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I'm curious about the Coal Train to Roberts Bank BC on BNSF

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  • Member since
    November 2010
  • 19 posts
I'm curious about the Coal Train to Roberts Bank BC on BNSF
Posted by Curious John on Thursday, November 11, 2010 11:22 PM

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?

  • Member since
    February 2008
  • 602 posts
Posted by Bruce Kelly on Friday, November 12, 2010 9:07 AM

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.

  • Member since
    January 2011
  • From: Ferndale, WA
  • 11 posts
Posted by StudeDave on Friday, January 28, 2011 3:07 PM

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... Whistling

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  Pirate

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