Near or far, BNSF locomotives stand out wherever they are

We’re proud of our beautiful orange locomotives, all 7,500 of them. Each has an important job to do as they move customers’ freight across our 32,500-mile network, which is in the westernmost two-thirds of the United States as well as three Canadian provinces. 

But it’s also common to see other railroads’ locomotives combined with ours, or to see our locomotives operating on other railroads’ networks elsewhere in the country.  

When a BNSF train reaches an interchange point, say Chicago, but the rail cars’ destination is beyond that point, we may not swap out locomotives before the train continues its journey. This arrangement – called run-through power – increases efficiency between railroads and allows expedited delivery schedules for our customers.   

Sometimes our orange locomotives can be found in non-BNSF territory because they are part of a “pool,” an arrangement between railroads to share locomotives.

The train photos in this article all show BNSF locomotives being operated as part of other railroads’ trains on their networks.