Delta Yard Construction Update 6/17/09

[BNSFEng]

Boy, talk about late. I have a mind to drive up to Everett and get another set of pictures today. Anyway, here is what was happening LAST week.

1. This 10 ft deep hole has a drainage pipe which is 54 inches in diameter. They are installing more pipe and you can see them on the right. It appears to be pipe with a sleeve around each piece. I'm not familiar with the construction techniques nor how many feet they will install nor where it begins and where it goes. There is a waste treatment center across the river, though.

2. There are over 40 trucks parked in the area. Some are behind me and under the bridge. They have been taking this fill dirt and dumping it over the subgrade area to the south.

3. Just below the tank cars you can see how much higher the subgrade is from previous pictures.

4. There is this green gap between the construction areas that has not yet been worked. I don't know the story on why since the Trainmaster was not in the office. I'll find out and get back to every one.


1. 2. 3. 4.

[washy]

So, what are they doing?? Rebiulding the yard?? Or just expanding it?? And, where is the mainline at now.. I don't see it..

[BNSFEng]

Originally Posted by washy

So, what are they doing?? Rebiulding the yard?? Or just expanding it?? And, where is the mainline at now.. I don't see it..

This is an expansion. In picture 3, you can see the tank cars of the M LYDVBC1 15A in the upper left corner on the Rogers Main. This is the Main that Amtrak uses to go around Delta Yard. They are grading for 6 new 6558 ft. arrival tracks and installing one now and one later this year when they get Stimulus money. It was cheaper to grade for all of the now and future tracks than to do it piecemeal. The yard main is the far right track in picture 2, it has cars on it. You are looking South in pictures 2 and 3.

[Ballard Beaver]

so, where is all the traffic that is gonna fill up these six new 6000-foot arrival tracks? seems like they got plenty of tracks there now as it is. they gonna be bringing operations to delta from balmer, bayside etc? hmm. (oops, i see you said they are doing the grading now, but only putting in two this year. still, where will the traffic come from in this economy to justify this big project?)

[BNSFEng]

Originally Posted by Ballard Beaver

so, where is all the traffic that is gonna fill up these six new 6000-foot arrival tracks? seems like they got plenty of tracks there now as it is. they gonna be bringing operations to delta from balmer, bayside etc? hmm. (oops, i see you said they are doing the grading now, but only putting in two this year. still, where will the traffic come from in this economy to justify this big project?)

Well, this is like SIX YEARS behind schedule since the Army Corps of Engineers took THAT LONG to approve the permit for filling in the wetland. So, the money has been cooling its heels for a long time. Eventually the tracks will be arrival and departure. This will eliminate the need to park trains at English siding and at Bayside on the Main. There still is congestion at Delta since it takes two tracks to make up a train and two or more tracks to land one. Yes, perhaps there is a bit of extra space at Delta but if you look at most of the pictures I have taken of the yard the tracks seem pretty well used with cars in most of them. Notice that a number of pics are from a weekend when traffic is at a lower level.

When we had regular levels of traffic it was too full. There will be a rebound in the economy and we will need the capacity. It will greatly help with less switching since cuts have to be handled multiple times when they have to stuff a couple of different destinations in the same track and they won't have to pull out a track to switch since the drag is out on the arrival track and can be put into a track not filled with an inbound train.

[Ballard Beaver]

thanks for the explanation. im still sort of a newbie, learning the operations around puget sound. so i guess the currently existing tracks will in the future just be used for switching and then they will drag the made-up strings over into the new tracks for when they depart.

did you find out whether they will be eliminating that little green belt between the yard and the main? it's sort of a novelty, having that there...

while i have you here, seems you know a bit about everett -- i did a bit of fanning recently there and hope to do some more soon. ...do you know the symbols of trains coming down from canada...i think i heard an EDMEVE once, maybe a PRGEVE another time...and finally, is the EVEBAR still coming out of there? it used to leave mid-afternoon but i was there last week and didnt see/hear it.

thanks again for aiding me in my geekiness...i really appreciate you, mark g. and the others keeping us up to date on all this track work in our area. it's history in the making!

[BNSFEng]

Originally Posted by Ballard Beaver

...did you find out whether they will be eliminating that little green belt between the yard and the main? it's sort of a novelty, having that there...

...do you know the symbols of trains coming down from canada...i think i heard an EDMEVE once, maybe a PRGEVE another time...and finally, is the EVEBAR still coming out of there?

thanks again for aiding me in my geekiness...i really appreciate you, mark g. and the others keeping us up to date on all this track work in our area. it's history in the making!

You're welcome. It's nice to know somebody else likes to keep track of improvements for moving freight. They are not bothering the rest of the green belt between the yard and the Rogers tracks. There is only a small area of vegetation left to be cleared out for the new arrival tracks.

Besides the EDMEVE and PRGEVE out of CN's Thorton Yard, there is a VBCEVE which is picked up out at Brownsville for southbound movements. Of course, the empty coal trains out of Roberts Banks are in the mix too. I haven't seen any Potash trains for a long while. We used to get them from CP but they probably are now handed over to UP at the border north of Spokane for the trip to Portland, OR. The EVEBAR just orginates in Everett.

[BNSFEng]

Well work is winding down for 2009 on the Delta Yard expansion. No money this year to put in any tracks so once the small amount of subgrade work is completed and the drain pipe work is done then nothing until at least March went next year's money will be available.

Here's some final shots until then:
1. Remember that big dirt pile? It's almost all gone! The yard is as busy as usual, of course, almost all of the yard jobs are off due to Labor day.

2. All of the ponds filled in and the subgrade is complete as far as you can see, almost.

3. Here it is at the East end of the yard near the road crossing.

4. This small strip in front of the Yard office is the only place left until the drain pipe work is done.


1. 2. 3. 4.

[BNSFEng]

5. In this picture, I wanted to point out the clear line of sight down the Rogers Main and the old Milwaukee hole switch has has its frog removed but not the points yet. There is some more drain pipe to be installed.

6. Keeping the tarps on some of the fill dirt to keep our lousy weather out. The end of the subgrade is up to that drain cube.

7. Now here is a perspective from the Yardmasters TV screen. It's not great but its a bird's eye view of the drain work.

I'll pop over to Bayside sometime soon to check out the other work. I did see that the retaining wall under that private bridge was looking good on the TV screen but I didn't know if it was done.

5. 6. 7.

[markgillings]

The AFE (Authority For Expenditure) for track construction was set up late in 2009. At present, there are four #11 turnouts on the ground between Bayside Yard and Delta Jct. A rail train is expected in a week, or so. The plan is to transition the crew that I'm on up there when we wrap up the detail work at 23rd Avenue in Seattle.