Burlington Northern Railroad

[Music] in the 1970s America's railroads were in trouble as other forms of transportation became the preferred method of movement money-losing rail lines were either being run into the ground or shutting down but at the start of this decade a new player in this seemingly dying market stepped up and set out to achieve what it believed was the best way to run a railroad what were the odds that this company now the largest in the entire country could help save an industry of Old Glory and move it into the 20th century [Music] in the 19th century railroads were changing the face of the earth they conquered mountains and plains with relentlessness and vigor being supported by wealthy men known collectively as robber barons one of these barons have been working in the transportation industry ever since moving the st. Paul Minnesota all by himself at age 18 James J Hill got his start in railroading by buying the nearly bankrupt st. Paul and Pacific Railroad with the agenda of expanding its network all the way to the Pacific Northwest by the turn of the last century his de verbal Empire stretched throughout the Upper Midwest and connected the port cities of Seattle and Portland with markets in Asia although all made separate on paper Hill had control over three principal rail companies the Great Northern Northern Pacific and the Chicago Burlington and Quincy with all their subsidiaries included despite the government trust-busting to preventing a formal merger Hill hoped at one day all of these lines will be merged together to create a seamless efficient network to move the country's freight and passengers his ultimate goal would eventually come true with the creation of the Burlington Northern Railroad on March 2nd 1970 by that time though the world was an entirely different place railroads were no longer the primary choice of mobility for citizens as the car in the jet airliner had long left the train in the dust passenger trains were being discontinued because of lesser riders and losing out on mail contract that would have covered their operating costs freight trains had the tread carefully over track that was sinking into the ground so much so that a train could derail while standing still some of the neighboring railroads around this new system were in financial ruin and were facing the end of their operating lives in June of that year the largest company in the world Penn Central was suffering a deficit of over 300 million dollars and became the nation's largest bankruptcy ever at that time the endeavor of merging railroad Giants at this time almost seemed fruitless but this merger had over a hundred years worth of experience from his predecessors and its current combined workforce seemed ready to take on this dark world with unproven innovations with an entire industry in disarray how could an entirely new mega railroad survived past the 1970s [Music] when created Wellington erdan would become the largest transportation company in the world a title previously held by the now bankrupt Penn Central at 26,000 miles of track the new company dwarfed his competition throughout the West holding a virtual monopoly and held the ambition of reducing capacity while producing dividends it would all come down to how the railroad would move with the times passenger rail service across the u.s. had long been in decline following World War two and we're costing the railroads millions of dollars each year the cover is operating costs that burden would be lifted from BN just a year after its creation with the formation of the nationalized publicly subsidized service known as Amtrak instead of losing money by carrying people Amtrak was now paying the freight railroad for trackage rights across their network but the transition came at a price one train that would be discontinued was a daytime streamliner between Chicago and Seattle named the Western Star this daytime sight-seeing train carried the mail and Express left over from the flagship Empire Builder which helped to cover its own costs but freight railroads were not allowed to keep some of their passenger trains under their wing and let Amtrak handle all of the money losers it was an all-or-none scenario the solution was to transfer this mail and Express revenue into a freight train but not a typical slow-moving low priority one what Burlington Dourdan devised was an expedited high-speed freight service reaching from Chicago to Seattle in as little as 50 hours the train itself was an understatement one locomotive and ten flat cars carrying trailers in actuality though it was the hottest train to ever run on B n system carrying trailers on flat cars were nothing new having been pioneered since before World War two although interstates for now giving trucks a competitive edge piggyback service offered intermodal flexibility for shipping containers that can be moved by road rail and see down south the Santa Fe Railway was offering a similar service that they branded as the world's fastest freight train the super see was charging a premium with carrying trailers with auto parts electronics that even US Mail between Chicago and Los Angeles in exactly 40 hours or less a similar service was offered between the two cities between the Union Pacific and the Chicago and northwestern offering a slightly lower price service in just 50 hours Burlington Northern would be the one and only railroad - offered his expedited delivery to the Northwest when the later named Pacific zip would arrive in Seattle the same trailers and containers could be loaded onto a freighter for sailing to Japan and other parts of the Orient conversely they could be transferred back to the tractor trailers for local distribution to the consumers intermodal shipping was a hot commodity that would only get hotter in the coming decades this however would only be the start earlier in the decade the federal government signed off on the Clean Air Act which was made to reduce how much co2 emissions would be released into the atmosphere one of the biggest targets for this act to wrangle with for power stations which burned bituminous coal being mined throughout the Appalachian Mountains although abundant and cheap to extract the exhaust gases from burning this coal was dirty in producing acid rain that could contaminate natural surroundings alternative fuels such as natural gas or an infancy and renewables were like science fiction over in the Powder River Basin located between Montana and Wyoming that seems a call were found to have a much lower sulphur content than what was being mined back east as it happened the Burlington's old main line cut a clear path right through the middle of these coal fields which had moved four million tons in his first year four years later Bien minded moved 312 million tons a 78% increase as the decade progressed more Minds would be opened in the region opening up the basin for bien and later the Chicago and northwestern the cash in under newfound black diamond mine despite the scene in w's entrance bien was largely still on its own in the Pacific Northwest market Vienna's only true competitor in that region was the Milwaukee Road but their Pacific coast extension had been operating at a loss for several years which led to suffering maintenance which led to slow travel times over rickety track B ends two routes across the Rockies the old Great Northern High Line in the north and the Northern Pacific line in the south were in much better shape and could handle the traffic volumes demanded BN already held a competitive advantage with normal freight service but the Pacific zip would yield a finishing blow the financially ruined and mismanaged Milwaukee Road had no response to this expedited shipping when the company voted in December 1977 to abandon all of its trackage west of Miles City Montana Burlington Northern had the entire northwestern market all to itself the 1980s began with the signing of the staggers Act which greatly reduced the federal government's control over the rail industry this meant that railroads were not free to abandon or sell money-losing routes set their own prices for moving rates and for mergers to be conducted at free will Burlington northerns biggest accomplishment will be acquiring the st. Louis San Francisco railway which was getting overshadowed by new mega railroads being formed by the eastern roads with VNL sealing the deal the network netted over five thousand miles of track in new territory and therefore new markets throughout the southeast from Texas to Alabama with this new territory came new commodities like the expanding petrochemical industry and delivering crude oil from the oil fields to the refineries within the Gulf states the acquisition would be offset by abandoning lines that have outlived their usefulness while some lines will be reclaimed by the earth or turned into bike trails others would be turned over to newly established short line railroads which operate on their own dime as its own company and interchanges Freight with the class ones to be forwarded to their final destinations the largest of these transformations was the old Northern Pacific route across Montana instead of outright abandonment the route will be leased the state businessman Denis Washington who in 1987 created the Montana Rail Link in an agreement that continues to this day Montana rail link not only continues freight service across this 900 mile long network but it also carries overhead traffic from its class 1 partner off of the often congested High Line at the start of the 1990s Burlington Northern was on the rise with rail traffic increasing which is improving global economy with the Clean Air Act and I think his second phase in 1990 the heightened demand for the Powder River Basins cult would be enough to make bien the country's largest coal hauler ever by 1994 BN was thriving with gross revenues at nearly five billion dollars what's important to understand about how bein made it this far with how the company operated on the inside compared to Penn Central whose three railroads came together from three separate operating cultures the hill lines has spent nearly a hundred years together being controlled by one person which meant that operating procedures were the same as we're managing tactics and customer outreach this allowed for better coordination to formally merge all the operations together by reorganizing schedules identifying challenges in the industry using their vast market share to its advantage and shaving up unprofitable lines for abandonment or short lines those same methods being used to live drive even survive would also be implemented in the country's other successful railroads like the Santa Fe Southern Pacific Union Pacific CSX Norfolk Southern and Penn Central successor conrail collectively these lines became known as the super 7 by the mid 90s though another wave of consolidation was bringing that number down the Union Pacific had been merging with other Western railroads throughout the decade slowly but surely approaching Bien's overall mass in 1995 yupi acquired the Chicago and northwestern one of its last Midwestern competitors for the first time in his 25-year life PN found itself outclassed and potentially a new target for the next and final round of mergers fortunately for BN it found the mutual partner the Santa Fe Railway had enjoyed a working relationship with BN which was epitomized by interchanging intermodal Freight with each other across their systems as the smallest of the super 7 mileage wise atsf was also feeling the pinch with being outclassed it was a logical match made in heaven on September 22nd 1995 the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway was formed with formalities lasting until the end of the following year as merger fever drew to a close at the end of the decade this 30,000 mile strong class-one railroad would stand as a worthy competitor to the Union Pacific although the current system is no longer the largest in the country today's BNSF is the continuation of the legacy left by James J Hill by providing the best rail freight service that can offer trains carry just about any imaginable load call from the Powder River Basin grain from Kansas Nebraska and Iowa lumber from Washington State and Oregon intermodal containers from the ports of Seattle or Los Angeles and fuselage is for the Boeing 747 bound for Everett Washington BNSF success is built on everything that was learned by its predecessors by taking advantage of new opportunities in order to stay ahead of the curve while not as storied in revered as the railroads that came before it the Burlington Northern was one of the most powerful and most successful railroads that helped the industry prepare for the next century fifty years after it was created is still possible to find Ben's legacy not just in its equipment still wearing the old cascade dream paint but in how these trains are moving the world's economy [Music] you

Channel: High Iron

Views: 276,054

Keywords: burlington northern, burlington northern railroad, bn, trains, 1970s, railroad, modern, 1980s, 1990s, freight train, diesel, rail, transportation, trainz a new era, trainz, railfan, train, bnsf, bnsf trains, burlington northern trains, great northern railroad, northern pacific railroad, chicago burlington and quincy, burlington route, cascade green, railfans, train videos, burlington northern santa fe, frisco railroad, high iron

Id: 9Q_mWIpSzbI

Length: 15min 5sec (905 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 02 2020