Of Possible Interest - BNSF Railway LLC

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 49&t=69344

Originating post:

• Warren is starting to leave hismark already, and if this is indicative of anything, there is to be a railroad run with PRIDE.
  
  Today, I observed BNSF P124117 making its Clarendon Hills station stop. In consist was Car #757, a car acquired by the CB&Q, the letterboard of this car is now lettered B N S F Railway, the railroad's new name (actually add an LLC to that) effective Feb 12. The METRA signboard remains. Obviously, the equipment, namely the locomotives and later cars, are all property of METRA; therefore it quite unlikely any of such will be re-liveried.
  
  A small step in the big picture of things, but it shows that the guy at the throttle cares about what he bought. This will not be a rerun of the fictional "BlueStar Airlines' from the Oliver Stone movie "Wall Street".
  
  Again the sad disclaimer; author no longer holds a position in the soon to be de-listed BNI.

That's been for a couple of months now. There are some cars lettered Burlington.

Actually it looks very confusing. Who owns the car? There are Metra markings, an RTA logo, a BNSF logo, and Burlington on the letter board. Take your pick.

Gilbert B Norman wrote:In consist was Car #757, a car acquired by the CB&Q, the letterboard of this car is now lettered B N S F Railway, the railroad's new name (actually add an LLC to that) effective Feb 12. The METRA signboard remains. Obviously, the equipment, namely the locomotives and later cars, are all property of METRA; therefore it quite unlikely any of such will be re-liveried.

Actually, Metra doesn't own this car, and never has. As with all other remaining cars in the 700/800 series, it belongs to BNSF, and were part of an order placed by predecessor CB&Q over fifty years ago. In pre-RTA days, BN donated these cars plus 25 locomotives to a coalition of suburban communities served by BN's Chicago commuter district, which came to be known as the WSMTD (West Suburban Mass Transit District). This allowed the local transit district (and several others like it around the region) to secure federal funds for transit-related improvements, as well as the purchase of more cars, and, in WSMTD's case, also allowed the rehab of those 25 BN locomotives into E9's. After the 800-series arrived, they, along with the 700-series cars were leased back either to BN or RTA, not sure which, but still technically remained the property of WSMTD; who eventually sold them back to BNSF sometime after the 1996 merger...

Mr. Doepack, I have been of course quite aware the noted car 757 was not owned, and never has been, by METRA. However after a careful review of the posting, I can see how it may have engendered confusion. Possibly the confusion arose from my statement "Obviously, the equipment, namely the locomotives and later cars, are all property of METRA" should have been written "Obviously any equipment acquired by the RTA, and now bearing METRA livery, is property of the agency" .

My apologies.

Here you go:
http://railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=308418&nseq=4

From the sound of it, this may be a shop employee effort and not corporate directive.

Quick question (I'll edit in a photo at a later date).

Black Friday, took the 1240 express from Downers Grove to Union Station. Several 700 series Budd bi-levels on the line. Some were lettered BNSF Railway, but a couple cars were lettered, in Zephyrus, B U R L I N G T O N

Is that BNSF maintaining trademark, or is that the shop forces keeping the history of these cars alive?

John_Perkowski wrote:Quick question (I'll edit in a photo at a later date)Is that BNSF maintaining trademark, or is that the shop forces keeping the history of these cars alive?

A little of both, actually. All of the old Budds in the 700/800 series were originally owned by BN, then donated to the WSMTD, only to be sold back to BNSF years later.

For a more concise explanation by yours truly, have a look at this site's "wayback machine..."

Thanks. I merged the topics, thus bringing this forward.

Topeka shops still handles the executive passenger fleet, do they handle these cars as well?

These cars are maintained in Chicago. There was another class of cars which were added to the 700, and 800 class cars later on. I forgot the numbers, which were 4 digit. They had the same trucks as the older cars.