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.
Railroad classes are the system by which freight railroads are designated in the United States. Railroads are assigned to Class I, II or III according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$504,803,294 for Class I carriers and US$40,384,263 for Class II carriers.
The Wisconsin and Southern Railroad is a Class II regional railroad in Southern Wisconsin and Northeastern Illinois currently operated by Watco. It operates former Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad and Chicago and North Western Railway (C&NW) trackage, mostly acquired by the state of Wisconsin in the 1980s.
Union Pacific 844 is a class "FEF-3" 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive owned and operated by the Union Pacific Railroad for its heritage fleet. Built in December 1944 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) of Schenectady, New York, No. 844 is one of four surviving FEF series locomotives and the only one in operation.
Watco Companies, L.L.C. (Watco) Watco is an American transportation and logistics company based in Pittsburg, Kansas. The company’s core services are freight transportation, material handling and storage, logistics, railcar repair and maintenance.
The BG&CM Railroad or Bountiful Grain and Craig Mountain Railroad is a Class III shortline railroad located in North Central Idaho.
The Kansas City Terminal Railway is a Class III terminal railroad that serves as a joint operation of the trunk railroads that serve the Kansas City metropolitan area, the United States' second largest rail hub after Chicago. It is operated by the Kaw River Railroad.
South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad is a short line railroad which operates 730.34 miles (1,175.37 km) of rail lines in Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri that used to belong to Missouri Pacific, Frisco and Santa Fe lines. SKOL is a unit of Watco.
The Indiana Southern Railroad is a Class III, short line railroad operating in the United States state of Indiana. It began operations in 1992 as a RailTex property and was acquired by RailAmerica in 2000. RailAmerica was itself acquired by Genesee & Wyoming in December 2012.
Interstate 25 (I-25) is a part of the Interstate Highway System that runs from Las Cruces, New Mexico, to Buffalo, Wyoming. In Wyoming, the Interstate Highway runs 300.530 miles (483.656 km) from the Colorado state line near Cheyenne north to its national terminus at I-90 near Buffalo. I-25 connects Wyoming's largest city and capital, Cheyenne, with its second largest city, Casper, and the smaller communities of Wheatland, Douglas, and Buffalo. The highway also connects those cities with Denver and Billings via I-90. I-25 runs concurrently with U.S. Route 87 (US 87) for almost its entire course in Wyoming. The highway also has extensive concurrencies with US 20 and US 26 along its east–west segment through the North Platte River valley. The Interstate has business loops through Cheyenne, Chugwater, Wheatland, Douglas, Glenrock, Casper, and Buffalo.
Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming, as well as the county seat of Laramie County, with 65,132 residents, per the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne metropolitan statistical area which encompasses all of Laramie County and had 100,512 residents as of the 2020 census. Local residents named the town for the Cheyenne Native American people in 1867 when it was founded in the Dakota Territory. Along with Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Topeka, Kansas, Cheyenne is one of three state capitals with an indigenous name in a state with an indigenous name.
The West Texas & Lubbock Railway is a shortline railroad in Texas, owned by Watco. It connects the BNSF in Lubbock with agricultural and oil-producing areas to the west and southwest. The company operates 107 miles of two ex-Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway lines, extending to Whiteface and Seagraves parallel to State Highway 114 and U.S. Highway 62. The primary commodities hauled are fertilizer, construction aggregates, grain, cotton, chemicals, peanuts and plastics.
The Texas & New Mexico Railway is a class III short-line railroad operating in west Texas and southeast New Mexico. The railroad line operates on 111 miles of track from a connection with the Union Pacific at Monahans, Texas, and terminates at Lovington, New Mexico. The railroad primarily provides freight service for the oilfields and related industries in the region.
The Boise Valley Railroad is a shortline railroad in Idaho connecting Nampa with Boise and Wilder. It is owned and operated by Watco.
The Great Northwest Railroad (GRNW) is located in North Central Idaho, and runs a mainline of approximately 77 miles (124 km). Known as the Camas Prairie Railroad until 1998 and then Camas Prairie Railnet, Watco purchased the line in 2004 and renamed it the GRNW.
The Kaw River Railroad is a Kansas City, Missouri railroad, established in June 2004. Twelve miles of original track served the Kansas City Southern Railroad customers in Kansas City and Union Station. The original KAW was a Kansas City Southern Railway Company property and was the first shortline Watco began operating for KCS, serving customers in the Greater Kansas City area and handling interchanges among the BNSF, KCS, and Union Pacific. The April 2005 expansion was a BNSF property serving customers in Clay County, Missouri, and interchanges with the BNSF at Birmingham, Missouri. The KCTL interchanges with all the Class I railroads serving Kansas City.
The Mission Mountain Railroad is a shortline railroad in northwestern Montana, operating a segment of the former Great Northern Railway since December 2004. MMT is a subsidiary of Watco, operator of several other shortline railroads.
The Bighorn Divide and Wyoming Railroad, founded in 1985, is a shortline railroad in Wyoming, United States. The company originally operated under the name Bad Water Line before its current operator purchased it in 2002. It operates 41.2 miles (66.3 km) of track within the state, including a line it owns between Shoshoni and Bonneville, Wyoming, along with trackage rights over BNSF Railway to Lysite that allow it to access a branch line to an oil facility. The company also performs switching at a rail yard near Casper, Wyoming, that is unconnected to its other operations.
