The spring flood waters have started to subside on the Mississippi River (as evidenced by the watermarks on the trees) at Gears Ferry Landing near Galena, Ill., as an eastbound BNSF “Z” train heads east toward Chicago on a cloudy and cool April 23, 2011. Photo by Steve Bauer […]
Q How does BNSF’s Network Operations Center in Fort Worth, Texas, control BNSF trains when they share tracks with another railroad, such as the route over the Tehachapi Pass? Union Pacific owns the trackage and allows BNSF trackage rights. On average, BNSF sends three trains over the pass to UP’s one. Does the BNSF Operations […]
A trio of BNSF power has doublestacks and autoracks in tow at Martinez, Calif., on Nov. 29, 2004. Tom Murray photo […]
BNSF Railway ES44DC 7248 leads a westbound intermodal train through the Columbia River Gorge past Skamania, Wash., in the fall of 2009. The lead locomotive was delivered earlier in the year. Ron Burkhard photo […]
Three BNSF Railway diesels pull train CATMCXEO-88 past Chillicothe, Iowa, on a snowless Dec. 4, 2006. The train is crossing BNSF’s busy ex-Chicago, Burlington & Quincy route across southern Iowa, a key coal route for BNSF. Photo by Craig Williams […]
What have the mergers that built today’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe system accomplished? It’s important to ask this question, because it predicts where BNSF might be headed in the future. In basic terms, mergers have four outcomes. Strategic mergers create seamless service in new or existing traffic lanes and open new markets. Tactical mergers reduce […]
A westbound loaded BNSF Railway coal train exits Montana Rail Link’s 3,986-foot-long Mullan Tunnel on Sept. 16, 2006. Tom Danneman As detailed in the February 2010 issue of TRAINS, ventilating exhaust from Mullan Pass tunnel has been a challenge since its completion in 1883. This sequence of photos, taken by TRAINS Art Director Tom Danneman, […]
Though half of its train continues to ascend a 1.0 percent grade, BNSF 4617 East has crested the summit at East Ash Hill, about seven miles east of Ludlow, Calif., on the morning of Oct. 8, 2009. Within a few thousand feet, all 50 autoracks of BNSF Train V-SDGCLO1-07 (Vehicles, San Diego, Calif. — Clovis, […]
The Grand Canyon was a stop on several of the tours I conducted in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Our groups would ride Santa Fe Railway trains to Williams, Ariz., then chartered motor coaches to the Canyon. After dinner at the Bright Angel Lodge at the Grand Canyon, the passengers and luggage were aboard […]
A Canadian National Railway conductor delivers a BNSF Railway grain train to New Coop in Knierim, Iowa, on March 5, 2007. The elevator gets BNSF grain shuttles by way of a haulage rights agreement over CN. […]
In his article “The First PA’s” in the Winter 2008 issue of Classic Trains, author Peter A. Hansen examines Alco’s first postwar passenger diesels, Santa Fe Nos. 51L, 51A, and 51B. Here are scenes of Santa Fe PA’s in action from Herron Rail Video’s DVD program “Glory Machines, Vol. 5.” […]
In his article “The First PA’s” in the Winter 2008 issue of Classic Trains, author Peter A. Hansen examines Alco’s first postwar passenger diesels, Santa Fe Nos. 51L, 51A, and 51B. Here are scenes of Santa Fe PA’s in action from Herron Rail Video’s DVD program “Glory Machines, Vol. 5.” […]
