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Re: Derailment and Fire near Portland
Author: Tom McCann
Date: 05-05-2011 - 22:55
The train up to the Rainier transload facility is one that P&W regularly operates. It is known locally as the "Termite Train", because it is mostly these flatcar loads of raw logs, with some woodchip cars and maybe some bulkhead flats of finished lumber thrown in.
I had travelled up Highway 30 along this line last Sunday on the way to the coast, and a large cut of these log cars was parked on the Harbor siding just north of Linnton. These may have been part of the train that derailed. The ethanol tanks were on the Holbrook siding, just north of United Junction, and these are the cars struck by the derailed log flat.
On a historical note, this line was part of the original Northern Pacific Portland-Tacoma-Seattle main route until the 1908 construction of the drawbridge across the Columbia River at Vancouver. NP trains crossed the Columbia from Goble, north of St. Helens, to Kalama on a ferry.
I had travelled up Highway 30 along this line last Sunday on the way to the coast, and a large cut of these log cars was parked on the Harbor siding just north of Linnton. These may have been part of the train that derailed. The ethanol tanks were on the Holbrook siding, just north of United Junction, and these are the cars struck by the derailed log flat.
On a historical note, this line was part of the original Northern Pacific Portland-Tacoma-Seattle main route until the 1908 construction of the drawbridge across the Columbia River at Vancouver. NP trains crossed the Columbia from Goble, north of St. Helens, to Kalama on a ferry.
