Layout Railfanning: Coal Trains on Marias Pass

There's no rhyme, reason, or narrative to this video. Sometimes it's fun to just record videos of trains operating across the layout with no intention of content-making. But rather than let those recordings waste away on my computer, I thought it would be appreciated if I shared compilations of railfanning-style clips that highlight specific trains. So in this video, you'll see the coal train (same consist of 26 cars) running through numerous scenes and with various power configurations. The dates listed in the video are the actual recording dates.

On my layout, I represent coal trains as being loaded in both the EB and WB direction. In reality, coal is a rare commodity over this line, and loads are almost always heading west. The WB coal loads head down the grade on my layout, and in that direction the train represents loads from Spring Creek Mine heading for Canadian export at Roberts Bank, BC. This is a frequent train on the prototype, but it typically heads over the former Northern Pacific mainline to the south.

In the EB direction, coal loads climb the grade, and here's how I imagine it: a BNSF coal set gets loaded near Sparwood, BC on CPKC rails and heads south where it changes hands to the Union Pacific at Eastport, ID and finally to BNSF at Sandpoint Jct. From here, the train heads east over Marias Pass, eventually reaching interchange with the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad (CSS). This operation is inspired by a similar real-world scenario. The only difference is that instead of entering the US at Eastport, ID, the train heads east over CPKC's Crowsnest Pass before navigating back onto home rails at Sweetgrass, MT (east of Marias Pass) for the rest of the EB journey to Chicago.

One thing you might notice in this video is how "operating convention" has varied over the span of a few short months. While I currently follow the prototype practice of tacking on helpers at Essex, you'll see a helper set based out of Whitefish (further down the pass) being used to push coal up the grade.

Hope you enjoy!