DEPG treasurer Julien Weston is currently on an extended vacation in the states. He has sent in this special report from Albany with some interesting photos!
Downtown Albany has a large and important yard and depot, being the junction where the Southern Pacific Los Angeles to Seattle main line crosses a formerly major Burlington Northern freight line.
Downtown the streets are literally riddled with railway tracks, one active freight line even running right down the centre of an ordinary residential street! This strange route originates from the 1920's, when Albany had electric street cars. Nothing seems to stop an American railroad's right of way ...
There are three or four Amtrak passengers a day, but because of the street and railway layout, much of the shunting (or switching as it is called here) goes on at night. It is nothing for a rake of 120+ wagons to block nearly every level crossing in downtown whilst they are forming up a train!
And there are certainly no silly horn blowing restrictions here ... day or night. They make as much noise as they can and you can hear the action for miles around ...
None of the track is fenced at all and locos are left standing around wherever they will next be used ... Back home, I imagine them being stripped by spotters in minutes, but here, nobody touches them.
The American scene may not be fast; 70mph if you are really speeding - but it is heavy, with 8,000 ton freights with six, seven or eight locos, being really quite common.
The pics are just local trip units and switchers hanging around Albany during the quiet periods, my particular favourite being 1501 - a gloriously dirty and work worn old Pacific & Western loco that sounds, pulls and clags like a true demon. A Co-Co shunter no less ...
Well, that's Treasurer's short American report, I hope you found some interest. I'll look forward to seeing you all at Williton late in October (or "in the Fall" should I say?)
