Burlington Northern Timetables (May, 1972)
Published: May 21, 2026
By: Adam Burns
Presented here is the Burlington Northern's condensed freight timetables from the May, 1972 edition of the "Official Guide Of The Railways." By this time, of course, BN was no longer operating passenger trains with the advent of Amtrak the year prior.
B) was formed on March 2, 1970, through the merger of four major railroads: the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q), Great Northern (GN), Northern Pacific (NP), and Spokane, Portland & Seattle (SP&S). These “Hill Lines,” long linked by James J. Hill’s vision of a transcontinental system, had seen failed merger attempts in 1901, 1927, and 1955 before regulators finally approved the deal.
At creation, BN became one of North America’s largest railroads, operating roughly 27,000 miles of track from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest and into the Midwest and South. It quickly grew further by acquiring the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (Frisco) in 1980, strengthening its coal, grain, and intermodal business—especially low-sulfur coal from Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.BN operated independently until December 31, 1996, when it merged with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway to create the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway (BNSF), ending its 26-year run as a standalone giant.
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