EVERETT, Wash. — BNSF Railway on Thursday, March 16, delivered two Boeing 737 Max 8 fuselages to the aircraft manufacturer’s Everett Plant, the first such delivery up the Boeing Plant Spur, which features a 5.7% grade and is said to be the steepest active freight line in the U.S. (The line features three derails that downhill trains must stop and line as protection against runaways.)
Aviation journalist Jon Ostrower reported on Twitter that the move was a test of fuselage arrival and handling at the plant, as Boeing plans to add an additional 737 assembly line at the Everett facility, which previously has been the home of production for wide-body 747, 767, and 777 aircraft. The heavily wrapped fuselages exhibit starboard-side damage and were reportedly rejected from the primary 737 production line at Renton, Wash.
GP38-2s Nos. 2080 and 2081 handled delivery by BNSF’s Boeing Job. – David Honan.
Perhaps the article title could be changed to say “…737 Max fuselages…” so as not to confuse readers… 737 fuselages have been rail delivered for some time now to the Renton facility for “…narrow body…” aircraft. Just sayin’.
From the U Tube video I watched, both fuselages appeared to be NOT damaged. Instead, they were covered (on both left & right sides) at the wing root area…
I’m surprised Boeing isn’t putting the second 737 line at Charleston. Lower labor costs…
Well that depends. Is there space at the Charleston facility to add a 737 production line without impacting the 787 line? How much would it cost to add that? What about the cost of hiring and training more employees? The advantage to the Everett location is that they already have space in the existing massive building because of the end of 747 production, and they can use the employees at the nearby Renton facility to help train people at Everett without flying them across the country.
The 787 assembly agreement included the option to use a non-union workforce (Charleston). The local supporting Boeing in Washington made a big stink about it and Boeing said, accept it or get no 787 work at all. The 737 agreement has no such clause because the State of Washington kicked in development dollars to update the Renton plant. So 737 stays union and stays in Washington.
Also by moving the 787 to the east, Boeing and their customers save a great deal of money in other taxes. North Carolina has the lowest asset transfer tax in the nation, so for years Boeing has flown planes for delivery to North Carolina to avoid this asset tax. Boeing & the airlines like it as it saves them money. But not *all* planes are delivered there. But having the assembly of the 787 so close to its transfer point makes it even more profitable.
If other plane models were built at this plant how did their fuselages get there? Why is this considered a first?
Fuselages for 787, 777 and other large aircraft are not shipped in one piece by rail like the smaller 737. Most of the parts for the large aircraft are shipped by air.
I had forgotten until reading this article, but supposedly all “up-bound” trains (i.e. into the Everett Boeing plant) are “pushed” by the BNSF locomotives account lack of turnaround tracks in the Boeing plant facility, can anyone confirm this operational point?
This may have been the same train I photographed west bound on the Scenic sub at Sultan, WA. on 14 March 2023.
They also built 787s there until they all moved to SC.
Damaged fuselages. Will they eventually get airworthy repairs or will they just be used as a delivery test and then be scrapped?
I know that there was that derailment on the MRL a few years ago that resulted in scrapped fuselages, but is lesser transportation damage a recurring problem?
Test Run, the Everett 737 Assembly line isn’t tooled up yet. Makes sense to use these for the test run on this particular grade. Probably next stop would be an Aluminum recycler.