Oregon Mudslide Progress?
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Goduckies
Guest
The trains should begin running this sat at night only for a while, but I bet by the end of this month, it will be completely clear. There is a crap load of snow on the pass, (181 percent of normal), so you should have some beautiful views in may when you go.
Brad in Eugene
Brad in Eugene
Green Maned Lion
Engineer
Huh? I haven't heard any of this.
transit54
Conductor
From Trains.com newswire:
UP: First trains will pass mudslide this weekend
March 31, 2008
OAKRIDGE, Ore. - Union Pacific Railroad had long aimed for a late March reopening of its Seattle-Los Angeles main line through Oregon's Cascade Mountains following a colossal Jan. 19 mudslide (see May 2008 "News"). It's now saying the first trains should pass through this coming weekend, but business as usual over the mountain is still a long way off.
The railroad laid track today on the higher-elevation portion of line that had been obliterated by the slide; the line, which climbs a hillside on an S-shaped alignment, is covered in two places by the same slide. UP's forces will pour ballast and tamp the track they installed this week. They're currently hoping to start one or two overnight freights this weekend, but heavy work during the week will keep trains rerouted over other lines.
Work will continue during daylight hours for about 14 hours a day. UP has not yet set a date for full reopening, nor for Amtrak's Seattle-Los Angeles Coast Starlight to resume service over the line.
So far, UP has removed 400,000 cubic yards of material with 10,700 side-dump carloads. They've brought in over 200,000 cubic yards of fill with 4,700 side-dump carloads. Weather continues to impact operations, and another foot of snow fell Friday.
Green Maned Lion
Engineer
This sounds like an excuse to never reopen the line for the CS.
If it were only for Amtrak, I suspect that UP wouldn't care and would drag it's feet. But they are loosing big bucks paying BNSF to run their trains via the alternative routings. Loosing money because they can't meet contract deadlines for shipping. Paying extra overtime to crews for taking the longer routes. Suffering poor utilization of their equipment because they can't turn things fast enough.
They desperately want this line reopened. Failure to get it open will hurt them big time, perhaps even allowing BNSF to basically corner the market on freight RR shipping in that area of the country if they can't get it reopened.
This is why they plan to start running a few freight trains through the area at night when no one is working, even though the work is far from completed. They have to get stuff moving over this line as it is hurting them financially with it closed.
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George Harris
Engineer
What they are doing is exactly what they should do. Far better to find any points of instability right now while the work force is still in the area and a detour set-up, including the Amtrak bus-bridge are still in effect. A few heavy freight trains will find any of the weak spots that the inspectors missed.
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Guest
Guest
I am booked May 29'th as well. Anyone know how the bus is like in case we end of forced on that? Is it a good bus or a greyhound?
From what I've heard, it's an Amtrak-operated real Thruway bus (and therefore not too bad), not a Greyhound or other contract bus. Still not fun for more than a few hours, but better than the alternative.
I haven't heard of a lot of things either, don't mean it hasn't been happening!
da40flyer
Train Attendant
I'm going to be on the CS at the end of June heading to Portland. I hope it's all clear by then.
I received a google "alert" on Coast Starlight yesterday from a newspaper in the area saying the line was going to start operating this weekend as quoted above during night time hours. It still quotes Amtrak saying they want to relaunch the service in Mid May.. It didn't say when the Coast Starlight would begin operation again only that there was no rush to introduce passenger service until the debris and extra mounds of earth were removed around the tracks. Which it sounded like might be some time yet.. I don't think our April 19 sleeper will be running. It would have seemed we would have gotten a notice from Amtrak telling us of the change but they haven't.
DesertRat
Lead Service Attendant
This is good news indeed...I'm booked for 16th and 23rd May.
To clarify: The Union Pacific Railroad (UP) continues to work under force majeure for traffic moving to and from the Pacific Northwest.
This is a legal declaration that triggers a clause in all common shipping contracts. That clause negates penalties for missing on-time deadlines due to circumstances beyond control of the carrier.
Your other points are very well spoken. UP has internal cost reasons for re-opening the line ASAP.
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Guest_Yerry_*
Guest
I have a Eugene, OR based forestry friend who's working on this mess. In no uncertain terms, it's huge.
It wasn't some little slide where a small corner of a hill rolled away-- an entire dirt-footed mountainside slid downwards, with everything growing on it sliding too-- no dirt piling up over trees, which is usually the case. 64 acres of land affected, with much of the track that's covered well over 10 feet deep. The timber involved is 100-year growth, well over 700,000 board-feet. Plus, all this is in an area that's not very accessible. Many of these trees are four feet in diameter.
The path resembles a dollar sign, with the slide rolling over two sections of track. As if this isn't enough, the slide left behind a large dirt cliff; highly unstable even under normal weather. This explains why they're both adding and removing fill-- outsude fill with rock is what's needed, and not the slippery stuff that's all around.
It wasn't some little slide where a small corner of a hill rolled away-- an entire dirt-footed mountainside slid downwards, with everything growing on it sliding too-- no dirt piling up over trees, which is usually the case. 64 acres of land affected, with much of the track that's covered well over 10 feet deep. The timber involved is 100-year growth, well over 700,000 board-feet. Plus, all this is in an area that's not very accessible. Many of these trees are four feet in diameter.
The path resembles a dollar sign, with the slide rolling over two sections of track. As if this isn't enough, the slide left behind a large dirt cliff; highly unstable even under normal weather. This explains why they're both adding and removing fill-- outsude fill with rock is what's needed, and not the slippery stuff that's all around.
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