Western Railroad Discussion > Question on Freights Past Portland Union Station

I recently started working for a company whose office is adjacent to the BNSF tracks just north of Union Station in Portland, and was wondering what freight traffic typically comes by, and if there was any schedule to it.  Since I'm south of the BNSF yards, I'm assuming the vast majority of freight movements going by Union Station are yard transfers between BNSF and either UP or the Portland and Western, so I'm guessing they have a somewhat regular cadence.  Does anyone have insights into what I should expect to see and when?

The scheudle of P&W's Vancouver run is pretty much whenever it appears.  When I ran it (right after P&W got the run from BNSF) we were called as needed.

The freight railroads are not exactly known for keeping tight schedules, even with their highest priority and most regular trains, but last time I was in Portland, I found the webcam (and fan-maintained train log) in Chehalis, WA a useful heads up on southbounds

Camera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wacIsiIYWm0

Train Log: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQGKeCR5c2u0HRUnO8qMV7fQ233uF2nL98U6BnJbqIOZu5dqGVJfE7TUKBSlrJgHLIfxdfgTaw0c3F_/pubhtml?urp=gmail_link

 

Technically that is the Portland Terminal (PTRC) railroad's tracks that run between the Steel Bridge and BNSF's Willbridge yard.  BNSF does the dispatching.
Freights would be the PNWR run through, and the transfers from PTRC to UP over at Albina. There are also UP freights from Roseville and North Platte that terminate at Lake Yard.

I've seen a NB UP intermodal out of Brooklyn with all 53s crossing the Steel Bridge and presumably Tacoma bound using BNSF to reach the Columbia bridge to Vancouver, WA, bypassing the Albina route to same. Lemme see if I can dig up the pics I took from the upper walkway on the Steel Bridge (the lower was closed for some kind of maintenance)..

pbouzide Wrote:
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> I've seen a NB UP intermodal out of Brooklyn with
> all 53s crossing the Steel Bridge and presumably
> Tacoma bound using BNSF to reach the Columbia
> bridge to Vancouver, WA, bypassing the Albina
> route to same. Lemme see if I can dig up the pics
> I took from the upper walkway on the Steel Bridge
> (the lower was closed for some kind of
> maintenance)..

Here's a still and a video. It was taken in September 2024.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/25 21:44 by pbouzide.

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