The Burlington Northern Railroad(reporting markBN) was an American–based class 1 railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between March 2, 1970 and December 31, 1996.
The four railroads shared a very intertwined history, due to the efforts of James J. Hill, the railroad tycoon who had founded the Great Northern Railway. Hill purchased an interest in the Northern Pacific in 1896 as the railway endured a period of financial turmoil. Hill attempted to merge the two railways but was rebuffed by the leaders of the Northern Pacific.
In 1901, the two railways teamed up to purchase nearly all shares of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, giving both a needed connection to Chicago, the nation's railroad hub. That same year, came the next attempt to merge the railroads with the establishment of the Northern Securities Company, a trust that controlled all three, with Hill serving as president. The company was sued in 1902 under the Sherman Antitrust Act and in 1904 the Justice Department won in the Supreme Court ruling Northern Securities Co. v. United States.
Although the ruling forced the three companies to be operated independently, they were still closely linked, even sharing a headquarters building, the Railroad and Bank Building in Saint Paul, Minnesota. In 1905, the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway was founded. Like the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, this new railroad was co-owned by the Great Northern and Northern Pacific and allowed both to access Portland via the Columbia River Gorge. Leaders attempted to merge another two times, in 1927 and 1955, but were unsuccessful.
The four railroads were finally cleared to merge on March 2, 1970,[2] after a legal challenge that once again went to the Supreme Court. By that time, the GN's president was John M. Budd, the NP's president was Louis W. Menk, and the CB&Q's president was William John Quinn.[3][4][5] Under the leadership of Budd and Menk, the newly established holding company, Burlington Northern, Inc. purchased the four railroads and merged them into the Burlington Northern Railroad. Budd became the company's first board chairman and CEO while Menk became the company's first president and COO.[2]
To further expand the Burlington Northern, a single track was constructed in 1972 into the Powder River Basin to serve various coal mines. The expansion was a source of traffic unprecedented in United States railroad history. In 1971, the first full year for the new railroad, trains carried 64,116 million revenue ton-miles of freight, by 1979 the total was 135,004 million.[6] Most of the increase was attributed to Powder River coal from Wyoming.
The Burlington Northern, along with handling freight trains, briefly operated inter-city passenger trains. The BN had started operations just a matter of weeks before the end of service of the original California Zephyr, which had been operated by the CB&Q, in conjunction with the Denver and Rio Grande Western and Western Pacific railroads, and continued to operate the North Coast Limited, Mainstreeter, Empire Builder, Western Star, Denver Zephyr, "Gopher", and "International", until Amtrak took over intercity passenger service in May 1971, thus becoming the last "new" Class I railroad to operate its own passenger trains. The BN also operated a commuter line inherited from the CB&Q from Aurora, Illinois to Chicago Union Station. This line is still owned and operated to this day by the BNSF Railway under a purchase-of-service agreement with Metra.
In May 1980 when Mount St. Helens erupted, the BN owned the land around the summit of Mount St. Helens in Washington state. In the 19th century, the United States government distributed land to railroads as a way to open up the American West and the 9,677-foot (2,950m) peak was granted to the Northern Pacific. It was inherited in the 1970 merger by Burlington Northern. Following the eruption the land including the volcano was subsequently transferred in a land swap between the railroad and the United States Forest Service so the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument could be established.
In the early 1980s, two independently operated railroads, owned by Burlington Northern Inc. were absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad; the Colorado and Southern Railway was absorbed in 1981, followed by the Fort Worth and Denver Railway in 1982.
The railroad relocated its headquarters from Saint Paul to Seattle, Washington in 1981,[7] as well as its parent company and sister companies.
The railroad made significant investments in establishing unit trains for transportation of grain in the 1980s. In 1982, grain traffic made up 13 percent of the railroad's freight. Unit trains allowed the company to more efficiently use its equipment and reduce its operating expenses.[8]
All of Burlington Northern, Inc's non-rail operations were spun off to a new company, Burlington Resources in 1988.
The railroad once again relocated its headquarters in 1988, moving from Seattle to Fort Worth, Texas.
On September 22, 1995, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway merged with the Burlington Northern to create the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.[citation needed] However, the merger was not official until December 31, 1996, when a common dispatching system was established, Santa Fe's non-union dispatchers were unionized and the implementation of Santa Fe's train identification codes systemwide.[9] On January 24, 2005, the railroad shortened its name to BNSF Railway.[10]
Route
Main line heading north out of Seattle, Washington along the shore of Puget SoundBurlington Northern used fuel tenders between specially equipped locomotives in areas that lacked service facilities. BNSF has eliminated this practice with the construction of new facilities like the Hauser Refueling Facility in Rathdrum, Idaho.[11]
Transport Statistics shows BN operated 23,609 miles of line and 34,691 miles of track at the end of 1970;[12] it shows 4,547 SLSF miles of line not including QA&P and AT&N. At the end of 1981 BN showed 27,374 miles (44,054km) of line and 40,041 miles (64,440km) of track.[13]
Railroads in italics meet the revenue specifications for Class I status, but are not technically Class I railroads due to being passenger-only railroads with no freight component.
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