BNSF Train History Part 1

Instructions

Th e Hi stor y of BNSF A l ega c y for the 21 st ce nt ur y Few companies can claim that they’ve been around for a century, much less 160-plus years. And not many have had the impact on the growth of a nation that BNSF Railway and its predecessors had. Celebrating our heritage and building on our success is one of BNSF’s shared values. We are confident in our future because of the tremendous challenges we’ve overcome and the achievements we’ve made over the years. The 390 railroads that today comprise BNSF have established a great legacy for our company, which became part of the Berkshire Hathaway family in 2010. While many different railroads combined to form BNSF, the people who worked at those railroads shared many traits. We were — and continue to be — a unique breed, blending visionary thinking with the pragmatism of results-oriented business leaders. Aligned with our ideals of the past, our Vision today is to realize the tremendous potential of BNSF Railway by providing transportation services that consistently meet our customers’ expectations. This brochure chronicles our history and the accomplishments of BNSF’s predecessor railways that started it all. We hope you enjoy it! The course of U.S. history was forever changed some 160 years ago, when steel tracks were laid alongside the routes of cattle trails and wagon trains. There was no stopping the waves of settlers eager to claim land or explore opportunities in the West, and rail was a necessity for the booming cattle trade. The western railroads helped realize the American dream, reshaping the country’s landscape and building a foundation for a new economy.The forefathers of BNSF Railway were dreamers, too. They recognized that not only would railroads be the catalyst for settlement and growth in the West, but that transcontinental trains were needed to open coast-to-coast commerce. The legacy of men such as Cyrus K. Holliday, founder of the Santa Fe Railway, and James J. Hill, builder of the Great Northern Railway, was the development of an entire region in a rapidly growing nation. Today, BNSF Railway, created through the Sept. 22, 1995, merger of Burlington Northern Inc. and Santa Fe Pacific Corp., builds on the traditions of its hundreds of predecessors and provides customers with efficient transportation, better service, logistics expertise, market reach, and the most environmentally preferred mode of land transportation. BNSF today serves the western two-thirds of the United States as well as portions of Canada and key Mexican gateways with some 32,500 route miles. Many of BNSF’s 390 predecessor railroads were highly successful and innovative. They carried mail to connect with the Pony Express, introduced railcars equipped to sort U.S. mail en route, and were among the first to operate the printing telegraph and to use train radio and centralized traffic control. BNSF predecessors were also leaders in equipment modernization, introducing the Zephyr (America’s first diesel-electric, streamlined passenger train) and developing the nation’s first vista-dome car. More recently, the predecessors helped the United States create the largest grain logistics system in the world and pioneered the development of the intermodal business and the use of highhorsepower AC (alternating current) traction locomotives.