On a recent trip to Bellingham, I stayed at a hotel that turned out to be a real treat. It was right on the bay. And that’s not all.
After checking in, Mrs. Pauley and I were having dinner in the lounge when we heard a loud, deep-throated motor. We looked at each other and both asked “boat?”
Nope. A huge freight train was rumbling by - very close. And they came by quite often.
I would think most people who stay in that hotel wouldn’t stay there a second night. But as a train guy, I wound up spending more time than I ever had watching the freight trains from our window.
There were box cars, center beams, some type of hopper, tankers, gondolas (lots of coal and a few which appeared to be carrying scrap metal), and some others. And the trains varied in size from a few cars to over 100. Some trains consisted of one type of load – others seemed to be a random mix.
In my subsequent research, I came across this well-done video of trains in the area. It actually shows trains passing by the hotel in which we stayed.
(Note that I did not see any Amtrak trains during our two-day stay, although I once took one to Vancouver, BC.)
Here’s the question: how can I find out what the trains were moving? From my research, it seems that Everett is a major switching site and the trains going north were obviously heading to Canada. The full wood and coal cars were heading north. I’m not sure what was in the tankers and where they were going.
Loaded coal trains run northbound and are destined for export at Roberts Bank, BC, just across the border. They number about 1.5 (loaded and empty each) daily. The loads usually originate in Southeast Montana in one of two mines. Northbound loaded crude trains originate in North Dakota and are going to either Arco or Cherry Point for transloading into ships. These ports are northwest of Bellingham or west of Ferndale. Rarely you will see loaded crude trains with CP power. These come from Alberta and are destined for Tacoma. Canadian crude can also go to Arco and Cherry Point, but wouldn’t quite make it as far south as Bellingham. Unit grain trains (from Alberta or Saskatchewan) from CN at Vancouver pass through Bellingham en route to California. CP grain trains for California via BNSF are usually interchanged at Coutts, AB/Sweet Grass, MT.
Carloads of lumber are generally southbound - from Central British Columbia to feed the housing market in the more-populuous U.S. Pre-Covid, there were generally three general merchandise trains daily each way through Bellingham, plus several locals. The northbound trains are generally marshaled south of Everett at places like Pasco and Seattle/Interbay; the soutbound trains from Canada are marshaled at Everett, and from there (along with numerous local trains), outbound trains to Pasco, Seattle, Vancouver(WA), and Portland/Albina (the UP yard) are created. At times, there has even been an Everett-Barstow (California) train. The transportation service plan varies, and all bets are off during Covid.
No Amtrak service during Covid, but before that, two trains daily each way through Bellingham with the station being in the Fairhaven neighborhood which is also the port for the Alaska Marine Highway.
The only place freight operations are documented is in the individual carrier’s Operating Plan and that is proprietary data that is not to be diseminated to the general public. Extra operations such as coal, oil and other bulk commodity trains normally operate outside the Operating Plan and on demand by the customer.