Western Railroad Discussion > BNSF Unit Trains at Home Valley, WA

BNSF's Fallbridge Subdivision along the Columbia River in Washington offers a water-level route for the railroad through the Cascade Mountains.  As a result, all the heavy-tonnage traffic to/from the PNW goes this way.   That means virtually all of the manifest traffic and all of the many loaded unit trains, in addition to other traffic.    

One excellent place to appreciate this easy (grade-wise) path through the mountains is at Home Valley, WA.  I stopped there one early afternoon in late July, 2024 and was treated to three unit trains back-to-back-to-back, representing the three common types found on this line:  grain, crude oil, and coal, respectively.  

This clip features the first two of those trains, due to TO video time constraints.  

First-up is a loaded grain train seen from a slightly elevated vantage point in order to highlight the nice S-curve located here.   The entire train is shown.

Second-up is the loaded crude oil train seen from nearly track level to highlight the background scenery.  The entire train is not shown, but what is missing is all tank cars.  

Thanks for watching!
-Tom



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/24 08:59 by zchcsse.

You must be a registered subscriber to watch videos. Join Today!

Nice.  Good job.

Hey look it is a centipede. 

Great video, thanks for posting.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/24 13:08 by longliveSP.

Very nice video!

Nice stuff, thanks for posting.  An ACe leadin the grain train with FOUR ex-BN hoppers in the train.  Good catch.  Unfortunately, none of the Heritage hoppers,  They are hard to get.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

Nice video, and choice of locations for it.