Early Wednesday (19 / 12/ 2012) morning a train came through town going westbound. It was still too dark to see much other than the train was made up of tankcars. About thirty hours or so the train came back going eastboune. The Power was two Canadian Pacific GE AC4400's two 50foot covered hoppers followed by 97 tankcars and two more covered hoppers and a third CP AC4400. It was a real surprise to see the big CP GE's here in town. A few days later a second train made up like the first except it had 105 tank cars and used boxcars as the buffer cars. As of today there has been no further tank trains. I hope to get down on "A"Street and photo teh trains in the street.
It turned out that the trains of Tankcars are hauling crude oil from N Dakota. The oil is going to Clatskanie to be loaded on a barge and taken to west coast refineries. Now if the grainers return the line would be busy with long trains
Betcha a few locals would start getting grumpy about the noise and traffic. The trains weren't as long, but history is it used to be a lot busier, when the line went on through to the coast.
