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Re: Some thoughts about the plight of Oregon Shortlines
Author: Smokebox
Date: 01-12-2008 - 12:28
Sammie,
Thanks for you input.
I think a barge operation to Astoria could benefit more than just POTB, but also the North Coast region. This would retain active freight and passenger rail services in the POTB area, and with the establishment af a truck reload and slip at Toungue Point, this could help in the Astoria region, who still has a Weyerhauser Mill, and other manufacturers in the area.
The last 30 miles of the A-Line are currently is out of service with a small washout. After being seen by a retired ODOT-Rail person recently, he said it would've been fixed with a culvert and some fill in a weekend if there was a reason to do so. The A-line offers a water level route with one tunnel. It does have some small trestles and hand crank swing bridges, but when you compare this to the POTB route, there is no comparison. Much of the A-line is already being relaid with welded rail for unit grain trains with run thru BNSF power. I can see a POTB via A-line "hauler" taking maybe two or three P&W locomotives instead of the four or five needed to cross the former SP route, and maybe three locomotives on the POTB segment, one a back up engine. I would think a barge operation could take a day from slip to slip, with delays when the river bars are closed. I don't think this would be much more of a delay than what it used to take POTB to P&W, then to BNSF/UP.
Smokebox
Thanks for you input.
I think a barge operation to Astoria could benefit more than just POTB, but also the North Coast region. This would retain active freight and passenger rail services in the POTB area, and with the establishment af a truck reload and slip at Toungue Point, this could help in the Astoria region, who still has a Weyerhauser Mill, and other manufacturers in the area.
The last 30 miles of the A-Line are currently is out of service with a small washout. After being seen by a retired ODOT-Rail person recently, he said it would've been fixed with a culvert and some fill in a weekend if there was a reason to do so. The A-line offers a water level route with one tunnel. It does have some small trestles and hand crank swing bridges, but when you compare this to the POTB route, there is no comparison. Much of the A-line is already being relaid with welded rail for unit grain trains with run thru BNSF power. I can see a POTB via A-line "hauler" taking maybe two or three P&W locomotives instead of the four or five needed to cross the former SP route, and maybe three locomotives on the POTB segment, one a back up engine. I would think a barge operation could take a day from slip to slip, with delays when the river bars are closed. I don't think this would be much more of a delay than what it used to take POTB to P&W, then to BNSF/UP.
Smokebox
