Thanks to mountain grades and heavy tonnage we rarely see trains with only one unit in the Pacific Northwest. So I’m sure you can imagine I was shocked today when the G-CIMVAW (Collins, MT to Vancouver, WA) came rolling past me at Columbia Vista with the BNSF 961 all by itself on the point. I kept watching the train as it passed because I was quite curious if there was some unusual DP arrangement.
As the rear of the train approached I could see smoke so I was fairly certain I’d find a couple of units on the rear. Sure enough there were two on the back working just as hard as the 961 up front.
Why the unusual arrangement? I have three theories…
1. This train was placed into the grain yard at Pasco until Vancouver opened up and instead of backing around the wye into the yard it was just run straight in.
2. It was run into the loader at Collins, MT this way. While there is a loop at the Collins elevator, the switch only opens north so there is no way to get the power to the other end of the train.
3. An engine failed enroute and it was most convenient to add to the rear of the train.
I think #1 or #3 is most likely because usually the power doesn’t stay with the train at Collins and usually the empties go east with three units on the point. Whatever the reason this was certainly something a bit different for a run of the mill grain train.
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