This was lumber that was moving through Tacoma and when volume increased and a lack of empty Twenty foot containers in Tacoma the shipper looked for a new location to transload out of and found a company willing to build track and transload into the containers. As stated at 1st it was low grade lumber for China and the bulk of it is still low grade or not finsih grade lumber but now there is lumber coming in that will now move to Japan to start with the rebuiling effort. the Lumber for Japan did not move before because the clean up was still going on. This looks like better grade lumber.

There was a shortage of containers over the last month but that has now been resolved and the transloader is loading between 300 and 400 TEU's each week and each rail car holds 3.6 containers or TEU's ( Twenty foot Eqivilents). The OTR switches 12 to 14 cars in each day Monday through Friday and pulls 12 to 14 empites. The transloader also extended the interchange between the OTR and the UP so it holds 18 cars up from 12 cars. The large pile of lumber sholud start to get smaller each week as they have again started to get empty containers.

OTR and the UP put the interchange from the Desert yard to the Knight yard back in service in late 2009 so the OTR would have to haul all the traffic over the Wood Street Viaduct. This was better for OTR and the UP as the UP yard jobs did not have to go on the mainline to service the OTR interchange. UP delivers to the OTR Sunday Through Thursday night.

In 2007 the Port removed most of the Knight yard for salvege. The Transloader Industrial Transload put track back in to bring this business to the OTR. Now the Port of Okaland is making money on what was vacant ground since 2007. Most of the lumber is coming off the CORP at Eugene. Due to the CORP Service the cars end up getting bunched at Eugene and then the UP bunches them at Roseville.

the Port wants to build a new on dock rail facility for containers in this area and along Maritime Street but with both the UP and the BNSF intermodal yards being under utilized the Port allowed the Knight yard property to be used for addtional translaoding.