Burlington Northern Railroad

Burlington Northern Railroad
Burlington Northern Railroad trackage (shown in green) at the time of the merger with the ATSF.
With three of four predecessor railroad locomotives in a five-unit consist, BN 5738, a GE U33C, departs Livingston, Montana in August 1971.
Overview
HeadquartersSaint Paul, Minnesota (1970–1981)
Seattle, Washington (1981–1988)
Fort Worth, Texas (1988–1996)
Reporting markBN
LocalePacific Northwest, Midwestern United States, Central United States
Dates of operation1970; 54 years ago (1970)–1996; 28 years ago (1996)
PredecessorGreat Northern Railway
Northern Pacific Railway
Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (all merged by March 2, 1970)
St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (merged 1980)
Colorado and Southern Railway (merged 1981)
Fort Worth and Denver Railway (merged 1982)
SuccessorBNSF Railway
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8+12 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Length27,000 miles (43,000 km)

The Burlington Northern Railroad (reporting mark BN) was a United States–based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1995.

Its historical lineage begins in the earliest days of railroading with the chartering in 1848 of the Chicago and Aurora Railroad, a direct ancestor line of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, which lends Burlington to the names of various merger-produced successors.

Burlington Northern acquired the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway on December 31, 1996, to form the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway (later renamed BNSF Railway), which was owned by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation. That corporation was purchased in 2009 by Berkshire Hathaway,[1] which is controlled by investor Warren Buffett.

  1. ^ Barr, Greg Morcroft, Alistair. "Berkshire Hathaway to buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe". MarketWatch.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)