Western Railroad Discussion > Ethanol train on Portland & Western's Astoria Branch..

I have a simple question, if anyone knows an answer to it, I would be extremely grateful...

Where do the ethanol trains orginate from that are going to the ethanol plant at Port Westward, on the Portland & Western's Astoria branch? How many are they getting a week/month???

Also, does anyone know the train symbol that they travel under on the BNSF system???

Yesterday, I saw the BNSF #4666 traveling east from the "W" yard on the A-line headed north on the BNSF Fallbridge Sub.. I don't know if it went north or east from Vancouver, Wash.


Thanks,
SP8100

SP8100 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have a simple question, if anyone knows an
> answer to it, I would be extremely grateful...
>
> Where do the ethanol trains orginate from that are
> going to the ethanol plant at Port Westward, on
> the Portland & Western's Astoria branch? How many
> are they getting a week/month???
>
> Also, does anyone know the train symbol that they
> travel under on the BNSF system???
>
> Yesterday, I saw the BNSF #4666 traveling east
> from the "W" yard on the A-line headed north on
> the BNSF Fallbridge Sub.. I don't know if it went
> north or east from Vancouver, Wash.
>
>
> Thanks,
> SP8100

The one part of this that I can answer is that they go east from Vancouver. And they arrive from the east with P&W crews picking them up (usually) at 8th St in Vanc. I think the origin is Iowa but an not 100% sure. I understand that there are 2 -3 per week.

Roustabout out

For starters, its a corn train, NOT and ethanol train. I am sure company rules won't allow us to talk about Ethanol, so I won't. Corn, on the other hand.... The corn comes from a variety of origins (all in the US!), the majority that I've dealt with have come from South Dakota, but it varies frequently. I'll give Lou an ounce of credit, he got the crew change point and directions right. As for a symbol - well I just said the origins vary so the symbols do too, just like any other grain train. The destination is always the same, but I won't say, because I like my job.

Cascade Grain can only take "certified" corn, so if the corn in the train for them isn't "certified," which, evidently, is not always known until after the train is rolling west, they reject the train and have it resold it enroute, or, as was the case a few months ago, the train will show up at Port Westward and CG will say "we can't take that - make it go away." The original estimates for trains were 2-3 times per week, now if there are 3 in a month it's something to get excited over. They run any time day or night and usually with just enough notice to get a PW crew called - if that much - the BN seems to think we have crews coming out our ears.