Fifty years after Burlington Northern consolidated the traffic of two predecessor routes onto a single line featuring a nearly mile-long bridge near Sandpoint, Idaho, successor BNSF has opened its long-anticipated second bridge. The first train to officially cross the new structure was an empty coal train at 9:00 p.m. on Nov. 20, 2022.
“And now I can retire,” Randy Anderson, a BNSF locomotive engineer based in Sioux City, Iowa, said recently. “For years I have said that as soon as the bypass is complete, I’m hanging up my boots. The new bypass allows train crews to keep on moving through this area. It’s a really good thing and will continue to benefit the railroad and community for years to come.”
BNSF has been working for the past few years on the construction of a second railroad bridge called the Sandpoint Junction Connector, and the installation is running ahead of schedule.
RT&S has reported often on the ongoing debate/battle between BNSF and the Friends of the Rail Bridge, a local preservation group trying to save the old BNSF bridge in the Bismark-Mandin area.
BNSF recently announced that its engineering team and other partners have successfully completed the new second main line track, now in service, across the Emporia Subdivision, which runs from Kansas City to Wellington, Kansas. This is part of the railroad’s multi-year work on its Southern Transcon.
RT&S Managing Editor David Lester talks with the 2022 RT&S Engineer of the Year John Cech from BNSF about challenging projects, the technological movement, what it takes to work in the rail industry, and what it will take to recruit the younger generation.
In BNSF’s latest edition of Rail Talk, the focus is on the accomplishments of a production gang in Minnesota that completed important track work just before the beginning of harvest season traffic.
The September issue of RT&S features our 2022 Engineer of the Year John Cech from BNSF.
The Osage Avenue railroad bridge in Adams County, Neb., is going unclaimed.
John Cech, vice president, Engineering at BNSF, is the recipient of the 2022 Engineer of the Year Award from Railway Track & Structures Media.
Contractors working for BNSF Railway installed the final deck girder segment on the nearly one-mile-long bridge across Lake Pend Oreille near Sandpoint, Idaho, during the first half of August.
BNSF Railway Company (BNSF) has partnered with the Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA) to develop a new rail hub at the Port of Tacoma to meet increased intermodal demand in the greater Seattle region and unlock capacity.
A BNSF coal train derailed last week.
In response to significant ongoing service challenges, BNSF plans to issue a temporary permit embargo affecting some westbound traffic moving to destinations in California.
It’s back to the Ecology board for BNSF in the state of Washington.
Traffic will flow more smoothly through BNSF’s San Bernardino intermodal facility.
Rail lines and water lines are both important in Bellingham, Wash.
The Little Highline Fire in Potter County, Texas, destroyed a railroad bridge over the weekend.
America celebrated the 1976 bicentennial in many ways. The railroad industry celebrated in a big way by painting locomotives in bicentennial schemes.
This piece by Railway Age Editor-in-Chief William Vantuono appeared in the magazine’s news feed on Thursday, April 21. This court case addresses a very important issue, so we are reproducing it here. DCL
