Planes on a Train
Driving past the small town of Cathcart is a train, carrying the fuselages of 4 Boeing 737 airliners!
As the train is passing a road I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to reference a classic Steve Martin film, so in the thumbnail below you can see Planes, Trains & Automobiles1.
The planes started their journey at the Boeing factory in Everett and are headed for Clayton Scott Field in Renton, where they will be assembled. In 2001 it was estimated that 40% of all commercial aircraft in the air were assembled here.
Wikipedia: Clayton Scott Field, Renton, WA
Thanks: mlc1us, Ken Serack and Adam Phillabaum
-
Um, please don’t mention that in the image all three modes of transport are singular… ↩
Note:
Boeing Field is in Seattle, WA.
Paine Field is in Everett, WA. Boeing Wide body planes are built here.
Renton Municipal Airport is in Renton WA. Boeing 737 models are built here.
Ken
Also interesting to note… as these planes make their long journey from Wichita Kansas to Renton Washington… some of will arrive with bullet holes in them. Thats right, people are SHOOTING airplanes. How messed up is that? Luckily, Boeing has several thousand engineers that can fix the hole (or dent).
Also… a small correction. Boeing Field is not in Renton, it is in Seattle.
The Airport that is adjacent to the Boeing factory in Renton is Clayton Scott Field.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renton_Municipal_Airport
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_Field
–
Adam
Thanks for the corrections guys – I’ve updated the post.
It’s surprising to me that such long objects as airliner fuselages can be taken around bends in the railroad tracks.
Planes on a Train?
Sounds like a trashy film starring Samuel L Jackson!
The follow up to Snakes on a Plane maybe?
Anyone got any ground level shots of a plane on a train? Come on kids – get googling! Would love to see this.
Here in Britain our once great railway system is so f**ked up that its cheaper to transport new trains by road than it is to run them over tracks so you often see trains on the back of lorries (or semis to you Yanks – as we have now firmly established!). 100 British rail sandwiches to some who finds a train on a lorry!
It is a great honor for me to be among those capable of handling Google.
I found this:
http://gordonwatts.wordpress.com/2006/06/28/737-the-next-generation/
By the way, some nice story about something else that large being transported by train:
http://www.astrodigital.org/space/stshorse.html
Check your facts! Yes these are B737 bodies but they do not come from Everett WA. For nearly 40 years, the airframe for the Boeing 737 has been assembled in Wichita, loaded on trains, and hauled to the Pacific Northwest to get its wings in Renton. They pass Boeing Field in Seattle southbound to get to Renton Field…In Renton.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/16/AR2006041600803.html
Signed FAA Controller RNT, PAE and BFI
Did anyone else notice that just north of the train, the tracks go UNDER the city? That’s weird to how many B737’s we fly in have been undergound!
Al – go to the top of the class! Good work! They are surprisingly small arent they and almost look as if they were designed to fit on a railway carriage (like the rockets in the link you posted – fascinating stuff!)?
EAF – the track doesnt go underground. That section of track is abandoned and you can trace the route as it goes through the town and off into the country.
Thanks, cookie monster! I’m just doing my job …
Here are at least 2 other (but not really more interesting) photos:
http://www.mtnwestrail.com/roadtrip/aug0999c.htm
And here’s what you also find when searching for “plane fuselage train” on Google Images:
http://railwaysofbritain.bravehost.com/Bennierailplane.html
Has anyone seen this before?
Hmmmm … that last link looks like a cross between these two:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schienenzeppelin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuppertaler_Schwebebahn
Now if you want to see the problems a lone fuselage sent by road can cause, folks, just check here: