Double tracking BNSF’s transcon
Closing the gaps in the Midwest
The Flint Hills of rural eastern Kansas are a place of lush tallgrass prairies and natural cattle grazing land. It’s a remote area where visitors are more likely to see bison and prairie chickens than people. Susceptible to drought and naturally occurring prairie fires, the area is a rugged place for animal or man to live. Those that do earn the descriptor “hardy.”
It can be a bit of a surprise to realize it is here, about 60 miles northeast of Wichita, that BNSF Railway has linked sidings to create a second main as part of the longsought double tracking of its 2,200-mile Chicago-Los Angeles main line. This has been a goal for decades, both for BNSF and predecessor Santa Fe, which set a goal in 1992 of double-tracking the 512 miles of single track that then remained.
A LONG AND FAMOUS ROUTE
The Santa Fe, and now BNSF, always realized the strength of the Transcon, a moniker first bestowed by fans, not railroaders. It’s now referred to as the Southern Transcon to differentiate it from its Northern Transcon counterpart between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest. That former Burlington Northern route was pieced together from sections of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; Great Northern; Northern Pacific; and Spokane, Seattle & Pacific railroads between the upper Midwest and the Pacific Northwest.
The Southern Transcon route is critical to the rest of the system. Improvements and refinements have always been a priority, so it is correct to assume this is not the first project to make the line more productive and less labor intensive. Since completion of the route in the 1880s, the railroad
has seen everything from minor course corrections to massive rebuilds.
The push to extend the Santa Fe to the West Coast was a start-and-stop affair. The journey took surveyors and track gangs through the Midwest, swinging south to New Mexico and Arizona, before bumping into the mountains shielding Southern California from the rest of the country. Working through then little-known Cajon Pass, located at the convergence of the San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountain ranges, the line flattened out at San Bernardino and surveyors made a beeline to Los Angeles in 1887.
Once completed, the railroad was a fundamental instrument of transport for freight and passengers flooding into rapidly growing Southern California. It brought the trains that helped increase the population of Los Angeles fivefold, from about 10,500 in the late 1870s to over 52,000 a decade later.
On the eastern end, the Transcon helped fuel the growth of Chicago by bringing goods, produce, and services to the Midwest quickly and easily. Sleepy cities along the route, now with a practical connection to the outside world, grew exponentially.
The route spawned a number of passenger trains that became legendary. Railroaders knew them by two- or three-digit numbers in the timetable; however, the general public associated them with glamorous names on travel posters and print ads, spawned deep within marketing and advertising departments in an attempt draw ridership and promote development in the West. Over the decades, these included names like the California Limited (Nos. 3 and 4), the San Francisco Chief (Nos. 1 and 2), the Grand Canyon (Nos. 21 and 22) and the El Capitan (Nos. 123 and 124). Heading the list, however, are the Chief (Nos. 19 and 20) and the ultra-prestigious “Train of the Stars,” the Super Chief (Nos. 17 and 18) — arguably two of the most famous passenger trains in U.S. history.
This route was even capable of making a freight train famous. It was home of the fast freight train of all fast freight trains — the Super C. Made up entirely of trailer-on-flatcar equipment, the
Super C ran on a blazing 40-hour, 2,200mile schedule between Los Angeles and Chicago, just a few hours more than the Super Chief!
The train debuted in 1968. It was ultimately done in when too few shippers were interested in paying the premium for a service that cut a relatively modest 15 hours off the regular travel time. It was discontinued in 1976.
A HISTORY OF UPGRADES
Almost from the beginning, the Santa Fe realized it needed
to be able to move more trains. The first major project to improve capacity was the Belen Cutoff, built in 1908. It took the line in a more southwesterly direction through eastern New Mexico, northwestern Texas, and western Oklahoma to reach the existing route in Kansas. This enabled the railway to bypass the 3.5% grades of Raton Pass for a more leisurely 1.25% ascent across the mid-continent. This triggered a considerable decline in Raton’s fortunes, to the point that today, much of the route sees just two trains daily — Amtrak’s eastbound and westbound Southwest Chief, the heir to Santa Fe’s passenger fleet.
Perhaps the most significant improvement to the Belen route came at Abo Canyon, about 25 miles east of Belen on the Southwest Division. This was a 4-mile, single-track chokepoint until March 2011, when the railroad completed a 30-month, $85 million effort to push through a second track. The project required the company to move about 3.6 million tons of rock, lay 5 miles of new track, and build nine new bridges with a combined length of about 3,000 feet. The payoff: capacity went from about 80 trains a day to more than 130.
A more recent project saw the railroad add 10 miles of third main west of Belen, where the Cutoff departs from the original main line. That work in 2018 included four new grade crossings, 17 switches, 27,000 concrete ties, and 100,000 feet of rail, and provided additional capacity as trains tackle the 1.25% westbound grade to Dalies, N.M.
Farther west, BNSF also added a section of triple track — as well as a 4-mile stretch of quadruple track — in the Needles, Calif., area. That project was completed in June 2019. To the east, it added 5 miles of quadruple track near Amarillo, Texas, in 2018. Those four-track segments make it easier for high-priority trains to leapfrog slower traffic at crew-change points.
AND THEN THERE’S CAJON
Another key capacity project addressed Cajon Pass. Although the eastbound approach to Cajon was reworked to lessen curvature in the 1970s, the ruling grades of 2.2% to 3% on the pass separating the Los Angeles basin from the rest of the system presented significant challenges to traffic in both directions.
When the second, or North, track was added by Santa Fe in 1913, its ruling grade of 2.2% made it the preferred route for trains heading upgrade from San Bernardino to the summit; the original route, with its 3% grade, was the downhill track. But operating restrictions meant some downhill trains had to use the milder grade, as well, which created a major operational headache. Those “North Track only” west
bound trains often had to queue at the top of the hill for a slot between uphill traffic before they could make the 26-mile descent into San Bernardino.
As a result, traffic flow at times resembled rush hour on an LA freeway — which is to say it was at a standstill. If the railroad was going to accommodate the ever-increasing traffic flow with U.S. trading partners on the Pacific Rim, more capacity had to be created.
In mid-2007, a 16-mile, $90 million triple-tracking project began between Keenbrook and Summit on the Cajon Subdivision, tackling the third and largest segment of an effort that began in 2004. Earlier work had added a third track east of San Bernardino for 6 miles between Baseline and Verdemont in 2004, followed by 5 miles between Verdemont and Keenbrook in 2006.
Elements of the Keenbrook-Summit work, which added another track following the 2.2% grade, included daylighting two tunnels, which required moving 1.1 million cubic yards of earth; construction of five new bridges, and more than 60 other structures, such as culverts; and installation or relocation of 18 new high-speed turnouts, creating universal turnouts to improve operational flexibility. One of the new turnouts was named CP Walker in a nod to famed Summit train-order operator Chard Walker. The project used 141-pound rail throughout.
While the line remained unchanged from Summit east to Barstow, the expansion on the western slope greatly eased the congestion caused by eastbounds and westbounds both restricted to the lesser grade between San Bernardino and Summit.
AND NOW KANSAS
The current project focuses on the nine remaining segments of single main track between Chicago and Los Angeles, all within a stretch of roughly 90 or so miles between Ellinor and Mulvane, to the east of Wichita in the Flint Hills.
When this project is complete, the only remaining portions of single-main track will be two bridges: one over the Salt Fork River at Alva, Okla., and the other over the Missouri River at Sibley, Mo. Eventually, those, too, will be addressed, closing the last gaps.
Why double track now?
While there are a number of rail routes between LA and Chicago, the Southern Transcon remains a critical component of the western rail system. With the nation’s two busiest ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, the railroad moves a steady flow of international container traffic; overall, containers — both international and domestic — account for more than 50% of the freight BNSF transports annually, on a per-unit
basis. That’s more than 5.3 million intermodal shipments in 2020, more than any other North American railroad.
To keep all that traffic moving, doubletracking the Emporia Sub to relieve bottlenecks is essential. This line can see a train about every 20 minutes.
The project can be compared to making a one-lane road into a two-way street. It allows the right-of-way to move volume more efficiently; fewer delays and stopping events not only decrease transit times, but lower fuel use. It also gives the railroad increased flexibility in maintenance activities, as one track can be used to route traffic around work sites on the other.
The multiyear project on the Emporia Sub began with grading work in 2019. When it is complete, the increased capacity will lessen the need for dispatchers to move overflow traffic on a longer, slower alternate route through Newton, Kan.
WHERE THE ACTION IS
The nine segments of single track are between CP1271 at MP 127.1 (west of Emporia) and East Junction MP 215.9 (east of Mulvane). In between those points in southeast Kansas are, or were, lonely sidings at places like Matfield Green and Cassoday. A flare stack at the petroleum refinery in El Dorado can be seen for miles before you actually get there.
“When this project is completed, we’ll add about 50 miles of additional track,” said Kristopher Swanson, BNSF manager, engineering, who leads the construction effort. The capacity is being increased gradually, with the 10-mile portion between Chelsea and Aikman cut over in 2020. By the end of this year, another 10 miles will be in service.
Before construction could take place, a battle plan had to be drawn up at BNSF’s Fort Worth, Texas, headquarters, addressing everything from environmental protection to local community concerns.
To prepare for construction, the railroad had to understand the area’s geology, analyzing the soils to be encountered. These native soils ranged from various clays to limestone, as well as the rock that gives the Flint Hills their name. Planning also had to account for the availability of construction materials and the proper sequencing of the project.
“BNSF chose an alternative project delivery method, utilizing the construction manager-general contractor, or CMGC, method, rather than traditional designbid-build method used by many public agencies,” Swanson says. “The railway hired a designer, civil contractor, and independent cost estimator to complete the design, engineer out constructability challenges, and negotiate a guaranteed maximum price for the project.” He added that before a shovel was turned, project leaders met with local governments to discuss haul routes for project materials and other concerns.
BNSF has maintained communication with local government agencies throughout the project. For instance, it partnered with the Kansas Department of Transportation on the replacement of a highway overpass within project limits. The company also worked with environmental organization The Nature Conservancy to ensure the seed mixes used to stabilize areas disturbed during construction were appropriate for the Flint Hills’ tallgrass prairie ecosystem.
That ecosystem was a matter of significant local concern, since the construction area crosses the country’s last intact tallgrass prairie. “A lot of communication occurred with the township and county representatives in the region,” Swanson says. “Because we had to move a significant amount of earth to do the work, we made sure we restored and planted native grasses to minimize impact.”
Along with increased capacity and improved traffic flow, the new track will have an impact that should be appreciated by
Kansas residents: fewer instances of motorists encountering blocked grade crossings.
KEEPING THE TRAINS ROLLING
There has also been the balancing act of keeping the trains on schedule during construction. Work windows for turnout installations and cutting over new track had the biggest impact on train movements. Continuous coordination between BNSF maintenance and transportation teams is required to balance customer demands with capital improvement and maintenance goals, and was and will be required to put each new line segment in service.
While 50 miles of track may seem relatively small in the scheme of moving freight 2,200 miles from the West Coast to Chicago, having this line double-tracked is critical to future growth. The railroad’s slow and steady approach to expansion gave it the flexibility to keep the project moving while continuing to meet the needs of its customers and the communities through which it operates, while also controlling construction costs.
Nobody could have predicted the prosperity of the railroad would come down to a relatively desolate stretch of track on the southern plains in a place called the Flint Hills. But it has, and the future is being built right now, one bucket of Kansas soil at a time.