No takin’ it easy: BNSF enhancing capacity, efficiency at Winslow, Arizona
By SUSAN GREEN
Staff Writer
The sage-scaped mesas of central Arizona are vast, broken by shiny steel rails guiding BNSF trains – about 65 a day. One town here is Winslow, Arizona, located on our Southern Transcon line that connects California with Chicago and points beyond. Winslow has a busy railyard and crew-change point.
With all this activity, additional track capacity is needed in Winslow, which is why BNSF’s 2026 capital program includes making enhancements to increase switching capabilities and make the yard more efficient.
Grading work recently began to extend an existing track by 1,100 feet and to build a new 6,700-foot lead track. This work will also include adding 13 turnouts (or switches), seven of which will be “NX” turnouts, and upgrading five existing turnouts plus derails to the NX style. A derail is a safety mechanism on rail that prevents the unauthorized movement of freight cars or a train. NX stands for Entrance/Exit turnouts.
“These turnouts can be remotely operated from a device like an iPad,” explained Seth Ogan, manager, engineering. “With the NX turnout, a yard crew can line several switches from one location, plus they don’t have to physically throw the switch, lessening exposure to injury.”
Having the new and longer track will enable more efficient switching options from the east and west ends of the yard while trains perform work events and power modifications (adding or taking off locomotives), said Brian Anderson, terminal manager.
“We’ll also have more capacity to process and fill more trains,” Anderson said. “Plus, there will be more yard fluidity so we can streamline arriving and departing trains with the powered NX switches. We’ll also be able to bring trains that need to be off the mainline into the yard, creating more mainline capacity.”
However, this project’s impact reaches far beyond just Winslow, according to Paul Kuhn, general director of capacity planning.
“Enhancing capabilities here allows BNSF to relocate disruptive mainline work away from locations further east on the Southern Transcon and concentrate it at a natural crew-change location,” Kuhn said. “The result will mean fewer relief crews, less locomotive repositioning and meaningful velocity improvements across the system.”
Currently, grading is under way and the expansion work is expected to be completed by end of June. When finished, the reduced train delay, increased mainline capacity and improved fueling capability at Winslow will mean we have more room to grow – so no taking it easy here.
