News Archives Tag: history

Turntables aren’t just for records! In fact, they were used for locomotives long before they were spinning your favorite classics. Use of turntables to turn locomotives dates back to the 1830s, many years before the phonograph was invented in 1877. Record players may have since been replaced with media players and mobile devices, but turntables…

Did you know the term “beans” on the railroad means it’s time to eat? Ever heard of a gandy dancer? What’s a mother and slug? Did you know that a shoo-fly is a railroad term for a by-pass track? The rail industry has its own unique vernacular that has developed over nearly 200 years and…

U.S. National Parks are home to some of the most breathtaking scenery in the world, but the history these protected lands share with U.S. railroads may be surprising. As railroads expanded passenger service westward in the 19th and 20th centuries, they enticed visitors to travel to these then unknown destinations. Expeditions had already revealed the…

Andrea Capiola, an archaeologist in Coupeville, WA, credits her passion for trains with getting her through a very difficult period in her life. She has loved trains since she was a child watching her brother build his model railroad. As an adult, Capiola started photographing trains during a trip through western Washington. Then a year…

Women’s History Month, observed in the United States each March since 1987, provides the opportunity to reflect on the contributions of women to our world. Women have been involved in railroading since the 1800s. Some of the first railroad jobs they held were as registered nurses and what was referred to at the time as…

Andrew Jackson Beard revolutionized railroad safety with his invention of the Jenny automatic car coupler, which aimed to improve the knuckle coupler patented by Eli Janney in 1873. The knuckle coupler did the dangerous job of hooking railroad cars together, which previously was done by manually placing a pin in a link between the two…

From finding passage through the Rocky Mountains, to building the 7.9-mile Cascade Tunnel, to constructing the Argentine Flyover in Kansas City, BNSF’s engineers have conquered impressive challenges in order to keep trains—and customers’ goods—safely moving. These engineering marvels also played a key role in connecting the country. Without a railroad, fledgling towns in the developing…

BNSF recently introduced the first of 10 locomotives with special paint schemes marking the railroad’s 25th anniversary. The General Electric ES44AC No. 5828 now displays a “25th Anniversary” label on the nose and side, as well as logos of predecessor railroads: Burlington Northern; Santa Fe; Great Northern; Northern Pacific; Spokane, Portland & Seattle; Colorado &…

Since the United States’ earliest days, the American West has lured artists eager to capture its beauty and vast uncharted terrain. Many of those pioneering artists were women. “As men traveled west to search for gold, their wives followed. Many recorded the journey through painting or the written word,” said Linda Osmundson, author of How…

Before commercial flights became common in the 1950s, BNSF predecessor Santa Fe Railway’s “Super Chief” was the main transportation for Hollywood’s stars. The Super Chief was the railroad’s premiere Pullman sleeping car train that ran daily from Chicago to Los Angeles. With West Coast terminals in California, top-notch service and train cars completed with air…

Before there was BNSF Railway’s orange locomotives, one of our predecessor railroads was widely recognized by a different logo: Rocky the Goat. Rocky the Goat was the star of the logo for the Great Northern Railway (GN). For nearly a century, Rocky was closely identified with GN, which ran through Montana’s Rocky Mountain region known…

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, railroads powering the country’s growth, including BNSF’s predecessors, needed to encourage customers to explore the Western United States. The rail companies enlisted commercial painters to journey west and capture its natural splendor in hopes of inspiring the imagination of the traveling public. What began as a tool…