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White Rock is single track, but that's not the issue. The tracks run along the beach right through the center of town, so there's lots of grade crossings, etc. BNSF keeps speeds to 25 to keep the neighbors happy. There are also some tight curves and unstable ground slightly north of the city.

Unfortunately, the trail people have gotten hold of that, and aren't going to give it back. I'd love to see it rebuilt, but the main slow area is from New Westminster to Pacific Central. The reroute would only save a little time from the bridge to Braid Junction, which would be offset by the greater...

I was talking about the Thruway buses, which extend Cascades trains north of Seattle. Not sure you can book one SEA-VAN without taking the train.
The Oregon POINT ones can be, but they're funded by the state.

I think that we'll see additional bus round trips before we get more trains; the Bellingham Sub is rather busy as-is. The buses are pretty popular, though. I really doubt that any route expansion is likely for WCE. For White Rock, buses to an extended Expo Line would be cheaper and probably a lot fa...

^Not entirely pleased with the situation either, and use the trains several times a year, but am a realist. Until there's a private ROW, things are going to be subject to delays. I'd love to get the bridge at New Westminster fixed because that'd help everyone. I'd also like 517 to stop losing 20-30 ...

^Unfortunately not really, without a lot of expensive bridging and tunneling through the middle of a city. It would help if a passenger-only track were added, but for 4-5 passenger trains a day it doesn't make sense.

There aren't a ton of full domes out there. I don't see Ocean View being scrapped if someone's willing to purchase it for higher than scrap value, which seems to me to be a realistic prospect.

The slow track is a few things. BNSF keeps speeds low in White Rock to keep the neighbors happy in a congested area. Things afterward are usually fine until New Westminster, but from then on I think most of the track is technically in yard limits and thus has a very low speed limit. On the landslide...

The only GEVO-powered passenger locomotives are the MPI HSP46s, which haven't been entirely successful due mainly to quality control issues unrelated to the prime mover. The main reason why the SC44 (and F125) went with lighter high-speed prime movers rather than something like the medium speed GEVO...

The tree impact apparently impacted the lead locomotive enough to rupture its fuel tank. It was cut off and left in Oakridge. The train was dragged north and let everyone off at their point of embarkation, until it stopped in Portland because the Columbia River Bridge was on fire. Passengers I talke...

They are pretty much the same model, I think.

Nice! I enjoy catching things I've never seen before. Good to see a GR12 still running out there.

Yeah. Seems like we haven't seen a repaint in a while. We're only down to one C&NW one though.

I wouldn't worry too much about long-term reliability. The Cascades units did a lot better once they were rehabbed a few months ago and some of the deferred maintenance was corrected (and I think a lot of what they suffered was a lack of heavy maintenance facilities on the West Coast other than LA)....

No. They were last used in mid-October.