About the N-scale Division

The n-scale layout follows the BNSF Bellingham Division line from Seattle to Vancouver, BC. If you start out on the top level staging you will find yourself in Seattle, WA. When you pull out of staging you will start heading by one of the larger industries on the layout, Cunningham U.S. Steel Mill. There you will find a blast furnace, rolling mill and open-hearth.

After making your way past the steel mill you will find yourself coming up on Skagit County and the town of Burlington. You will first pass by the local meat packing company and the local grain mill. We are then running beside the Burlington siding and waving to the passengers at the Burlington Amtrak station. Before we know it Burlington is behind us and we are crossing gages slough, the local farm and on are way over the Skagit River. We then find ourselves entering the first of three tunnels on the layout.

Once we emerge out of the tunnel we are heading towards Blanchard Interchange. Behind us is the coal mine and beside us is the interchange. There you will find loads of logs from the log camp and coal trains either loaded or waiting to be loaded.

We are then on are way through the next tunnel and headed for Chuckanut siding. Before we get to the siding we pass over Oyster Creek and by the famous Oyster Creek Restaurant. We are then going by Chuckanut siding and Samish station. The siding ends and we are going over Chuckanut creek and under the bridge to the logging camp. When then enter into the third tunnel taking use through Chuckanut Mountain.

As we are going through the mountain the logging crew is busy working away at the mountain. There is English log camp #1 and English log camp #4. The local log switcher services both camps and brings full car loads of logs back down the mountain over both Chuckanut and Oyster creek to Blanchard interchange, to be picked up by a main line train.

By now we have made it through the mountain and have just exited the tunnel coming out by the Bellingham Bay water front. We find the local car ferry just to our left as we come out of the tunnel. Also, we see the local oyster house, the canary and Bellingham Cold Storage.

We then come to a grinding halt as we slow down getting ready to enter the main Bellingham yard. Once in the yard, we drop off the train and take our locomotives over to the diesel servicing to get re-fueled and ready for the rest of our trip. We also find a roundhouse, ice house and other services at the main yard.

Our train as been switched by the local switcher and we have re-connected with our train. We start to pull out of the yard and then find ourselves passing by Bloder Donavan Saw Mill. Soon after that we come upon North Bellingham. This is the main industry area of Bellingham, which gets serviced by rail. There are many different businesses here, like Moorse Steel, Yorkston Oil, and Walton and Sons Lumber. The local switcher from the Bellingham yard services all of these businesses.

We also come upon a small local yard that serves as a holding yard for the Georgia Pacific Plant and Cherry Point Refinery. We then pass both of those businesses, and start to cross the international border into Canada.

After crossing the border we come across the holding yard for the intermodal yard and grain mill. The intermodal yard and grain mill are also just a short distance off the mainline and are the first two businesses across the border. It takes some time to make it past the holding yard on the main line, seeing that it is a fairly large operation.

After getting past the grain mill, we find ourselves slowing down due to rail traffic because we are just about to pass by Union Station in Vancouver, BC. This rail station not only serves Amtrak but also VIA rail, sky train and the many passengers that come and go every day. After getting by the station we encounter the VIA rail storage yard and Canadian mail service. There is also a small industry area off the VIA rail yard.

Once we pass by the last part of the yard, it is a clear shot to Vancouver, BC staging. That then ends our journey around the layout. We can then take the staging helix back up to Seattle staging for a continuous loop of the layout.

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