I saw this the other day by my house in the NEW switching and storage yard by my house. I was going to snap some photos, but Chuck beat me to it;
Good morning,
Here’s a couple recent photos taken near your place.
It shows military tracked cranes.
In my love of trains, seeing military equipment on rail cars is an added bonus.
I refer this area south of 14th Street as the south rail yard.
Don’t know what BNSF calls it.
I suspect this area will see more activity after the downtown yard removal.
Yeah, you are not kidding. (click to enlarge)
New switching yard? That is incorrect; BNSF has used it for years and years. I moved to SF in 2003 and that yard was in use. I believe the yard was built by the Great Northern Railroad over 100 years ago. And I’ve stated this before, that yard south of 14th Street was never part of the downtown railyard purchase agreement. BNSF is well within its right to use it.
They are within their rights, not my point. My point is that when they moved out of the RR Redevelopment area we gave them around $27 million to build a new switching yard out of DT. I know the trains HAVE to run through this area for supplier reasons, BUT the switching and storage should occur at their NEW switching yard. But as I have maintained many times, since this hasn’t happened the whole idea around the RR Redevelopment was pointless. And now we are on the verge of the first RFP in the area to fall through. Hopefully the second project by Monks still happens.
BNSF and Ellis & Eastern do switch and store cars at the new railyard. BNSF also stores and switches at North Weber Ave and on the side track east and west of Cliff Avenue. And if one takes a drive on North Minnesota Avenue by the airport, one will see covered hoppers stored at the south end of the yard and sometimes box cars and lumber flat cars at the north end. I understand that you think all switching and storage should take place at the new yard on East Rice but from a logistical standpoint, that’s not efficient.
them are M88’s
Recently, there has been a very noticeable increase in the number of trains which travel into the Bel Aire and Riverdale subdivisions (for switching purposes).
This is happening several times each day.
They are using the rail line that used to travel south towards LHS and crossed over Cliff Avenue at 41st Street. Many years ago this line was abandoned beginning just south of 24th Street in the Riverdale subdivision.
yes, those are M88’s. heavy track recovery vehicles. used when you get your tank stuck.
It looks to me like bottlenecked tanks from the Iraqi Republican Guard….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrXhxmQJSS0