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118-589: BNSF Railway ( reporting mark BNSF ) is the largest freight railroad in the United States. One of six North American Class I railroads , BNSF has 36,000 employees, 33,400 miles (53,800 km) of track in 28 states, and over 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that provide rail connections between the western and eastern United States. BNSF trains traveled over 169 million miles (272 million kilometers) in 2010, more than any other North American railroad. The BNSF Railway Company

236-478: A $ 1.5 billion state of the art master planned rail facility in Southern California, the first such facility developed by a Class I railroad . The Barstow International Gateway, encompassing approximately 4,500 acres (1,800 ha, 7.0 sq mi), an integrated rail facility, will be located on the west side of Barstow, California . This new facility, when built, will enable more efficient rail operations from

354-695: A 2-digit code indicating the vehicle's register country . The registered keeper of a vehicle is now indicated by a separate Vehicle Keeper Marking (VKM), usually the name of the owning company or an abbreviation thereof, which must be registered with the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF) and the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) and which is unique throughout Europe and parts of Asia and Northern Africa. The VKM must be between two and five letters in length and can use any of

472-680: A 5% market share of deposits in Birmingham are Regions Financial Corporation , PNC Financial Services , Servisfirst Bank, and Wells Fargo . Nearly a dozen smaller banks have been headquartered in the Magic City, such as Superior Bancorp and Cadence Bank . As of 2009, the finance & banking sector in Birmingham employed 1,870 financial managers, 1,530 loan officers, 680 securities commodities and financial services sales agents, 380 financial analysts, 310 financial examiners, 220 credit analysts, and 130 loan counselors. In 2012, Birmingham

590-512: A BN hub where it could interchange with SP (which had rights on BN dating from 1990). The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) approved the BNSF merger on July 20, 1995 (with final approval on August 23), less than a month before UP announced on August 3 that it would acquire SP. Parents Burlington Northern Inc. and Santa Fe Pacific Corporation were acquired on September 22, 1995, by the new Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation . The merger of

708-409: A daily mean temperature of 43.8 °F (6.6 °C). There are an average of 47 days annually with a low at or below freezing, and 1.4 days where the high does not surpass freezing. July has a daily mean temperature of 81.1 °F (27.3 °C). Highs reach or exceed 90 °F (32 °C) on 65 days per year and 100 °F (38 °C) on 2. Precipitation is relatively well-distributed throughout

826-598: A few short sections of trackage rights over BNSF, mainly connecting the SP at Chemult to the UP at Bend, Oregon , and connecting the SP at Mojave, California with existing UP rights on ATSF at Barstow, California . On April 18, 1996, UP, BNSF, and the Chemical Manufacturers Association entered into an agreement giving BNSF rights over the UP line between Houston and East St. Louis , paralleling

944-464: A hyphen. Some examples: When a vehicle is sold it will not normally be transferred to another register. The Czech railways bought large numbers of coaches from ÖBB. The number remained the same but the VKM changed from A-ÖBB to A-ČD. The UIC introduced a uniform numbering system for their members based on a 12-digit number, largely known as UIC number . The third and fourth digit of the number indicated

1062-412: A key role in the economy. Steel products manufacturers American Cast Iron Pipe Company (ACIPCO) and McWane are based in the city. Several of the nation's largest steelmakers, including CMC Steel , U.S. Steel , and Nucor , also have a major presence in Birmingham. In recent years, local steel companies have announced about $ 100 million worth of investment in expansions and new plants in and around

1180-424: A major medical and research center. In 1971, Birmingham celebrated its centennial with a round of public-works improvements, including an upgrade of Vulcan Park and the construction of a major downtown convention center containing a 2,500-seat symphony hall, theater, 19,000-seat arena, and exhibition halls. Birmingham's banking institutions enjoyed considerable growth as well and new skyscrapers started to appear in

1298-607: A number of accidents and incidents have occurred on the railway since its inception. As one of the leading supporters of the Operation Lifesaver program to promote safety at railway crossings and rights-of-way, the BNSF Railway, in 2000, established a grade-crossing closure program. This program, in which BNSF works with communities and landowners to identify unnecessary or redundant crossings, has helped close more than 2,900 of BNSF's railway crossings throughout

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1416-652: A predecessor of the CNW, from which the UP inherited it. Similarly, during the breakup of Conrail , the long-retired marks of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and New York Central Railroad (NYC) were temporarily brought back and applied to much of Conrail's fleet to signify which cars and locomotives were to go to CSX (all cars labeled NYC) and which to Norfolk Southern (all cars labeled PRR). Some of these cars still retain their temporary NYC marks. Because of its size, this list has been split into subpages based on

1534-644: A reduced plan, whereby SP acquired trackage rights on ATSF for intermodal and automotive traffic to Chicago, and other trackage rights on ATSF in Kansas , south to Texas, and between Colorado and Texas. In exchange, SP assigned BNSF trackage rights over the former Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad between El Paso and Topeka and haulage rights to the Mexican border at Eagle Pass, Texas . Regional Toledo, Peoria and Western Railway also obtained trackage rights over BN from Peoria to Galesburg, Illinois ,

1652-718: A secondary severe weather season. Birmingham is located in the heart of a Tornado Alley known as the Dixie Alley due to the high frequency of tornadoes in Central Alabama. The greater Birmingham area has been hit by two F5 tornadoes; one in Birmingham's northern suburbs in 1977 , and second in the western suburbs in 1998 . The area was hit by an EF4 tornado which was part of a larger outbreak in April 2011 . In late summer and fall months, Birmingham experiences occasional tropical storms and hurricanes due to its proximity to

1770-585: A small amount of track in Canada, including an approximate 30-mile (48 km) section that runs from the U.S.–Canada border to Vancouver, British Columbia , some tracks and a yard in Winnipeg, Manitoba , approximately 70 miles (110 km) of joint track with the Canadian National Railway , which runs south to the U.S. border at Emerson, Manitoba , and less than a kilometer of trackage at

1888-470: A smaller ridge, flanks the city to the north and divides Jones Valley from much more rugged land to the north. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad (now CSX Transportation ) enters the valley through Boyles Gap, a prominent gap in the long low ridge. Ruffner Mountain , located due east of the heart of the city, is home to Ruffner Mountain Nature Center, one of the largest urban nature reserves in

2006-628: A subset of the mechanical division, operates two maintenance-of-way work equipment shops, responsible for performing repairs and preventive maintenance to BNSF's track and equipment, in Brainerd, Minnesota and Galesburg, Illinois . The system mechanical division also operates the Western Fruit Express Company's refrigerated car repair shop in Spokane, Washington . On October 1, 2022, BNSF Railway announced plans to construct

2124-610: A total of 33 intermodal hubs and 23 automotive distribution facilities. The BNSF mechanical division operates 13 locomotive maintenance facilities that perform preventive maintenance, repairs and servicing of equipment. The largest of these facilities are located in Alliance, Nebraska and Argentine Yard in Kansas City, Kansas . The mechanical division also controls 46 additional facilities responsible for car maintenance and daily running repairs. The BNSF system mechanical division,

2242-559: Is also a Unitarian Universalist church in the Birmingham area. The main campus of the Church of the Highlands is located in Birmingham. The church operates schools and churches across Alabama. From Birmingham's early days onward, the steel industry has always played a crucial role in the local economy. Though the steel industry no longer has the same prominence it once held in Birmingham, steel production and processing continue to play

2360-580: Is home to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Birmingham , covering 39 counties and comprising 75 parishes and missions as well as seven Catholic high schools and nineteen elementary schools; there are also two Eastern Catholic parishes in the Birmingham area. The Catholic television network EWTN is headquartered in metropolitan Birmingham. There are three Eastern Orthodox Churches in the Metro Area as well, Greek, Russian and American. There

2478-486: Is now the area's largest employer and the second largest in Alabama with a workforce of about 18,750 as of 2011. Health care services providers HealthSouth , Surgical Care Affiliates and Diagnostic Health Corporation are headquartered in the city. Caremark Rx was also founded in the city. Birmingham is a leading banking center and is the location of the headquarters of Regions Financial Corporation . Banks with over

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2596-489: Is stenciled on each piece of equipment, along with a one- to six-digit number. This information is used to uniquely identify every such rail car or locomotive, thus allowing it to be tracked by the railroad it is traveling over, which shares the information with other railroads and customers. In multinational registries, a code indicating the home country may also be included. The Association of American Railroads (AAR) assigns marks to all carriers, under authority granted by

2714-610: Is the principal operating subsidiary of parent company Burlington Northern Santa Fe, LLC. Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas , the railroad's parent company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway , Inc., of Omaha, Nebraska . The current CEO is Kathryn Farmer . According to corporate press releases, the BNSF Railway is among the top transporters of intermodal freight in North America. It also hauls bulk cargo , including coal . The creation of BNSF started with

2832-559: The Amtrak Cascades , California Zephyr , Carl Sandburg , Coast Starlight , Empire Builder , Heartland Flyer , Illinois Zephyr , Lincoln Service , Pacific Surfliner , San Joaquin , Southwest Chief , Sunset Limited , and Texas Eagle . After the 2015 Oxnard train derailment , BNSF loaned 40 of their AC4400CWs to Metrolink while their Rotem cab cars received upgrades. These 40 units were converted to PTC. The locomotives have since been returned after

2950-509: The 2010 U.S. census : In the 2000 census , there were 242,820 people, 98,782 households, and 59,269 families living in Birmingham. The population density was 1,619.7 inhabitants per square mile (625.4/km ). There were 111,927 housing units at an average density of 746.6 per square mile (288.3/km ). The racial makeup of the city was 62.46% Black , 35.07% White , 0.17% Native American , 0.80% Asian , 0.04% Pacific Islander , 0.62% from other races , and 0.83% from two or more races . 1.55% of

3068-521: The 2020 census , making it Alabama's second-most populous city after Huntsville . The broader Birmingham metropolitan area had a 2020 population of 1,115,289, and is the largest metropolitan area in Alabama as well as the 47th-most populous in the US. Birmingham serves as an important regional hub and is associated with the Deep South , Piedmont , and Appalachian regions of the nation. Birmingham

3186-635: The Appalachian foothills – see Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians ) running from north-east to south-west. The valley is drained by small creeks (Village Creek, Valley Creek) which flow into the Black Warrior River . The valley was bisected by the principal railroad corridor, along which most of the early manufacturing operations began. Red Mountain lies immediately south of downtown. Many of Birmingham's television and radio broadcast towers are lined up along this prominent ridge. The "Over

3304-794: The Aurora Branch Railroad in Illinois and the Pacific Railroad of Missouri were formed by a group of millers who were granted a charter to build a 12-mile railroad that connected Aurora with the Galena & Chicago Union Rail Road. The Aurora Branch eventually grew into the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), a major component of successor Burlington Northern . Part of the Pacific Railroad became

3422-882: The BNSF Railway Line for Metra in Chicago and the Sounder in the Puget Sound Region — using BNSF-supplied crews in addition to running over its rails. The company's network additionally hosts other commuter trains , including: Metrolink in Southern California , and the Northstar Line in Minneapolis . The line used by New Mexico Rail Runner Express was sold to the state of New Mexico, but BNSF retained all freight rights on

3540-585: The COVID-19 pandemic . After the 2020 census, Birmingham lost its long-standing status as Alabama's largest city, with Huntsville overtaking Birmingham in total population, though Birmingham remains the state's largest metropolitan area. Birmingham hosted the 2022 World Games in July 2022. In September 2024 a mass shooting occurred in Birmingham, killing four people. Birmingham occupies Jones Valley, flanked by long parallel mountain ridges (the tailing ends of

3658-735: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 . While imprisoned for having taken part in a nonviolent protest, Dr. King wrote the now famous April 16 Letter from Birmingham Jail , a defining treatise in his cause against segregation. Birmingham is also known for the September 15 incident, in which four black girls were killed by a bomb planted at the 16th Street Baptist Church . The event would inspire the African-American poet Dudley Randall 's opus, " The Ballad of Birmingham ", as well as jazz musician John Coltrane 's song "Alabama". In 1998

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3776-532: The Houston area: west over UP to San Antonio , with a branch to Waco , and continuing over SP to Eagle Pass (replacing the haulage rights they had just obtained); south over UP to Brownsville ; east over SP to New Orleans (including the purchase of this line east of Lake Charles ); and northeast over SP to Memphis with a branch on UP to Little Rock . Ownership of a short connection between Waxahachie and Dallas also went from UP to BNSF. UP, in return, got

3894-695: The Midwest on former BN lines. Depending on where the markets are, this grain may move in any direction in unit trains or wait in silos for demand to rise. Most commonly, grain may move west on the Northern Transcon to the Pacific Northwest and its export terminals, or south to ports in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico . The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway 's main contribution to BNSF

4012-619: The Northern Pacific Railway 's main line across Washington , in 1984, in favor of the ex- Great Northern Railway 's Stevens Pass . BN never abandoned the line and began rehabilitating it in early 1996, and the route reopened in early December, relieving the crowded Stevens Pass. The ex-ATSF main line, now known as the Southern Transcon , has also seen steady work to add tracks, giving BNSF more capacity on this major intermodal route. On December 20, 1999, BNSF and

4130-631: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration ordered BNSF to pay over $ 526,000 to workers who had been terminated in 2010 and 2011 after revealing workplace injuries at the terminal in Havre, Montana , which is in contravention of provisions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act protecting whistleblowers. In August 2016, a "huge number" of used hypodermic drug needles were found along a BNSF railroad bridge in between

4248-811: The Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach to trains for transport through the Alameda Corridor onto the BNSF mainline to the new facility, and then move across the nation on the eastbound BNSF route network. In June 2024, BNSF Railway announced plans to develop the Surprise Intermodal/Logistics Center , a regional rail-served facility near Phoenix, Arizona . The planned site is located in northwest Maricopa County and will cover 4,321 acres (1,749 ha) of land. The facility consists of three distinct, interrelated components: Large freight car hump yards are located throughout

4366-615: The San Francisco Bay Area , with an alternate route through the Feather River Canyon along UP. The ATSF trackage in California's Central Valley was linked to BN's line into Oregon , through trackage rights over UP between Stockton and Keddie and acquisition of UP's section of the "Inside Gateway" to the beginning of BN trackage at Bieber . In Texas, BNSF received rights in several directions from

4484-530: The Shelby County School System to form their own school systems. Some argue that the region suffers from having so many suburbs because companies can receive large incentives to move a short distance to another city, with no net gain in the area's economy. Birmingham suburbs (in order of population, 2020 US census): Birmingham has a humid subtropical climate , characterized by hot summers, mild winters, and abundant rainfall. January has

4602-564: The St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (Frisco). The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) was chartered in 1859. It built one of the first transcontinental railroads in North America, linking Chicago and Southern California ; major branches led to Texas , Denver , and San Francisco . The Interstate Commerce Commission denied a proposed merger with the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in

4720-530: The Surface Transportation Board expressed concern and surprise about the timing, since the merger that produced BNSF had been the only one in the 1990s that did not cause severe deterioration in service. On March 17, 2000, the STB imposed a 15-month moratorium on mergers involving any two Class I railroads , citing widespread opposition not only to the merger but its effects, likely starting

4838-557: The U.S. Surface Transportation Board , Transport Canada , and Mexican Government. Railinc , a subsidiary of the AAR, maintains the active reporting marks for the North American rail industry. Under current practice, the first letter must match the initial letter of the railroad name. As it also acts as a Standard Carrier Alpha Code , the reporting mark cannot conflict with codes in use by other nonrail carriers. Marks ending with

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4956-470: The UK 's major industrial cities. Most of the original settlers who founded Birmingham were of English ancestry . The city may have been planned as a place where cheap, non-unionized, and often African-American labor from rural Alabama could be employed in the city's steel mills and blast furnaces, giving it a competitive advantage over industrial cities in the Midwest and Northeast . From its founding through

5074-468: The University Park and St. Johns neighborhoods of Portland, Oregon that has become an encampment for homeless individuals. According to a conductor quoted by The Oregonian "Pretty much see people down there at all hours of the night. We report them but nobody does anything." Reporting mark In North America , the mark, which consists of an alphabetic code of two to four letters,

5192-444: The low-sulfur coal of Wyoming 's Powder River Basin . The city of Burlington, Iowa is the namesake of Burlington in each of Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad , Burlington Northern Railroad , and BNSF. On June 30, 1994, BN and ATSF announced plans to merge. They were the largest and smallest (by track mileage) of the "Super Seven", the seven largest of the then-twelve U.S. Class I railroads . The long-rumored announcement

5310-418: The 1950s and 1960s Birmingham received national and international attention as a center of the civil rights struggle for African-Americans. Locally the movement's activists were led by Fred Shuttlesworth , a fiery preacher who became legendary for his fearlessness in the face of violence, notably a string of racially motivated bombings that earned Birmingham the derisive nickname "Bombingham". A watershed in

5428-511: The 1970s through construction of the Powder River Basin Joint Line with Union Pacific Railroad predecessor Chicago and North Western Transportation Company . Coal goes north in unit trains on the three-to-four-track Joint Line to Gillette or south to Orin , where older BN lines and other railroads take it in all directions to coal-burning power plants . BNSF serves over 1,500 grain elevators , located mostly in

5546-534: The 1980s. The Burlington Northern Railroad (BN) was created in 1970 through the consolidation of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad , the Great Northern Railway , the Northern Pacific Railway and the Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway . It absorbed the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway (Frisco) in 1980. Its main lines included Chicago- Seattle with branches to Texas (ex-Burlington) and Birmingham, Alabama (ex-Frisco), and access to

5664-513: The 26 letters of the Latin alphabet . Diacritical marks may also be used, but they are ignored in data processing (for example, Ö is treated as though it is O ). The VKM is preceded by the code for the country (according to the alphabetical coding system described in Appendix 4 to the 1949 convention and Article 45(4) of the 1968 convention on road traffic), where the vehicle is registered and

5782-627: The BNSF system. Location of some intermodal yards: The BNSF system is divided into 13 divisions grouped into three regions. Each division includes numerous subdivisions, normally comprising a single main line and branches. A fourteenth division, Colorado, has been consolidated with the Powder River Division, except for the Casper and Cody Subdivisions, which were transferred to the Montana Division. BNSF directly operates

5900-641: The Birmingham Pledge, written by local attorney James Rotch, was introduced at the Martin Luther King Unity Breakfast. As a grassroots community commitment to combating racism and prejudice, it has since then been used for programs in all fifty states and in more than twenty countries. In the 1970s, urban-renewal efforts focused around the development of the University of Alabama at Birmingham , which developed into

6018-458: The Birmingham area and was felt in the neighboring states and as far as the Carolinas. The 2003 Alabama earthquake centered in northeastern Alabama (magnitude 4.6–4.9) was also felt in Birmingham, Atlanta, Tennessee , Kentucky , and both Carolina states. In the 2020 United States census , there were 200,733 people, 93,300 households, and 46,816 families living in Birmingham. According to

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6136-557: The Birmingham area is no longer a major industry with the exception of coal mining. Birmingham ranks as one of the most important business centers in the Southeastern United States and is also one of the largest banking centers in the US. In addition, the Birmingham area serves as headquarters to two Fortune 500 companies: Regions Financial and Vulcan Materials Company , along with multiple other Fortune 1000 companies. In higher education , Birmingham has been

6254-639: The Central Gulf Coast. The record high temperature is 107 °F (42 °C), set on July 29, 1930. The record low is −10 °F (−23 °C), set on February 13, 1899 . The Birmingham area is not prone to frequent earthquakes; its historical activity level is 59% less than the US average. Earthquakes are generally minor and the Birmingham area can feel an earthquake from the Eastern Tennessee Seismic Zone. The magnitude 5.1 Irondale earthquake in 1916 caused damage in

6372-593: The Elyton Land Company whose investors included cotton planters, bankers and railroad entrepreneurs. It sold lots near the planned crossing of the Alabama & Chattanooga and South & North Alabama railroads, including land formerly a part of the Benjamin P. Worthington plantation. The first business at that crossroads was the trading post and country store operated by Marre & Allen. The site of

6490-590: The Houston-Memphis SP line, and allowing BNSF to participate in the UP's plan for directional running , in which each line would serve through trains in only one direction. The Surface Transportation Board , successor to the ICC, approved the UP-SP merger on July 3, and UP control of SP took effect on September 11, 1996. BNSF trackage rights operations began on the Central Corridor on October 10, and soon thereafter on other lines. BNSF continued projects started by its predecessors, most notably BN's work on reopening Stampede Pass . BN had closed Stampede Pass,

6608-421: The Mountain" area, including Shades Valley, Shades Mountain and beyond, was largely shielded from the industrial smoke and rough streets of the industrial city. This is the setting for Birmingham's more affluent suburbs of Mountain Brook , Vestavia Hills , Homewood , and Hoover . South of Shades Valley is the Cahaba River basin, one of the most diverse river ecosystems in the United States. Sand Mountain ,

6726-581: The Red River Division, and the former Springfield and Nebraska divisions were combined into the Heartland Division, in the spring of 2016. Not including second, third and fourth main-line trackage, yard trackage, and siding trackage, BNSF directly owns and operates over 24,000 miles (39,000 km) of track. When these additional tracks are counted, the length of track which the railway directly controls rises to more than 50,000 miles (80,000 km). Additionally, BNSF Railway has gained trackage rights on more than 8,000 miles (13,000 km) of track throughout

6844-645: The Southern Transcon, has been almost completely double-tracked, and triple-tracking has begun in areas such as Cajon Pass . BNSF transports Boeing 737 fuselages from the Wichita, Kansas plant to Renton, Washington. The BNSF Railway directly owns and operates track in 28 U.S. states : Alabama , Arizona , Arkansas , California , Colorado , Idaho , Illinois , Iowa , Kansas , Louisiana , Minnesota , Mississippi , Missouri , Montana , Nebraska , Nevada , New Mexico , North Dakota , Oklahoma , Oregon , South Dakota , Tennessee , Texas , Utah , Washington , Wisconsin , and Wyoming . The railway also operates

6962-473: The United States and Canada. These rights allow the BNSF to operate its own trains with its own crews on competing railroads' main tracks. BNSF locomotives also occasionally show up on competitors' tracks throughout the United States and Canada by way of leases, mileage equalizations, and other contractual arrangements. BNSF operates various facilities all over the United States, plus a yard in Winnipeg, to support its transportation system. Facilities operated by

7080-546: The United States. The Southern Baptist Convention has 673 congregations and 336,000 members in the Birmingham Metro area. The United Methodists have 196 congregations and 66,759 members. The headquarters of the Presbyterian Church in America had been in Birmingham until the early 1980s; the PCA has more than 30 congregations and almost 15,000 members in the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan area with megachurches like Briarwood Presbyterian Church . The National Baptist Convention has 126 congregations and 69,800 members. The city

7198-442: The United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 151.9 square miles (393 km ), of which, 149.9 square miles (388 km ) is land and 2.0 square miles (5.2 km ) (1.34%) is water. Most of the metropolitan area lies outside of the city itself. In 2007, the metropolitan area was made up of 7 counties, 102 cities, and 21 school districts. Since then Alabaster and Pelham have broken away from

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7316-411: The United States. Due to the program, BNSF has been the industry leader in lowering the number of grade-crossing collisions. BNSF contracts with News Link , a small business in Lincoln, Nebraska , to publish employee newsletters focused on safety for some of the railroad's divisions and shops. These newsletters vary in length from four to 28 pages, published ranging from monthly to quarterly. In 2014,

7434-439: The VKM BLS. Example for an "Einheitswagen" delivered in 1957: In the United Kingdom, prior to nationalisation, wagons owned by the major railways were marked with codes of two to four letters, these codes normally being the initials of the railway concerned; for example, wagons of the Great Western Railway were marked "G W"; those of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway were marked "L M S", etc. The codes were agreed between

7552-416: The West. UP and BNSF announced in late September 1995 that, in exchange for BNSF not opposing the merger, it would obtain ownership of 335 miles (539 km) of line and about 3,500 miles (5,600 km) of trackage rights to reach these "two-to-one" shippers. Significant additions included rights over SP's Central Corridor from Denver via the Moffat Tunnel and Salt Lake City , and over Donner Pass , to

7670-466: The acquiring company discontinues the name or mark of the acquired company, the discontinued mark is referred to as a "fallen flag" railway. Occasionally, long-disused marks are suddenly revived by the companies which now own them. For example, in recent years, the Union Pacific Railroad has begun to use the mark CMO on newly built covered hoppers, gondolas and five-bay coal hoppers. CMO originally belonged to Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway ,

7788-429: The assumption of $ 10 billion in Burlington Northern debt, brings the total value to $ 44 billion. Consummated February 12, 2010, it is the largest acquisition in Berkshire Hathaway's history. The deal was structured so that the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation would merge with and into R Acquisition Company, LLC, an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. The deal closed on February 12, 2010, and at

7906-491: The best-paying industrial jobs, Black Americans joined the migration of residents from rural areas to the city for its opportunities. The Great Depression of the 1930s hit Birmingham especially hard as sources of capital that were fueling the city's growth rapidly dried up at the same time that farm laborers, driven off the land, made their way to the city in search of work. New Deal programs put many city residents to work in WPA and CCC programs, making important contributions to

8024-553: The border in Northgate, Saskatchewan . For administrative purposes, BNSF is divided into two regions and ten operating divisions. The North Region includes the Montana, Northwest, Twin Cities, Heartland and Powder River divisions. The South Region includes the Red River, California, Chicago, Kansas and Southwest divisions. Each division is further divided into subdivisions, which represent segments of track ranging from 300-mile (480 km) mainlines to 10-mile (16 km) branch-lines. The former Texas and Gulf divisions were combined into

8142-416: The cab cars went back into service. Although it does not have a steam program like the Union Pacific, the BNSF has allowed for the Southern Pacific 4449 , St. Louis–San Francisco 1522 , Santa Fe 3751 , Santa Fe 2926 , Spokane, Portland and Seattle 700 and Milwaukee Road 261 steam locomotives to operate excursions over their rails. BNSF has received E.H. Harriman Award for safety multiple times. But

8260-419: The city center for the first time since the 1920s. These projects helped diversify the city's economy but did not prevent the exodus of many of the city's residents to nearby independent suburbs. In 1979, Birmingham elected Dr. Richard Arrington Jr. as its first African-American mayor. The population inside Birmingham's city limits has fallen over the past few decades, due in large part to " white flight " from

8378-529: The city of Birmingham proper to surrounding suburbs. The city's formerly most populous ethnic group, non-Hispanic white, has declined from 57.4 percent in 1970 to 21.1 percent in 2010. From its highest population of 340,887 in 1960, the population was down to 200,733 in 2020, a loss of about 41 percent. That same period saw a corresponding rise in the populations of the suburban communities of Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Alabaster, and Gardendale, none of which were incorporated as municipalities until after 1950. In 2006,

8496-467: The city's infrastructure and artistic legacy, including such key improvements as Vulcan's tower and Oak Mountain State Park . The wartime demand for steel and the post-war building boom gave Birmingham a rapid return to prosperity. Manufacturing diversified beyond the production of raw materials. Major civic institutions such as schools, parks and museums, were able to expand their scope. Despite

8614-656: The city's visitors bureau selected "the diverse city" as a new tag line for the city. In 2011, the Highland Park neighborhood of Birmingham was named as a 2011 America's Great Place by the American Planning Association. In 2015, the International World Game Executive Committee selected Birmingham over Lima, Peru and Ufa, Russia , for the 2021 World Games, but the event was delayed a year due to

8732-439: The city. Vulcan Materials Company , a major provider of crushed stone, sand, and gravel used in construction, is based in Birmingham. In the 1970s and 1980s, Birmingham's economy was transformed by investments in bio-technology and medical research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and its adjacent hospital. The UAB Hospital is a Level I trauma center providing health care and breakthrough medical research. UAB

8850-1009: The civil rights movement occurred in 1963 when Shuttlesworth requested that Martin Luther King Jr. , and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which Shuttlesworth had co-founded, come to Birmingham, where King had once been a pastor, to help end segregation. Together they launched "Project C" (for "Confrontation"), a massive assault on the Jim Crow system . In April and May daily sit-ins and mass marches organized and led by movement leader James Bevel were met with police repression, tear gas , attack dogs, fire hoses, and arrests. More than 3,000 people were arrested during these protests, almost all of them high-school age children. These protests were ultimately successful, leading not only to desegregation of public accommodations in Birmingham but also

8968-540: The end of the 1960s, Birmingham was a primary industrial center of the South . The pace of Birmingham's growth during the period from 1881 through 1920 earned its nicknames The Magic City and The Pittsburgh of the South . Much like Pittsburgh , Birmingham's major industries were iron and steel production, plus a major component of the railroading industry, where rails and railroad cars were both manufactured in Birmingham. In

9086-950: The equipment used in these services. This may also apply to commuter rail, for example Metrolink in Southern California uses the reporting mark SCAX because the equipment is owned by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority —which owns the Metrolink system—even though it is operated by Amtrak. This is why the reporting mark for CSX Transportation , which is an operating railroad, is CSXT instead of CSX. Private (non-common carrier) freight car owners in Mexico were issued, up until around 1990, reporting marks ending in two X's, possibly to signify that their cars followed different regulations (such as bans on friction bearing trucks) than their American counterparts and so their viability for interchange service

9204-593: The field of railroading, the two primary hubs of railroading in the Deep South were nearby Atlanta and Birmingham, beginning in the 1860s and continuing through to the present day. The economy diversified during the later half of the twentieth century. Though the manufacturing industry maintains a strong presence in Birmingham, other businesses and industries such as banking , telecommunications , transportation, electrical power transmission, medical care, college education , and insurance have risen in stature. Mining in

9322-576: The final round of mergers into two big systems. BNSF and CN immediately turned to the U.S. Court of Appeals , which on July 14 ruled that the STB's right to regulate mergers allowed a moratorium, and the two railroads called off the merger. The STB released its final rules on June 11, 2001, requiring any new application to merge two Class I railroads, with the exception of smaller Kansas City Southern Railway , to demonstrate that competition would be preserved and address effects of defensive moves by other carriers. No further Class I mergers would take place until

9440-448: The first letter of the reporting mark: A railway vehicle must be registered in the relevant state's National Vehicle Register (NVR), as part of which process it will be assigned a 12-digit European Vehicle Number (EVN). The EVN schema is essentially the same as that used by the earlier UIC numbering systems for tractive vehicles and wagons , except that it replaces the 2-digit vehicle owner's code (see § Europe 1964 to 2005 ) with

9558-547: The formation of a holding company on September 22, 1995. This new holding company purchased the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (often called the "Santa Fe") and Burlington Northern Railroad , and formally merged the railways into the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway on December 31, 1996. On January 24, 2005, the railroad's name was officially changed to BNSF Railway Company using

9676-711: The former would buy the latter, but this plan was called off on October 25. The Union Pacific Railroad (UP), another major Western system, started a bidding war with BN for control of the SF on October 5. The UP gave up on January 31, 1995, paving the way for the BN-ATSF merger. Subsequently, the UP acquired the Southern Pacific Transportation Company (SP) in 1996, and Eastern U.S. systems CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway split Conrail in 1999. On February 7, 1995, BN and ATSF heads Gerald Grinstein and Robert D. Krebs announced that shareholders had approved

9794-399: The growing population and wealth of the city, its residents were markedly underrepresented in the state legislature. Although the state constitution required redistricting in accordance with changes in the decennial census, the state legislature did not undertake this until the early 1970s, when forced by a federal court case to enforce " one man, one vote ". In addition, the geographic basis of

9912-640: The initials of its original name. Warren Buffett 's Berkshire Hathaway acquired BNSF Railway in February 2010, obtaining all of its shares and taking the company private. BNSF and its chief competitor, the Union Pacific Railroad , have a duopoly on all transcontinental freight rail lines in the Western , Midwestern and Southern United States and share trackage rights over thousands of miles of track. BNSF's history dates to 1849, when

10030-482: The largest soft-drink bottlers in the United States, each with more than $ 500 million in sales per year, are located in Birmingham. The Buffalo Rock Company , founded in 1901, was formerly a maker of just ginger ale , but now it is a major bottler for the Pepsi Cola Company . Coca-Cola Bottling Company United , founded in 1902, is the third-largest bottler of Coca-Cola products in the U.S. AT&T has

10148-592: The letter "X" are assigned to companies or individuals who own railcars, but are not operating railroads; for example, the TTX Company (formerly Trailer Train Company) is named for its original reporting mark of TTX. In another example, the reporting mark for state-funded Amtrak services in California is CDTX (whereas the usual Amtrak mark is AMTK) because the state transportation agency ( Caltrans ) owns

10266-443: The line and operates freight trains as needed. Metra's cars that were originally purchased by BNSF predecessor Chicago Burlington & Quincy have letterboards above the doors. In about 2011, about 15 of the remaining cars had the original "BURLINGTON" lettering restored, while the rest now read "BNSF RAILWAY". Other Metra cars assigned to BNSF have the current BNSF "swoosh" logo next to the door. Many Amtrak routes use BNSF rails:

10384-500: The location of the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine (formerly the Medical College of Alabama) and the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry since 1947. In 1969 the University of Alabama at Birmingham was established, one of three main campuses of the University of Alabama System . Birmingham is also home to two private institutions: Samford University and Miles College . Birmingham

10502-616: The merger between Kansas City Southern and Canadian Pacific in April 2023, creating the Canadian Pacific Kansas City Railway . The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation was incorporated in 1993 to facilitate the merger of Burlington Northern, Incorporated , parent of the Burlington Northern Railroad , and Santa Fe Pacific Corporation , which owned the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe). The corporate merger

10620-420: The merger until 1999, chief executive from the merger until 2000, and chairman from 1997 until 2002. He was succeeded in all three positions by Matthew K. Rose . On November 3, 2009, Berkshire Hathaway made a $ 26 billion offer to buy the remaining 77.4% of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation it did not already own, valuing the purchase at $ 34 billion. The deal, including Berkshire's previous investment and

10738-409: The name of Birmingham, one of England's main industrial cities, to advertise that point. The growth of the planned city was impeded by an outbreak of cholera and a Wall Street crash in 1873. However, it began to develop shortly afterward at an explosive rate. In 1911, the town of Elyton, Alabama, and several other surrounding towns were absorbed into Birmingham. The start of the 20th century brought

10856-498: The operating companies was held up by issues with unions ; ATSF merged on December 31, 1996, into BN, which was renamed the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company. Union Pacific's merger with Southern Pacific further enlarged the combined BNSF network. Unlike BN and ATSF, UP and SP had significant overlap, where the end of competition between the two risked creating a monopoly for freight carriage in much of

10974-444: The owner of a reporting mark is taken over by another company, the old mark becomes the property of the new company. For example, when the Union Pacific Railroad (mark UP) acquired the Chicago and North Western Railway (mark CNW) in 1995, it retained the CNW mark rather than immediately repaint all acquired equipment. Some companies own several marks that are used to identify different classes of cars, such as boxcars or gondolas. If

11092-405: The owner, or more precisely the keeper of the vehicle. Thus each UIC member got a two-digit owner code . With the introduction of national vehicle registers this code became a country code. Some vehicles had to be renumbered as a consequence. The Swiss company BLS Lötschbergbahn had the owner code 63. When their vehicles were registered, they got numbers with the country code 85 for Switzerland and

11210-548: The plan, which would save overhead costs and combine BN's coal and ATSF's intermodal strengths. Although the two systems complemented each other with little overlap, in contrast to the Santa Fe-Southern Pacific merger, which failed because it would have eliminated competition in many areas of the Southwest , BN and ATSF came to agreements with most other Class Is to keep them from opposing the merger. UP

11328-433: The population was under the age of 18, 11.1% was from 18 to 24, 30.0% from 25 to 44, 20.4% from 45 to 64, and 13.5% was 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 85.7 males. The median income for a household in the city was $ 31,898, and the median income for a family was $ 38,776. Males had a median income of $ 36,031 versus $ 30,367 for females. The city's per capita income

11446-437: The population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 98,782 households, out of which 27.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 31.1% were married couples living together, 24.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.0% were non-families. 34.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. In Birmingham, 25.0% of

11564-442: The precipitation that falls in the summer are from thunderstorms, most of which occur in the afternoon and evening hours. The spring and fall months are pleasant but variable as cold fronts frequently bring strong to severe thunderstorms and occasional tornadoes to the region. The fall season (primarily October) features less rainfall and fewer storms, as well as lower humidity than the spring, but November and early December represent

11682-405: The railroad crossing was notable for the nearby deposits of iron ore, coal, and limestone  – the three main raw materials used in making steel. Birmingham is the only place worldwide where significant amounts of all three minerals can be found in close proximity. From the start the new city was planned as a great center of industry. The founders, organized as the Elyton Land Company, borrowed

11800-502: The railway include yards and terminals throughout its rail network, system locomotive shops to perform locomotive service and maintenance, a centralized operations center for train dispatching and network operations monitoring in Fort Worth , and regional dispatching centers. BNSF Railway also operates numerous transfer facilities throughout the western United States to facilitate the transfer of intermodal containers , trailers, and other freight traffic. BNSF Railway has direct control over

11918-484: The railways and registered with the Ministry of Railways , Government of India . Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( / ˈ b ɜːr m ɪ ŋ h æ m / BUR -ming-ham ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama , United States. Birmingham is the county seat of Jefferson County , Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2023 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 196,910 down 2% from

12036-762: The railways and registered with the Railway Clearing House . In India, wagons owned by the Indian Railways are marked with codes of two to four letters, these codes normally being the initials of the railway divisions concerned along with the Hindi abbreviation; for example, trains of the Western Railway zone are marked "WR" and "प रे"; those of the Central Railway zone are marked "CR" and "मध्य", etc. The codes are agreed between

12154-561: The recently privatized Canadian National Railway announced plans to combine as subsidiaries of a new holding company , North American Railways, which would control about 50,000 miles (80,000 km) of railroad. With CN's lines primarily in Canada and, through subsidiary Illinois Central Railroad , on a north–south corridor near BNSF's eastern edge, the two systems had little overlap. The combination would have benefited both companies by expanding available cash for capacity improvements and allowing for longer single-system movements. Shippers and

12272-537: The same time, the now merged company changed its name to Burlington Northern Santa Fe, LLC. It remains an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. In January 2022, BNSF agreed to purchase Montana Rail Link , a private company, for $ 2 billion, through an "early lease termination". The return to BNSF control required the approval of the Surface Transportation Board , which was approved on March 8, 2023. The railroad had over 900 miles (1,400 km) of track, and served 100 stations. The main classification yard

12390-497: The senate, which gave each county one seat, gave undue influence to rural counties. Representatives of rural counties also had disproportionate power in the state house, and failed to provide support for infrastructure and other improvements in developing urban population centers such as Birmingham. At this time, the General Assembly ran county governments as extensions of the state through their legislative delegations. In

12508-433: The substantial growth that gave Birmingham the nickname "The Magic City", as the downtown area developed from a low-rise commercial and residential district into a busy grid of neoclassical mid-rise and high-rise buildings and busy streetcar lines. Between 1902 and 1912 four large office buildings were constructed at the intersection of 20th Street, the central north–south spine of the city, and 1st Avenue North, which connected

12626-457: The warehouses and industrial facilities stretching along the east–west railroad corridor. This impressive group of early skyscrapers was nicknamed "The Heaviest Corner on Earth ". In 1916, Birmingham was hit by the Irondale earthquake , with a 5.1 magnitude. A few buildings in the area were slightly damaged. The earthquake was felt as far as Atlanta and neighboring states. While excluded from

12744-493: The year, sometimes falling in the form of snow during winter. 10.3 inches (26.2 cm) fell on March 13, 1993, during the 1993 Storm of the Century , which established the highest daily snowfall, one-storm, and winter season total on record. Normal snowfall for 1981–2010 was 1.6 in (4.1 cm). For the same period, the median monthly snowfall for each month was zero. The summer months are hot, with high humidity. Most of

12862-445: Was $ 19,962. About 22.5% of families and 27.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 41.9% of those under the age of 18 and 18.3% of those age 65 or over. The Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies published data showing that in 2010, among metro areas with a greater than one million population, Birmingham had the second highest ratio of Christians, and the greatest ratio of Protestant adherents, in

12980-476: Was also home to Birmingham-Southern College , before its closure in 2024. Between these colleges and universities, the Birmingham area has major colleges of medicine, dentistry, optometry, pharmacy, law, engineering, and nursing. Birmingham is also the headquarters of the Southeastern Conference , one of the major U.S. collegiate athletic conferences. Birmingham was founded on June 1, 1871, by

13098-480: Was consummated on September 22, 1995, at which point shareholders of the previous companies became shareholders of BNSF and the two companies became wholly owned subsidiaries of BNSF. In December 1996, the two holding companies and two railroads were formally merged, and in January 1998 the remaining intermediate holding company was folded into the railroad. Robert Krebs of Santa Fe Pacific was president of BNSF from

13216-416: Was delayed by a disagreement over the disposition of Santa Fe Pacific Gold Corporation, a gold mining subsidiary that ATSF agreed to sell to stockholders. This announcement began the next wave of mergers, as the "Super Seven" were merged down to four in the next five years. The Illinois Central Railroad and Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS), two of the five "small" Class Is, announced on July 19 that

13334-479: Was founded in 1871, during the post– Civil War Reconstruction period , through the merger of three pre-existing farm towns, notably, Elyton . It grew from there, annexing many more of its smaller neighbors, into an industrial and railroad transportation center with a focus on mining, the iron and steel industry , and railroading . Birmingham was named after Birmingham in Warwickshire , England , one of

13452-580: Was impaired. This often resulted in five-letter reporting marks, an option not otherwise allowed by the AAR. Companies owning trailers used in trailer-on-flatcar service are assigned marks ending with the letter "Z", and the National Motor Freight Traffic Association , which maintains the list of Standard Carrier Alpha Codes, assigns marks ending in "U" to owners of intermodal containers . The standard ISO 6346 covers identifiers for intermodal containers. When

13570-685: Was in Laurel, Montana, with smaller yards in Missoula, Billings, Bozeman and Helena. BNSF took over MRL operations on January 1, 2024. This absorbed the MRL into BNSF, integrating MRL operations, technology and personnel. All 1,200 employees were offered employment with BNSF. With BNSF's large system, it hauls many different commodities, most notably coal and grain , as well as intermodal freight . Predecessor Burlington Northern Railroad (BN) entered Wyoming 's low-sulfur coal -rich Powder River Basin in

13688-455: Was satisfied with a single segment of trackage rights from Abilene, Kansas , to Superior, Nebraska , which BN and ATSF had both served. KCS gained haulage rights to several Midwest locations, including Omaha , East St. Louis , and Memphis , in exchange for BNSF getting similar access to New Orleans . SP, initially requesting far-reaching trackage rights throughout the West, soon agreed to

13806-499: Was the Southern Transcon , a fast intermodal corridor connecting Southern California and Chicago . Most traffic is either trailers of trucking companies such as intermodal partner J. B. Hunt , or containers from the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles . The latter begins its trip on the triple-track Alameda Corridor , shared with the Union Pacific Railroad , and then follows BNSF rails from downtown Los Angeles . Its route,

13924-606: Was the 9th largest banking hub in the United States by the amount of locally headquartered deposits. In 2014, Birmingham was the 10th largest banking center. Birmingham is a powerhouse of construction and engineering companies, including BE&K , Brasfield & Gorrie , Robins & Morton , and B.L. Harbert International which routinely are included in the Engineering News-Record lists of top design and international construction firms. Two of

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