Belén is the second most populated city in Valencia County, New Mexico, United States, after its county seat, Los Lunas. The population was 7,360 as of the 2020 Census.
BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 36,000 employees, 33,400 miles (53,800 km) of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide rail connections between the western and eastern United States. BNSF trains traveled over 169 million miles in 2010, more than any other North American railroad.
The Southwest Chief is a long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak on a 2,265-mile (3,645 km) route between Chicago and Los Angeles through the Midwest and Southwest via Kansas City, Albuquerque, and Flagstaff. Amtrak bills the route as one of its most scenic, with views of the Painted Desert and the Red Cliffs of Sedona, as well as the plains of Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado.
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Class 1 railroads in the United States.
Ratón Pass is a 7,834 ft (2,388 m) elevation mountain pass on the Colorado–New Mexico border in the western United States. It is located on the eastern side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains between Trinidad, Colorado and Raton, New Mexico, approximately 180 miles (290 km) northeast of Santa Fe. Ratón is Spanish for "mouse". The pass crosses the line of volcanic mesas that extends east from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains along the state line, and furnishes the most direct land route between the valley of the Arkansas River to the north and the upper valley of the Canadian River, leading toward Santa Fe, to the south. The pass now carries Interstate 25 and railroad tracks.
The Grand Canyon Limited was one of the named passenger trains of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. It was train Nos. 23 & 24 between Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California.
The San Francisco Chief was a streamlined passenger train on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway between Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. It ran from 1954 until 1971. The San Francisco Chief was the last new streamliner introduced by the Santa Fe, its first full train between Chicago and the Bay, the only Chicago–Bay Area train running over just one railroad, and at 2,555 miles (4,112 km) the longest run in the country on one railroad. The San Francisco Chief was one of many trains discontinued when Amtrak began operations in 1971.
The Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railway (SFP&P) was a common carrier railroad that later became an operating subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in Arizona. At Ash Fork, Arizona, the SFP&P connected with Santa Fe's operating subsidiary, the Atlantic & Pacific Railroad mainline, that ran from California to Chicago. The SFP&P's 195-mile (314 km) line extended the Santa Fe Railway south into Phoenix. The SFP&P extended another 100 miles (160 km) to the east from Phoenix to Florence and Winkelman via the Phoenix and Eastern Railroad. The SFP&P also served several mines in the Prescott area, including the Derby Mine by way of the Summit (flag) Station at 'Prieta' in the Sierra Prieta range, through its various subsidiary railroads.
Williams Junction was an Amtrak train station on the Southwest Chief route, located three miles (4.8 km) southeast of Williams, Arizona in the Kaibab National Forest. The station primarily served passengers travelling to the Grand Canyon via the Grand Canyon Railway.
The Northern Transcon, a route operated by the BNSF Railway, traverses the most northerly route of any railroad in the western United States. This route was originally part of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, Northern Pacific Railway, Great Northern Railway and Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway systems, merged into the Burlington Northern Railroad system in 1970.
Isleta Station was a railway station on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in Isleta, New Mexico. Located 12 miles (19 km) south of Albuquerque, Isleta was a junction station, located at the point where two lines split. One line went to El Paso, Texas, while the other was the main line to Los Angeles. The Southwest Chief passenger train now passes by on the Los Angeles line.
The El Paso Subdivision is a railroad line of the BNSF Railway extending 230 miles (370 km) from Belen, New Mexico, to El Paso, Texas. The entire line is dark territory and movements are controlled by Track Warrant Control.
The Southwestern Railroad is a Class III railroad operating since 1990, and until 2017 consisted of two unconnected railroad sections in New Mexico, with no shared functions. These and a third section in the Texas panhandle and Oklahoma, now closed, all operated separately. Since January 2017, only the Whitewater Division is operated by Southwestern.
Abo Canyon, also known as Abo Pass, is a mountain pass at the southern end of the Manzano Mountains of central New Mexico in the Southwest United States.
The Cameron connector is a section of track built in 1995–1996 which connects the former Burlington Northern Railroad and the former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway tracks, both which are now part of the BNSF Railway, to each other near Cameron, Illinois.
The Chillicothe Subdivision or "Chillicothe Sub" is a railway line running about 229 miles (369 km) from Chicago, Illinois to Fort Madison, Iowa in the United States of America. It is operated by BNSF Railway as part of their Southern Transcon route from Chicago to Los Angeles. The Chillicothe Subdivision is a high volume route connecting three principal yards in Chicago in the east and the Marceline Subdivision in the west which continues to Kansas City.
The Hassayampa Flyer, also known as the Hassayampa Chief, was a passenger train operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway between Ash Fork and Phoenix in Arizona, United States.
Barstow Yard is a classification yard operated by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) in Barstow, California. With 48 directional tracks and a total area of approximately 600 acres (240 ha), it is the second largest classification yard west of the Rocky Mountains after the JR Davis Yard. Today, almost all freight traffic to and from Southern California runs through the junction.
The Phoenix Subdivision is a railroad line in the U.S. state of Arizona owned by the BNSF Railway. It runs from Phoenix in the south to Williams Junction in the north where it connects to the Seligman Subdivision and Southern Transcon. As of 2018 about eight trains daily operate over the line with top speeds of up to 49 miles per hour (79 km/h). The line is part of a system of proposed commuter rail lines in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
The Mojave Subdivision refers to a series of railway lines in California. The primary route crosses the Tehachapi Pass and features the Tehachapi Loop, connecting Bakersfield to the Mojave Desert. East of Mojave, the line splits with the Union Pacific Railroad portion continuing south to Palmdale and Colton over the Cajon Pass and the BNSF Railway owned segment running east to Barstow. Both companies generally share trackage rights across the lines.
