Hi everyone, welcome to my “new” channel! M&H SH Expedition has been renamed to “Onboard Railfan” as of this video. In this video trip report we take Amtrak Cascades Southbound Service (Train# 517) from the beautiful Canadian city of Vancouver, British Columbia to the picturesque Seattle, Washington in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. In this cross-border train journey which seamlessly connects two amazing countries, we look at many railfan points of interest and scenic highlights along this route. We also look at the train's various coaches and the decent list of food options available. In addition to the scenery, Amtrak Cascades and the tracks over which it travels have a fascinating history which we explore throughout this video. The train offers Coach Class (our choice for this route) and Business Class seating, as well as a Café Car to purchase snacks and drinks. During our trip we ran into significant delays as our train traversed some busy freight lines and rail bottlenecks out of Vancouver, BC.
Some Video Highlights:
2:30 - Departing Vancouver BC's Pacific Central Station
5:10 - First unscheduled stop at CN Burrard Inlet Junction
5:55 - Second unscheduled stop at CN Junction
9:00 - Third unscheduled stop after CN Sperling (in Burnaby BC)
12:00 - Passing by BNSF's New Westminster Terminal (former passenger stop)
14:10 - Fourth unscheduled stop at Fraser River Swing Bridge
15:24 - Crossing the Fraser River Swing Bridge and seeing the new Pattullo Bridge under construction!
22:55 - Fifth unscheduled stop at BNSF and BCR (BC Rail Properties) "Mud Way West"
26:34 - Mount Baker greets us
27:15 - We should be in Bellingham by now!
29:00 - Passing by the former White Rock BC Station
30:50 - Crossing the Peace Arch Canada-USA Border
33:00 - Passing by the former Blaine WA Station
34:52 - Passing by the former Bellingham WA Station
36:00 - Passing by the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry
36:30 - First Station Stop at Bellingham, Washington (Fairhaven Station)
39:26 - Meet with Amtrak Cascades Train # 516 at BNSF "Bow"
41:36 - Passing College Way (Site of the old Mt Vernon-Burlington Station)
42:55 - Second Station Stop at Mount Vernon, Washington
43:44 - Train Tour!!! Checking out the coaches, restrooms and café car!
45:00 - Washroom (Restroom) tour
46:00 - Third Station Stop at Stanwood, Washington
46:07 - Cafe Car Tour / What veggie (Vegan/Vegetarian) food options are available?
48:02 - Mount Baker volcano
51:03 - Arriving at Everett. Washington
51:30 - Leaving behind Mt. Baker
51:52 - Entering the BNSF Scenic Subdivision
52:30 - Fourth Station Stop at Everett, Washington (Also used by Sounder, and Amtrak Empire Builder)
53:35 - Tunnel underneath Everett, Washington
54:07 - BNSF Northwest Division - Everett, Washington
55:05 - Beautiful Puget Sound
56:00 - Fifth Station Stop at Edmonds, Washington (Also used by Sounder)
57:50 - Ballard Locks and BNSF Ballard Bridge
1:00:35 - Arriving in Seattle
1:02:13 - Seattle King Street Station
Even though we were on an international train going across the Canada - USA border, the border formalities were very well organized, quick and streamlined). Starting from Vancouver’s majestic Pacific Central Station, the terminus of VIA Rail’s flagship “Canadian”, we traveled approximately 160 Miles over the rail lines of VIA Rail Canada, CN (Canadian National Railway), BNSF Railway and a brief section of BNSF track dispatched by the BC Rail properties Port Subdivision RTC.
We also passed the tracks of the newly formed CPKC Railway (Canadian Pacific Kansas City) and Mount Vernon Terminal Railroad.
Our host railways and their subdivisions were as follows:
VIA Rail VMC and Coach Yard
CN Yale Subdivision
CN New Westminster Subdivision
BNSF New Westminster Subdivision
BNSF Bellingham Subdivision
BNSF Scenic Subdivision
BNSF Seattle Subdivision
We travelled through the communities which were once connected by Amtrak’s old Pacific International train long before the current Amtrak Cascades service was first re-launched as Mount Baker International in 1995.
The video ended up being long, mostly with the Metro Vancouver portion of our journey, which was slow but quite eventful as we traveled over or past significant bottlenecks of the rail network in what is Canada’s busiest port city. Quite a few freight trains passed us as we made our way to the BNSF tracks in Surrey BC. Once we crossed the border it was generally smooth sailing (or “railing” if you will) all the way to Seattle.
This trip was taken on Friday, May 12 2023. It took me a long time to organize, process and edit this footage due to the workload demanded by my degree program (which started immediately after this trip!)
I hope you like this video! If you do, please hit that like button, and subscribe to my channel. I really appreciate any feedback you give that can help me improve my content!
Thank you! : )
