I'm seeing more coal trains through Burlington, WA on the BNSF Everett-Vancouver line. Are there one or two per day? Is the customer Taiwan Power? Do they ever use Stevens Pass in WA or Marias Pass in Montana? Where do they come from in Montana or Wyoming?
I can tell you that what's been coming off MRL alone in recent weeks is at least double the number you mention. Plus a smaller number coming off BNSF's Hi Line daily. The ones running via Great Falls and the Hi Line do cross Marias Pass, but once they reach Spokane, all loaded coal trains bound for Roberts Bank continue via Pasco and Vancouver, WA. Other than a test train or two which they ran over the Cascades many months ago, none of the coal loads are running via Stevens Pass. Some recent reports in the rail press suggested that coal exports through the PNW would increase sometime in the future, after a new port terminal is built. The future began earlier this summer; coal traffic past my home in north Idaho has already multiplied dramatically.
Curious John Are there one or two per day? Is the customer Taiwan Power? Do they ever use Stevens Pass in WA or Marias Pass in Montana? Where do they come from in Montana or Wyoming?
I'm here to tell you there are way more then one or two trains a day. I live less then two miles from the tracks here in Ferndale, and I can hear them day and night. It's an AWESOME noise!!!! Just this morning I heard three or four very early. Yesterday I got stoped by one 'downtown' after the local got out of it's way...
I too have wondered where the trains come from, and why they ALWAYS have helpers on the end. Do they really need them on all the time, the whole way?
StudeDave
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