Western Railroad Discussion > BNSF Transcon question

After taking our annual labor day weekend railfan trip from Wichita Ks. to Amarillo, Clovis all the way to Ft. Sumner (sp) NM. we were really impressed by the traffic. My 5 year old and I logged almost 1200 miles and witnessed 92 different trains. (We didn't count the ones we saw more than once!) Didn't run into any trouble and had nice waves and friendly blasts from alot of the crews, especially in Clovis. (It always helps to have a kid with you to keep you out of trouble).

I had a question that I think I know the answer but I figured I would ask it anyway. Which yard operation is larger, Amarillo or Clovis? We spent time at both, Clovis has better access with a couple of bridges and many streets adjacent to the yard. Clovis seemed to be more busy and seemed to have more trains being assembled. Amarillo seemed to have a larger engine service facility but that could be because it was more easily viewable from the highway overpass. I really liked the fact that they still use the turn table, it was packed with pairs of locos.

All in all we had a good trip. If any of my pics turned out I will post later. Thanks to all of you who gave a friendly wave out there!

Bryan

clovis is the buseist yard in regards to yard work as they receive all the trains to/ from the slaton division---dallas,houston south texas trains---many of these trains require switching. trains from west have blocks switched to trains going to houston, dallas and souteast points and vice versa on trains from south texas having blocks switched to trains destine to port long beach,san bernadino, modesto stockton and richmond

amarillo probably has more thru trains as you have the north south route which is predominatley coal trains and you have the union pacific trackage right movements plus the transcon trains