I might add that the Port of Lewiston is a container port, and they usually get to marshall a lot of empty 20's and 40's. The barge lines aren't too picky about hauling empties up from Portland.

By my count the Port of Lewiston is handling around 50 or 60 loaded export 20's and 40's per week during this period of high grain prices. Most are coming down from the Palouse and Camas Prairie, but they're also getting more coming out of Montana.

The problem with the Port of Lewiston for export containers is that they can only go out through the Port of Portland via barge line service. There is a greater array of containership calls at Seattle and Tacoma, and a lot of exporters out of this area wish BNSF or UP would restart the double stack 5-pack service 3 times per week out of Lewiston, at least for all this containerized export grain if not for the paperboard exports from the Potlatch mill. (The main reason Potlatch quit shipping containers by rail was that BN ran the 5-pack as part of the daily mixed consist out of Lewiston, and product damage due to rough handling was a major complaint. Grain isn't as sensitive to rough handling.)