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Subscribe via EmailPort of Tacoma and Tacoma Rail
by Adron B. Hall
First off, the cool stuff about Port of Tacoma.
The Port of Tacoma is working on, as one of the port workers informed us today, to become the second largest port in the United States. It seems there is a lot left for this to be done, but I think they could get there with continued efforts.
The tour was really cool riding along in smooth comfort on port Amtrak coach cars through the port. There where announcers in each car, and additionally what was obviously some port workers in each car too, touring their own port. While aboard we left the Tacoma Rail yard and weaved through and across streets, viewing the primary waterway and the huge cranes that lift the cargo containers off of the ships. Interesting factoid, the Port of Tacoma moves over 2 million 20ft equivalent cargo containers per year. 70% of that is moved out of port by rail.
Second Topic, Tacoma Rail.
Tacoma Rail itself was also an interesting exhibit itself. We where able to walk freely through a diesel engine, in through a maintenance warehouse, and they also had a Lionel train set on display.
The real kicker started when we where able to board the touring train. The passenger coach cars where in great shape. As mentioned earlier they are ex-Amtrak cars which obviously are either fixed up or barely used. The tour of course went off well.
I’ve returned home tonight after the tour and dug up some interesting information about the Tacoma Rail System.
- 204 miles of track.
- 100,000 line hauls per year.
- Infrastructure has recently been upgraded in the last decade for dozens and dozens of additional track mileage.
- For a break down of their three divisions; Tidelands, Mountain, and Capitol check out their maps page which is marked up via Google Maps.
I came home with a fun trip, good information, and a better understanding of port operations.
September 16th, 2007 at 8:22 am
There are many inbound port locations in the United States, Ports of New York, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, Houston, Long Beach, Oakland, and yours. Basicly it’s all about cost, the cost of moving cargo not port to port but door to door. That is were all these ports compete no matter where they are. Each port has it’s strengths by either location or infrastructure. We are a one way trip, loads in empties out, what is the best way to handle this dilema, go to the north east coast and you will see containers depots full to the max with empties, railroad operations are interesting as well because when the train pulls in the cars have to be unloaded either to stacks or on chassis. Since the trip from the west coast back to far east is the shortest than it makes sense to move that empty from where ever by rail to the west coast and on it’s way back over the pond. An interesting fact to known is what percent of inbound cargo to your port is delivered in your immediate area vs being micro bridge out? Another one would be the flip on outbound how many loads are going out versus empties?
September 17th, 2007 at 10:54 am
Our family attended the Open House as well, and had a great time. For our two-year old it was his first train ride ever (loved it). Our five-year old was happy to talk about the Milwaukee Road during the trip, and was telling his Mom all about it. We were in “Group IV” for the train ride, and it was a good thing; Group V was the last one of the day and looked like it was overfull. As a side note, vendors sold possibly the best hot dogs I’ve had in months.
It was fun to walk through the cabin of a Geep and see a guy pull a caboose with his bare hands. Nice to see there is a railroad that welcomes the public and is passionate about showing off its equipment. Our speaker on the train indicated that the passenger cars were purchased specifically for the annual open house. That’s commitment!