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Showing posts with label Kingston Island. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kingston Island. Show all posts

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Kingston Island Alt Hwy. 37 fictional grade separation project

First of all, I know there is no Kingston Island, and I know that there is no alt I-37 grade separation project in real life, so don't go yappin' about that.

And the grade separation continues on the second crossing.

In 2009, there were 5 crossings on the 90-mile long alt I-37. In 2010, there were four, the one in Bernard had been converted. Soon, by August, there will be three as seen here. This is all part of a major grade separation project. Every grade crossing owned by either Sounder or BNSF that crosses the alt I-37 is to be converted to  a grade separated crossover by 2016. Let's give you some more details about this crossing shown here:

  • It is the busiest alt I-37 crossing around, with around 50 daily Sounder trains, 16 daily Amtraks, 41 daily BNSF, and 2 daily KILS (Kingston Island Local Services) on weekdays.
  • The four lane road is expected to be closed in May. At that time, while the four lane road is being torn up, a temporary two-lane crossing will take its place.
  • The overpass will be open in August or September.
  • The crossing is located at MP 2.4, near Eastern.
The KILS Eastern local crosses both the still open four lane crossing, and the temporary two lane.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Kingston Island: Sounder Eastern Sub: Exploring the Eastern station

Trainztalk is back!!!

Okay, I know that Sounder, in real life, is a commuter railroad in Washington, but in my world, it is the Kingston passenger service, along with the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner #2. Sounder(on KI) is getting new cars, which are actually Metro North cars, but once again, pretend.

Okay, so on Kingston Island so far, there are three Sounder stations, but I am planning on there being about 35 total. There are two Amtrak/Sounder stations, and one Sounder only station so far. At milepost 4.7, there is a point where the freight and passenger tracks split, and they do not join back together until Lane. When they are separate, The passenger tracks go right along the southern beaches, and the freight tracks so about 5 miles to the south of the north beaches. The only freight trains that go along the passenger tracks are when there is a train that has a problem that needs to be maintained at the Marianna yard, locals that need to end up at the Marianna yard(L-ESPMAR, L-MARESP, L-KENMAR[the Kingston local that goes between Kendrick yard and Marianna], and the C-ESPWSP rock train), and trains that are rerouted due to a problem with/on the freight tracks.

These are the Sounder stations that I have so far:
Eastern Seaport
Eastern Village
East Marianna

At the Eastern Transit Center, all Sounder and Amtrak trains, and Bosch Lines buses stop here.

A look down the Station Access Road:

An overhead look at the station, with a sounder train 209 parked on track 4(many trains originate here).:

Waiting to cross the street to get to the platform:

NOTE: The station is before milepost 4.7, so both passenger and freight go through the station.

A family happily waits for their train, Sounder 107 so they can go watch some good beach volleyball action at Waveside station:

Meanwhile, A woman who just shopped in the Eastern Village walks to the stairs to get to train 107 so that she can meet up with a friend at Sierra Beach so they can watch some of the surfing action and have a lunch on the pier: