Earlier this evening, I saw something usual (at least to me). A empty coal unit train traveling in Billings, MT that had a matched set of Red CP units on the train (two on front, one pusher on the rear). The cars were all BNSF coal cars. I was too far away to see what type of engines. Is the BNSF leasing CP units or is this part of some interchange agreement? Any info would be welcomed.
Bnsf takes coal for export up to Canada.It’s eaisier for the railroads to keep the power that’s on the train rather than switch it out at a terminal.Here in Ohio we have run thorugh power all the time.Last Saturday we had a bnsf,cn, csx consist on one train.The host line keeps tracks of the hours used by the foriegn locomotives.welcome to the forums.any more questions ask away.
stay safe
Joe
I just a saw a BNSF train with CSX power on it this morning as well. Thanks for your assistance.
Funny you should mention that…Last evening I saw a Westbound ‘Grain Worm’ (Mostly, Brown BNSF Cylindrical hoppers), and it had a pair of war Bonnets (SD-60’s ?) following a CSX unit in the lead… Til now the Lead units arer generally always BNSF power; except for the Road Railers off the Ark City Sub ( They come out of ,IIRC Alliance (North of Ft. Worth ?)
Once in a great while you’ll see around here some FerroMex power following BNSF leading.
The trains run from the coal fields to an export terminal at Prince Rupert, British Columbia, only a few hundred miles south of the Alaska panhandle. A BNSF locomotive went all the way to the coast about a week ago, and it probably wasn’t the first. At the moment we are mostly seeing CNR locomotives on the trains as they pass through Calgary on the CPR.
John
Are they shipping coal to Prince Rupert? seems a long out of the way route when there is a massive coal terminal close to Vancouver (Roberts Bank?) if that is the name, or is it no longer being used?
This is a deal that was announced a couple of years ago. Arch Coal is mining Powder River Basin coal. It is shipped on BNSF up to Coutts, AB/Sweetgrass, MT and turned over to CP. They haul it up to Edmonton and turn it over to CN at their Cloverbar Yard. CN takes it to Prince Rupert, BC.
This routing is necessary because the Roberts Bank facility in the Vancouver area is already usually running at capacity servicing other contracts.
I hadn’t commented on this earlier because I was unsure of the location of Billings. If I am looking at the BNSF system map on Wikipedia correctly, these trains through Billings proceed up to Great Falls and then to Sweetgrass. Any confirmation from US readers would be appreciated.
Bruce