Video of the blades being loaded...
Well folks, you are about to see something very rare in the world of railfanning.
This video shows a windmill train being loaded on an Alaska-bound railbarge. Windmill trains are fairly rare by themselves. To see them being loaded on a railbarge is, likely, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Here's the story.
A windmill train arrived in Seattle at the end of May. I spotted it parked in UP's Van Asselt Yard on May 30th. It is hard to see into that yard due to trains being parked on tracks in front but I could see what looked like windmill blades. No tower sections, just blades.
I posted on a railfan website to see if anyone had info on when it was leaving and what route it would take. Someone had heard that it arrived on a UP train and was gong to loaded on a barge for Alaska.
I knew that Alaska Marine Lines ran the only railbarge service to Alaska. I found their 2011 schedule online that showed barges left every Wednesday. I couldn't find a 2012 schedule, but hoped it still left on the same day.
I wasn't 100% sure if they were going to be shipped via AML or maybe via some other barge service. Would they go out on the regular AML barge or some special non-scheduled one? No idea.
For the next two weeks I drove by the yard when I could to see if the cars were still there. Unfortunately, on the next two Wednesdays I couldn't make it to Seattle to see if they were being loaded on the regular barge.
On the afternoon of June 20th I finished up a delivery south of Seattle and decided to drive by the yard. As I approached, I could see the windmill cars were gone. I hoping I didn't miss seeing them leave.
It was a Wednesday, so I drove out to Harbor Island where AML has their railbarge slip. As I hit the overpass on the island, I could see a string of 8 of the blades sitting in the yard. I could see the AML railbarge in her slip on the north end of the island. And, a UP switcher was headed south with three tankers in tow. I figured that what I was seeing was the UP crew coming to get the last of the cars and load them on the barge.
That's exactly what was happening.
I parked by the slip and grabbed my camera. I chatted with some of the barge crew that was taking a smoke break while the switch crew was gone. They were cool with me taping. I, of course, stayed on the public street and sidewalk at all times.
I learned from them that the RailFan Gods had intervened in my favor. The barge crew had to delay loading for two hours until the tide came in. Due to the extreme length of the blades, they needed the tide to raise the barge so it was closer to level with the slip.
Shortly after I arrived, two security guards also showed up. I talked with them and learned that the blades were guarded 24/7 while they were here. The blades are made of fiberglass & composites and are somewhat fragile. Urban train tracks, by their nature, tend to draw transients and so guards were hired to ensure these very expensive blades weren't vandalized. Since this was the last of the blades to go out, the guards came over to the slip to see the loading process in person.
So I got some excellent video of the whole loading process - train crew lining switches, brakes being set, barge crew lashing down the cars, the barge being moved sideways to line up the bridge with the various tracks on the barge. The weather was excellent (for Seattle), with bright sunshine and just a few clouds.
The video is long, more than 20 minutes, but I wanted to show as much of the experience as I could. Hope you like it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BGPdol7AbI
Todd
