship traffic that would never call here if it weren't for the rail infrastructure. Would they rather have this traffic all in trucking, thus choking all the highways and arterials with diesel burning trucks?

If we aren't prepared to seal ourselves off from the world and grow all our own food and make all our own goods I think we ought to consider trains to be something akin to the pulse of commerce.

 

Wow... these GE's are nearly bigger than some of the buildings in your photo.

My wife and I took the Lewis and Clark Explorer Train as our one-day and much-delayed honeymoon. It was a great trip. We got lots of friendly waves, not single-finger ones, in Rainier. Then again, I guess two or three RDC's coming through isn't quite the same disruption as a unit train.

I have seen these tank cars and grain hoppers staged over north of Willbridge Yard in Portland several times, including several new ones. I will try and get some shots next time I don't have to be getting to work.

 

Until Cliff had weighed in I was under the impression that PNWR and BNSF had worked something out with the communities along the line to minimize disruption of their daily lives.

Could it be that they took all sorts of extra steps to go above and beyond their duties and people are just complaining anyway.

I don't think there is any movement afoot to turn the A line into a trail. The State of Oregon seems committed to keeping the right-of-way intact for possible future needs all the way to Astoria.

That line used to go through Astoria, cross Youngs Bay on a bridge no longer in existence, and then travel down the coast all the way to Holladay, which is just south of Seaside.

As I understand it (and I believe read in a book on the SP&S... probably one of the volumes of _The Northwest's Own Railway_), at one time that line was envisioned as being connected to what was then the SP's Tillamook Branch (later the POTB).

Anyway, I have done some reading on this line because it is the focus of my model railroading plans, and I love hearing about what's going on with it.

 

This line used to go all the way to the coast, as I mentioned, and took passengers on what was called the "Daddy Train," so named because there were a lot of male commuters Monday morning to Portland and then Friday afternoon back out of Portland.

I know you may not like this, but I think one way that lineside communities could be pleased would be if a couple of RDC's or similar ran along the line and transported people from place to place as a passenger service. I know that Columbia County spends money sending these Columbia County buses through the county and into Portland - one of them at least goes to one of the larger hospitals in town - and so there is already political will in action for public transit. With gas right up around $4/gallon and not likely to drop, and with aging populations in some of these communities no longer up to the drive, some sort of small passenger service may be just the thing to solve several problems at once.

 

It's a perfect use for Public transportation. I mean, the line may not be able to support it, but when I was living up there, I would have moved to Astoria or other points along 30 if public transit was available.