BN passenger service 1970-1971

Just wanted to know about it. Quality of service, equipment, loco power, sleepers, food, etc... Maybe a couple route names for passenger service would be helpful. Thanks

By the time it had become Burlington Northern, the glory days were pretty much gone.
The CB&Q had the Zephyrs ("Route of the Zephyrs") from Chicago, to Twin Cities, California, Denver, Nebraska etc. which were great trains. The California Zephyr was the 'classic' dome/scenery train to the West Coast (via the CB&Q to Denver, D&RGW to Salt Lake City, and Western Pacific to Oakland (San Francisco)
The Great Northern "Glacier Park Route" "Empire Builder Route" had the Empire Builder (premier train) and Western Star (accommodation train) to Seattle/Portland from Chicago (via the CB&Q to twin cities)
The Northern Pacific had the premier North Coast Ltd. ("The Route of the great big baked potato" and "Main Street of the Northwest" and "Yellowstone Route") (and accommodation train Mainstreeter) from Chicago (via twin cities) to Seatlle/Portland.
Both used the Spokane, Portland & Seattle for the Portland legs., which also became part of BN

Burlington Northern was only in the passenger service for about a year... BN was official in March 1970, Amtrak started May 1, 1971. I think they only put in a half-hearted attempt at painting equipment, things like that. They were out of the long-distance biz pretty quick. They continued to operate their Chicago commuter services under subsidy, though.

Otto Vondrak wrote:Burlington Northern was only in the passenger service for about a year... BN was official in March 1970, Amtrak started May 1, 1971. I think they only put in a half-hearted attempt at painting equipment, things like that. They were out of the long-distance biz pretty quick. They continued to operate their Chicago commuter services under subsidy, though.

Alot of the coaches that were sold to NJDOT were still in Big Sky Blue and Empire Builder paint schemes until NJDOT repainted them into black with red and silver stripes.

Burlington Northern basically just carried on the service of GN, NP, CB&Q & SP&S until Amtrak took over, and by BN's time those services were somewhat reduced. I think the cars that were painted Cascade Green with the white "hockey stick" were in the minority, though a few experiments were painted before the merger, so they were around from the beginning, mixed in with GN orange & green and big sky blue, NP green and CB&Q stainless steel. With only a year before Amtrak, BN didn't have a lot of time to paint, so a lot of stuff wasn't, but BN was faster with repainting than BNSF has been; all merger locomotives were either repainted or retired by about 1980. Passenger locomotives were ex-CB&Q E7s E8s & E9s, ex-GN E7s SDP40s and SDP45s and F-units from GN, NP & SP&S. As with cars, many of the passenger units weren't painted before Amtrak, but for those that were: The Fs were Cascade Green with the "hockey stick" and the SDPs were painted like freight units. Most E7s weren't repainted. The CB&Q Es had unpainted stainless steel sides and stayed that way with BN, (until rebuilt for commute service). Various techniques were used on the cab: silver with black stripes, silver with green stripes or a green cab with white stripes like the Fs, but stainless sides. Lettering was usually black, sometimes green. Some Es got BN lettering but kept their CB&Q nose striping. Stainless Steel ex-CB&Q cars also got black lettering.

As for trains, Western Pacific ended their portion of the California Zephyr just a few weeks after the BN merger, and BN reduced their portion of the service as well. Before BN, the Portland cars from the Empire Builder and North Coast Limited were put into a single SP&S train (SP&S used their own power, head end cars, diner, lounge, and coaches for local passengers). I think the same arrangement continued under BN.

They ran the Chicago to Aurora raceway after the Amtrak takeover. E9s were the power.

It's my impression that most BN roads kept their trains reasonably clean and on-time, before and after the merger and up until A-day. Although not everything got cascade green, most equipment was in much better service than that on PC, and it seems like much of Amtrak's equipment came from PC, which skews our perspective of passenger service before A-day. I think lots of GN equipment got Big Sky Blue shortly before the merger and was left alone.

You were talking about the long distance trains, and said that they were kept in good conditin after the merger (as opposed to PC). Although 30 years removed, I worked suburban trains in the late 90s. I have to say that that was truly FIRST CLASS! Our equipment had BN logos on the cars (even though the E units were gone). With this the case, everything was done 100%. One day there was a winter storm. several of the other lines had shut down, or were really late. BN was running the Dinkeys just slightly late. Everyone on this line got to the Loop just fine!
There was pride in running on schedule. Everyone set his watch every day, just like a religion. Even though we had some customers who would curse this, the trains departed promptly on time. Those passengers were the ones who came a minute late, and saw the train highball right out. This was not really too much of a problem since the frequency was so great.
Cars that got defects were repaired right away. I have seen many Amtrak consists with square wheels on half of the cars. Ours would be switched right out, and would be fixed. Even tears in the seats did not last. The Budd cars from 1950 looked just like they just came from Budd in 1950.
People talk about how great the European railways run. Even they could take a lesson from BN.

The only change I know of is a combined EB/NCL/Zephyr consist in Chicago to St Paul? service. At that point, the NP & GN trains continued west on their own. Made the difference of 1 train & crew instead of 3. CB&Q may have dropped a Morning or Afternoon Zephyr to accommodate the combined trains.

Otto Vondrak wrote:Burlington Northern was only in the passenger service for about a year... BN was official in March 1970, Amtrak started May 1, 1971. I think they only put in a half-hearted attempt at painting equipment, things like that. They were out of the long-distance biz pretty quick. They continued to operate their Chicago commuter services under subsidy, though.

And they still do. The "BNSF" Metra line is in fact a passenger service operated by BNSF (though paid for by Metra). And people still respect it for being a particularly clean, efficient, polite, on-time operation.

I heartily agree, Mr. Neroden - and even if such represents a travesty brought about by an impeached Governor who was removed from office, I must say "the price is right'.

But then we of Illinois certainly have "grist" for imaginative political commercials:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSjHm5ki-RE

Ken S. wrote:

Otto Vondrak wrote:Burlington Northern was only in the passenger service for about a year... BN was official in March 1970, Amtrak started May 1, 1971. I think they only put in a half-hearted attempt at painting equipment, things like that. They were out of the long-distance biz pretty quick. They continued to operate their Chicago commuter services under subsidy, though.

Alot of the coaches that were sold to NJDOT were still in Big Sky Blue and Empire Builder paint schemes until NJDOT repainted them into black with red and silver stripes.

Yes...they were pulled by Jersey Central GP40P's and the North Jersey Coast Line, and were referred to as "Jersey Builders".