I am curious if the coal train coming down the Sumas sub here in WA is unloading at Port Moody?
For BNSF to serve that terminal would require handing off the train in New Westminster to CP and CP handing the empty back at Huntington/Sumas to BNSF. The Port Moody terminal does not have a loop track so the train when it arrives would be heading in the direction of Mission and the Huntington Sub.
I checked the Port Moody Pacific Terminals website and it said they were looking for business because normal bulk exports are down and they are advertising for coal business but nothing about whether they are handling coal now. I checked the Peabody website and no information there.
Interesting and certainly possible. There is a wye in Port Moody, though. I find it a bit odd that Port Moody is operating at less than capacity, and yet the record grain harvest in Canada is struggling to move through the Port of Vancouver. I’ll try to investigate more.
I could not find where I saw that they had declining business, but I noticed it last night somwhere. They export sulphur and etholene. They (Pacific Coast Terminal) have now signed a contract to export potash. They had a coal used in steel making contract but it has expired. The coal train has been daily. It stops on the bridge over Hwy 20 to wait for permission to enter the main line. This morning it was moving through town right when I heard the Amtrak Cascades horn in Burlington heading North. It’s a pretty good photograph for someone a big GE sitting on that bridge over the highway. BNSF in WA is full of traffic. The changes made at the Everett yard along the Snohomish River put a line of trains ready to go over Steven’s Pass right in view from I5 Southbound. There is some sort of rail line which I can’t see which they must use on the east side of the freeway to Lowall, WA. The Sumas local does not seem to be daily and has grown to 60-70 cars which we haven’t seen since the 1980s. But that is because it’s not daily. The garbage situation in BC has not been solved. They are now proposing to spend $100 per ton but it’s being debated because for $70 per ton they can ship to E WA or E OR. That is a big difference although there is significant opposition to more garbage trains on our US side of the boarder.
The garbage cars from Sumas are about the same and I have not noticed many garbage cars on the Everett-Vancouver line north of Burlington.
Thanks. It will be interesting to see how that works out. Garbage cars do make it up to Bellingham, where they are loaded. They accumulate in the yard in strings of ten or so. There is significant opposition to any sort of train right now!