Western Railroad Discussion > BNSF's Newest Business Cars

On August 19th, 2014, I ran by BNSF's Topeka shops and came away with shots of some interesting new wrinkles in the BNSF Business Car Roster. As I showed up, a westbound business train was getting ready to depart the shops, and given a bit of free time before dinner, I decided to brave the heat and see what I could make happen.

Photo 1: Meet BNSF 53, the "Mt. San Antonio." This had formerly been the ATSF 88 which had most recently been used as a classroom at Johnson County Community College (aka Choo Choo U) in a nearby Kansas City suburb. This car has been at the Topeka shops for a little over a year, and I most recently shot it exactly one year ago on 8/20/13, as seen here:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3170802,3170802#msg-3170802

Photo 2: This one is the confusing one. Here, we've got the newly renamed AND renumbered BNSF 62, the "Snoqualmie Pass." I'm not positive, but this looks to be the former BNSF 2, the "Columbia River." I haven't found any pictures of the BNSF 2 since mid-2012, so it has presumably been shoved away in the shops for quite some time. However, what's odd about this is that the BNSF already has/had a "Snoqualmie Pass," which had been HEP car #51. I've not seen that car recently, so it's anybody's guess as to what it comes out as.

Photo 3: The BNSF 5802 was in charge of the O-TOPTOP which was to run down to Emporia, KS and return, presumably as a shakedown run for the newly outshopped cars. In addition to the "Mt. San Antonio" and "Snoqualmie Pass" was the diner "Fred Harvey."

Thanks for looking, and thanks for any info you may have,
- Jeff Carlson

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Old Curmudgeon comment: Railroad name belongs on letterboard. Car name belongs below the windows, centered both vertically and horizontally. Harruummph.

Totally agree that the name boards look tacky......

Add me to the list - BNSF up top (better yet Burlington Northern Santa Fe), car name below windows.

Nice series! Even though more of the Santa Fe is being erased away, it's good to see the car still in use.

Russell Honey
Springfield, MO
My Flickr page

I agree with the previous posters. Also, Mt. San Antonio is the name of a Community College in Walnut, CA so it is kind of a neat coincidence, the car being a "classroom car" in the past. Although I am sure it is named after a mountain peak, maybe even the one here in SoCal more commonly know as Mt. Baldy!

KC

Another slightly curmudgeonly comment...why does BNSF have a car named for Snoqualmie Pass anyway? Didn't BN run a total of something like two trains over Snoqualmie during the few years they owned the ex-CMStP&P over the Cascades before abandoning it?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/14 20:35 by yorknl.

It's BNSF Railway now. I don't believe Burlington Northern Santa Fe is used anymore.



WrongWayMurphy Wrote:
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> Add me to the list - BNSF up top (better yet
> Burlington Northern Santa Fe), car name below
> windows.

stash Wrote:
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> It's BNSF Railway now. I don't believe Burlington
> Northern Santa Fe is used anymore.
>
>
That is correct.
Steve

BNSF had a power car named "Snoqualmie Pass", what is it named now?

Do we know the new Snoqualmie Pass observation car's original name?

JMW

What's the Mt. Sac's assignment?

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

hummm.....that is correct: the name is now officially "BNSF RAILWAY. not to be mired in conspiracy theories, but that name.. lends itself to a merger without having to change the company name once again---BN for burlington northern,SF for santa fe, and wait, here it comes..NS for norfolk souhern. could they be thinking that far into the future?

AS a former Santa Fe employee, I never cared much for those Dakota wheat farmers and their danged Burlington Railroad. Is it too late to annul the marriage?

Norm

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar

And business cars are supposed to have those big six wheel trucks. They never looked right when they jerked them out and put in the four's.

jmw Wrote:
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> BNSF had a power car named "Snoqualmie Pass", what
> is it named now?
>
> Do we know the new Snoqualmie Pass observation
> car's original name?
>
> JMW

Check out the captions that I put up there on the original post. I've got most of the info that you're looking for.

- Jeff

Posted from iPhone

ddg Wrote:
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> And business cars are supposed to have those big
> six wheel trucks. They never looked right when
> they jerked them out and put in the four's.

Without looking at the roster, I think the only ones that have six wheel trucks are the Red River, Bay View, and Glacier View.

- Jeff

Posted from iPhone

The Mountain? Believe the Pass through is a "Crew Car"...

the cars that had (have) 6 wheel trucks were all heavyweight cars, the cars with 4 wheel trucks are of a more recent vintage. So many of the cars have been so heavily shopped it is difficult to tell. The business cars displayed in front of the corporate headquarters were two heavyweights, the Cyrus K. Holliday and the James J Hill, they were shopped at Topeka two years ago returning to the campus with corrugated stainless steel sheathing and smooth steel over the roof. Gone were all signs of the clearstory roofs and not an exposed rivet head in sight. The other two cars, lightweights Canadian River and Yellowstone River went in smooth sided and returned with the same corrugated stainless steel siding as the two heavyweights. OK they match, but personally I would have settled for some Pullman green, gold leaf lettering and leaving the rivet heads exposed on the heavyweights.

WrongWayMurphy Wrote:
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> (better yet Burlington Northern Santa Fe)

Or better yet, how about just 'Santa Fe' ;-)

I do like the new script that BNSF is using on their business cars, but I do agree that the car names would look better displayed under the windows.

Thanks for sharing the photos, Jeff.

~Ryan

gman1 Wrote:
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> the cars that had (have) 6 wheel trucks were all
> heavyweight cars, the cars with 4 wheel trucks are
> of a more recent vintage. So many of the cars
> have been so heavily shopped it is difficult to
> tell. The business cars displayed in front of the
> corporate headquarters were two heavyweights, the
> Cyrus K. Holliday and the James J Hill, they were
> shopped at Topeka two years ago returning to the
> campus with corrugated stainless steel sheathing
> and smooth steel over the roof. Gone were all
> signs of the clearstory roofs and not an exposed
> rivet head in sight. The other two cars,
> lightweights Canadian River and Yellowstone River
> went in smooth sided and returned with the same
> corrugated stainless steel siding as the two
> heavyweights. OK they match, but personally I
> would have settled for some Pullman green, gold
> leaf lettering and leaving the rivet heads exposed
> on the heavyweights.

Actually, "Santa Fe" and "Topeka" were ordered from
Budd in 1956 and delivered in 1957 -lightweight cars-
riding on GSI 6-wheel OSH trucks. At that time the
original lightweight car "Santa Fe" built by P-S with
four-wheel trucks was renamed "Atchison". The P-S car
had no letterboard only the beneath the window car
name. Snoqualmie looks a lot like the old "Atchison",
it would be my guess as to what it was.