
50,000 cubic yards of Earth was removed from under Beacon Hill for each of the two Beacon Hill tunnels. A similar amount of Earth was removed for the Beacon Hill station. That subway section is one mile long, so you could imagine how much soil will be removed from underneath Seattle for the 6+ mile subway from (almost) Westlake to (almost) Northgate.
Here are a couple more 50s. Forward Thrust got 50.8% of the vote in 1968, but 60% was needed to pass. 1950 was the year of the last Kirkland-Madison Park Car Ferry ran. The last passenger-only ferry on that run was a year later and thus ended all ferry service on Lake Washington.
One more random thought: is model train collecting much more popular than I know? I don’t collect them myself (I did collect guitars for a while, but Tamami has made me get rid of many of them), but it’s hugely surprising to me that the Mariners are giving away 20,000 model train cars as a gameday promotion.
The train cars are a cool promotion. Although, they should be HO scale and not N scale, said the HO scale modeler. Anyone know the origin or history of the promotion?
http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com/sea/ticketing/traincarnight.jsp
It’s the 10th year of Safeco Field and the 10th train car giveaway. I have them all!
I gather that upcoming editions include:
The John Ellis Crocodile Tank Car (leaks fake water at Christmas Time)
The Jeff Smulyan “Packin’ up and moving to St. Pete” Box Car complete with Ken Behring moving van
Still awaiting approval is the joint Emory Bundy/Maggy Fimia “train car” that is in fact a bus, since we all know that the solution to Seattle’s mobility issues is more busses.
Where’s all the dirt going? I always wonder on digs like this if Geologists are allowed to occasionally to see if there is anything “interesting” in it?
Re: Random Thought – I doubt the Mariners pay more than a buck a piece for this things – they are pretty cheap – my toddler busted the J.J. Putz Flamethrower Express last year in about 14 nanoseconds.
Dirt from the Beacon Hill excavation was used to build the Chief Sealth trail, which I think is pretty neat.
http://www.seattle.gov/Parks/proparks/projects/chiefSealth.htm
According to the below document, the city estimates they saved $6-$10 million because of the dirt from ST.
http://www.ci.seattle.wa.us/Parks/proparks/committee/minutes/2005/11-28-05.pdf
If you talk to some of the SDOT folks, odds are good the Chief Sealth trail doesn’t get built without that fill dirt. That savings was hugely important to the overall project’s viability.
The train “thing” with the Mariners comes from the location of the stadium and what has become one of the signature sounds of Safeco Field – the Amtrak and BNSF trains whistling as they pass by the ballpark.
does anyone know … so I don’t have to look it up … whether the tunnel to the U-District will be a larger single bore tunnel or 2 smaller single-bore tunnels like under beacon hill
Two smaller bores. Two TBMs UW -> Cap Hill – 1 TBM Cap Hill -> Downtown in two passes. Or so is my understanding…
hahaha. Yeah I seem to be getting there at an ever-accelerating pace. :P
Maybe they didn’t disclose this in your academic career but yes, time accelerates as you get older. A “Decade” seemed like a really really long time when you were 20 years old. Indeed, it was half a lifetime. Trust me on this, and I’m just now starting to enjoy the benefits; getting old does have some perks ;-)
escavated?
Uh, yeah. Not so much, huh?
Speaking of model trains, does anyone know if there are any model Link trains available for sale? I know I’ve seen a Sounder or two in passing.
American Z-Line made a sounder set in Z-Scale (1:220) … and Athearn has made the F59s and the pax cars in N (1:160) and I believe HO (1:87)
as for LINK … there are no models that come clear to matching the design of the LRVs (nor for SLUT) … there are a number of European and Japanese Tram mfrs that have releases stuff in HO and N … but they are usually of European prototype or Japanese prototype
here is the Z-scale set: http://www.ztrack.com/AZL/AZL_F59PHI/sounder.jpg
You mentioned guitars so I had to share; after 15 years of waiting I recently bought an American Stratocaster, Olympic white like you-know-whose. What an instrument…Leo Fender, you genious…
Dude, they should rock Hendrix’s “I Hear My Train Comin'” from his Woodstock performance at the stations on opening day…he was a local kid, after all.
You can get your HO scale KINKISHARYO LRVs here…
http://ihphobby.tripod.com/index.html
That picture of the tunnel is way old.
I think that is the point, since the post is about the removal of the dirt DURING construction.
Believe it, it is way easier to store N scale models than guitars. And, of course, the recurring nightmare of the musical instrument owner- the goon who breaks in looking for *something* to steal. Even if they realize the LGB may be valuable, they’ll probably leave the most expensive part- the track.
I’ve actually never had an instrument stolen. I’ve only had one break-in so far in my life: that was in SOMA in San Francisco (six and folsom, not a nice neighborhood). I was eighteen and actually in the apartment at the time and scared to complete death. I kept telling the thief as he was forcing the door open that I was in there and had a gun, but he called by bluff and ultimately got inside. Thankfully almost immediately afterward the police (who I had called a long time earlier) showed up and chased the guy away. He made off with a watch, my wallet and a cellphone, but none of my axes.