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Not Just Business: BNSF Railway’s Passenger Car Fleet

On August 13, 2023, Train O-WHIWHI1-13 approaches the top of Marias Pass at mile 1152.2 of the Hi Line Subdivision. The office car special had run from Seattle to Whitefish, Mont., the previous day and was making a round trip from Whitefish to East Glacier Park, Mont., on a perfect and smoke-free Sunday morning — unusual for that time of year in western Montana. —Justin Franz

Not Just Business: BNSF Railway’s Passenger Car Fleet

February 2025by Justin Franz/photos as noted

When Amtrak assumed the long-distance passenger operations of 20 Class I railroads on May 1, 1971, it acquired approximately 1,190 passenger cars overnight. More than 90 percent of that fleet came from five railroads — Santa Fe, Burlington Northern, Seaboard Coast Line, Southern Pacific, and Union Pacific.

But just because the Class I railroads had rid themselves of the service didn’t mean they disposed of all their passenger cars. There were still plenty of reasons to keep a few around, most notably for the use of management to inspect the property and entertain shippers. On rare occasions, the freight railroads even invited the general public aboard in a show of goodwill to the communities they served.

More than a half-century after Amtrak assumed most passenger service in the U.S. (and 47 years since VIA Rail Canada did the same north of the border), all six of North America’s Class I railroads maintain their own fleets of passenger cars for use on business trains, inspection trips, and sometimes for more unusual purposes. In 2025, BNSF Railway maintains a fleet of more than 50 passenger cars — among the largest of any Class I fleet — for use on its 32,500-mile network across 28 western states.

BNSF Business Trains

ABOVE: BNSF GP39E 2909 (ex-Chicago, Burlington & Quincy) was still wearing Burlington Northern Cascade Green on February 19, 2016, as it switched out office cars in Topeka, Kan., ahead of a business train trip to the Super Bowl. —Jeff Carlson photo

The Fleet
The current BNSF passenger car fleet resulted from the combination of the Burlington Northern and Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe fleets following the two railroads’ merger in 1995. While the Santa Fe fleet was made up predominantly of equipment it purchased for its own public passenger services in the mid-20th century, BN’s business train fleet was an amalgamation of cars from its predecessor roads, including Great Northern; Northern Pacific; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy; and St. Louis–San Francisco Railway (Frisco). Prior to the 1995 merger, the Santa Fe passenger cars looked much as they did decades earlier with stainless-steel fluting, evoking memories of famed streamliners like the Super Chief and El Capitan. Most of the Santa Fe business cars were maintained and stored in Topeka, Kan.

The BN cars, with a few exceptions, tended to be of the smooth-side variety and were initially painted in the railroad’s green and white livery. In 1990, BN debuted what it called the “executive scheme” or “Grinstein Green” (a nod to then-CEO Gerald Grinstein). The new livery featured a dark Brunswick green on the upper and lower portions of equipment with a cream band around the middle and accented by red pinstripes separating the two primary colors. The scheme made its debut on BN-1 and BN-2, F9A and F9B locomotives rebuilt exclusively to lead the business train. The F9s were later joined by E9 BN-3. Today, all three are preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum. By the time BN and Santa Fe merged, much of the business car fleet was in the new scheme.

BNSF Business Trains

ABOVE: On May 1, 2023, a southbound BNSF geometry train is meeting the Kalispell Local near La Salle, just south of Columbia Falls, Mont. While BNSF runs a local to Kalispell five days a week, it’s rare to have more than one train on the branch at a time. —Justin Franz photo

Following the merger, the fleets were consolidated at Santa Fe’s shop in Topeka (prior to that, the BN cars were maintained at North Kansas City, Mo.). Once the two fleets became one, it was decided to begin repainting and refurbishing the BN equipment to look more like the stainless-steel AT&SF cars. During BNSF’s early years, the business cars featured the railroad’s circular logo derived from the Santa Fe shield. The railroad’s full name, “Burlington Northern Santa Fe,” was spelled out on the side of most cars above the windows. In the mid-2000s, the circle logo was replaced by the “swoosh” and that quickly began to appear on the business car fleet.

In recent years, there have been a number of changes to the fleet, as well as additions. For example, BNSF 1, the Gerald Grinstein, was previously named Mississippi River; the car was built by Budd in 1952 for Chicago, Burlington & Quincy President Herold C. Murphy. The classic open platform observation car has fallen out of favor with BNSF in recent years, and more often than not when the business train is out it will be one of the glass theater cars bringing up the rear, either BNSF 30, the Glacier View (a full-length dome theater car), or BNSF 32, the William Barstow Strong.

BNSF Business Trains

ABOVE: Passengers take in the view from Glacier View, an ex-Great Northern dome converted into a theater car, on September 16, 2018, during an excursion to support the Glacier National Park Conservancy. —Justin Franz photo

A recent addition to the fleet had been waiting in the wings for decades. BNSF 35, Canyon View, was built in 1956 for CB&Q as its Silver Veranda, a blunt-end parlor-buffet-lounge observation car. The car eventually ended up in the Amtrak fleet and was sold to Burlington Northern in 1993. The car then remained in storage for more than two decades until 2015, when it was rolled into the Topeka Shops for a complete rebuild; it made its debut in early 2016. It now has seating for 45 with a meeting room, kitchenette, lounge, and dining area. One other ex-CB&Q dome is waiting in the wings in Topeka — BNSF 22, formally known as Silver Ranch — which joined the BN roster in the 1990s. So far, it has yet to be refurbished and it’s unclear if it ever will be.

In the past, BNSF has also leased cars, including an ex-Santa Fe “Super Dome” in 2018 from Iowa Pacific. At the time, the railroad’s own ex-AT&SF dome (the Carl R. Ice) was being refurbished.

While most of the passenger car fleet is based in Topeka, five cars call BNSF headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, home. Those cars include the James J. Hill (built for Frisco in 1912 by American Car & Foundry), the Cyrus K. Holliday (built in 1918 by Pullman for AT&SF), the Yellowstone River (1955 Pullman from NP), Canadian River (1947 Pullman from GN), and Prairie View (1948 Budd from CB&Q). Four of the cars are used for meeting and event spaces, while the fifth (the dome-obs Prairie View) has been turned into a coffee and sandwich shop…


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This article was posted on: January 24, 2025