Talk:BNSF Railway

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Trains Portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Trains, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to rail transport on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
	See also: WikiProject Trains to do list
B	This article has been rated as B-Class on the quality scale. (assessment comments)
High	This article has been rated as high-importance within the Trains WikiProject.

	This page is within the scope of WikiProject South Dakota, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to articles on South Dakota on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
B	This article has been rated as B-Class on the Project's quality scale. (If you rated the article please give a short summary at comments to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses.)

This article is part of WikiProject Missouri, a WikiProject related to the U.S. state of Missouri.

To-do list	Pending tasks for BNSF Railway:	(purge cache –  edit this list)
	Discuss the former Santa Fe mainline through Raton Pass in a similar manner to the former BN mainline Add a list of the company officers from BNSF inception to present Add list of predecessor roads (not all 300+!)
See also Wikipedia:WikiProject Trains/Todo

This article is part of WikiProject Texas, a WikiProject related to the U.S. state of Texas.

	This article is part of WikiProject U.S. Supreme Court cases, a collaborative effort to improve articles related to Supreme Court cases and the Supreme Court. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the assessment scale.

Contents 1 Northern Route Section 2 Burlington & White 3 Source needed

[edit] Northern Route Section

Is this really needed? Or can someone knowledgeable about it clean up the writing? The pictures seem kind of unnecessary too....they would probably serve better on the Empire Builder page. Schnauf 07:32, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

IS this correct? One of the routes operated by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe traverses the most northerly route of any railroad in the western United States. This route was originally part of the Northern Pacific Railway system, followed by the Burlington Northern Railroad system.

IF my memory is correct (I grew up along the Quincy branch of CB&Q), the Great Northern had the most northern route in the US. Also little mention of the Spokane trackage in Washington state - which is part of the original: SP&S; GN; NP and CB&Q railroad mergers in 1970.G. Beat 19:25, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

The Great Northern route was north of the Northern Pacific route. West of Spokane the BNSF primarily uses the Great Northern route through the Cascade tunnel under Stevens pass which is way north of the Stampede pass tunnel used by the Northern Pacific. The reason the Northern Pacific route is lightly used is that double stacked container cars are too tall to go through the Stampede pass tunnel. I guess the question is "East of Spokane does the BNSF use the Great Northern or Northern Pacific tracks or both"?

Still, does this section truly contribute to the theme of this article? It feels more like it should be a separate section than anything, especially if the other routes are expanded upon as well. Schnauf 00:11, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Burlington & White

05-259 (06/22/06) Burlington N. & S.F.R. CO. v. White I'm not well-enough versed in the topic to create a dedicated, full-length article on this case. If someone does want to create the seperate article, please remove the relevant section in this article and add a link to the seperate page and a cursory mention of the case in this article's introduction. Thanks! MrZaius^talk 20:13, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

I've added the SCOTUS tag to this article, as it is redirected to from that case article-name. When the SCOTUS case article is started, pleas move the SCOTUS tag from this article to that one. --64.113.81.179 02:46, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Source needed

While the statement, "It may also be noted that on any given day BNSF is the single largest consumer of petroleum-based fuels in the world. The only larger consumer is the US Navy during a full force wartime deployment", is certainly an intriguing one, I would like to see a source for such a bold assertion. This is especially true when said statement is made in connection with the nation's second largest railroad and one that has far fewer locomotives than Union Pacific (5,790 for BNSF as compared to 7,891 for UP, citing the numbers given on their respective Wikipedia pages). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 207.200.116.134 (talk • contribs) 02:29, August 26, 2006.

I remember recently reading the statement you refer to. My first thought was the Seattle Times. However a search of their archives did not turn up anything nor did Google. My only thoughts are that I would be surprised if there is that much difference in size between the BNSF and the Union Pacific. I believe that the two railroads are very close in size, for example, both total trackage 50,000 miles vs 54,000 miles and 2005 revenue 13 billion vs 13.6 billion respectively. Perhaps the number of engines should be checked. Another thought, here in the Pacific Northwest the BNSF pulls their trains over the mountains where as the Union Pacific takes a longer route around the mountains using the natural break provided by the Columbia River. It takes the BNSF far more fuel to pull the 2.2 percent grade on both sides of the Cascades. For example, a heavily loaded 100 plus car train requires five locomotives. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.19.45.139 (talk • contribs) 18:42, August 28, 2006.

I agree that some check should be made on the relative numbers of locomotives operated by UP and BNSF. Your point about BNSF's mountain running in the Northwest is well taken, but much of the advantage of going through the Cascades via the Columbia River Gorge is arguably negated by the need for UP to then climb the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon. Also, UP does climb the Cascades when moving goods along north-south, though the traffic levels are lighter. Another problem is that the Northwest is only a small part of either network. UP does a lot of mountain running throughout it's system, as does BNSF, that's why I still think the statistic is dubious. It just strikes me as company picnic talk that escaped into the real world, but again, if it's true, great, but I think both of us would feel better with a source. Without one, should it be in the article? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 209.244.31.37 (talk • contribs) 16:29, November 30, 2006.

Generally, I dislike throwing information away. However, in this case, I vote with you for removing it. What is the procedure to do this? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.19.45.139 (talk • contribs) 20:55, November 30, 2006.

You should review this site. http://www.dot.gov/affairs/minetasp022206pm.htm I would trust this source more. I think the NAVY is down the list now with more nuke power in play than diesel. Maybe something should be added to the UP site. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.252.131.26 (talk • contribs) 21:41, December 3, 2006.