Just have a question for you guys up in the Seattle area. I have stayed at motel at Pier 67 twice now and I was curious as to where all the traffic goes to/comes from that travels along the road and disappears under Pikes. I was looking at a satellite map and can see it goes to a yard in the north, but I lose it under the city going south.
I saw almost every type of unit BNSF has new GE, rebuilt EMD, and even saw a couple of switchers, but I didn’t see any new EMD SD60 or higher. Is this common for the Seattle area or just for that stretch of track.
Great trainspotting location though, not an hour went by without seeing one!
Dave
There is a former Great Northern tunnel that goes from that area and comes out just north of King Street Station. Amtrak and Sounder use it, but I don’t know how much BNSF traffic goes through it.
You are looking at the current BNSF main line between Seattle and Vancouver/Portland/Inside Gateway to California. The carload yard to the north is Interbay or Balmer. It makes carload trains for Vancouver BC and the East via Wenatchee, plus all south destinations plus Pasco. The North and East lines separate at Everett.
Intermodal traffic for the East originates at Seattle Intermodal Gateway, about 2-3 miles south of the motel, moves south then East then North on the main, or at South Seattle which is South of Boeing Field, or at Port of Tacoma. Most if not all the intermodal traffic you saw is between the East and one or the other of those terminals.
The south end of the tunnel is at King Street Station. The tunnel is either 2 Main Tracks or Double Track.
Mac
Is the grainloading port north of pier 70 (I don’t think it is pier 71) the main export point for the unit grain trains on the BNSF? I saw about 1 unit train a day that went north through my viewing area that seemed to go a little slower than most. A couple still had a DPU on the rear. I remember seeing a fairly large holding/sorting yard next to the grain loading dock. I am assuming this is not the Interbay yard you were reffering to as there is another yard further north of the one I am talking about that is next to the grain loading facility.
Terminal 86 is the grain loading facility on Elliot Bay, owned by Louis Dreyfus Corporation, acquired from Cargill during an anti-trust settlement.
That’s the one. Do you not if its the main/only grain shipping point for BNSF.
Not sure what you mean. It is the only one at the Port of Seattle.
Terminal 86:
There is a map and information at BNSF.com about facilities in general.
Sorry about the confusion. The Port of Seattle website liste three bulk loading terminals. I wasn’t sure how many of them had rail access and if they did who served them UP/BNSF. The one you showed in the picture is the one I saw.
How many hoppers (roughly) does it take to fill an average size bulk transport ship. The ship I saw at the facility took two days to fill and there were at least three full trains at there holding yard, not to mention how much may have already been in storage at the site in silos.
Dave