Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

This isn't really a discussion page, but one to document my trips to Sumas to railfan. I go on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Anyway, today, I went up there and found the local switching crew working, but no detour coal trains. They ended up switching out EPL Feed (Ellenbaas) which distributes grain and cattle feed. As I got there, they had picked up one hopper and connected it onto their consist of Rabanco cars (Garbage stacks). They backed up onto the EPL spur and dropped off three of the remaining hoppers in the storage area, and dropped one off in the loading bay. After this, they backed onto the consist and headed into the industrial park.

When I arrived at the crossing in the industrial park, they had uncoupled from the rabanco cars and moved the hopper onto the rabanco spur. They then went down to do some switching at IKO pacific (a roofing plant). After some switching, they ended up making a light move back and uncoupled from one of the engines and pulled out the empties from Rabanco. Next, they went back into IKO and pulled out two loaded boxcars. I would have stayed, but I had been there for quite awhile and decided to head home.

I'll post more soon, but this is just a start. I have football practice so I can't be down there too much.

Been awhile since I posted here but I promise I will post more often.

Went back to branch today. They were doing track work on the south end of Sumas so everything was blocked off. When I got there BNSF was on the Lynden Branch switching the Lumber Mill. They pulled out the loaded and shoved in empties. Afterwards they took some oil tankers and moved them up to where the branch spurs off. They then did some switching in the yard. I decided to leave at this point because it was raining so hard. Will hopefully return friday.

Like I said, I returned today. The weather was much nicer than on Tuesday and I saw a LOT more.

First off, upon entering Sumas, something odd was seen, the regular Sumas local crew had parked by the rail-house and appeared to be leaving. I went down to the siding by Bowen road and noticed that Train 644 (the local that takes traffic to Burlington) was switching!

They finished switching the siding and went onto the Lynden branch. They dropped off a grain hopper at the EPL Feed and some stacks at Rabanco. Afterwards, they dropped off a mixed consist south of Halverstick Road for storage and shut down in that area.

I will attempt to return this monday and friday. I won't have anymore time until further notice to go there because Winter Vacation is coming to an end.