Northtown Yard
Just another overview shot from this spot durimg the first day of our Minnesota adventure. John and I had some time to kill while waiting for Frank's delayed flight to arrive so made our way up to BNSF's giant Northtown Yard to have a look around. 44th Avenue has a nice sidewalk and passes directly over the diesel shop and affords a view compass south toward the hump, bowl, and main yard tower all set against the backdrop of Minneapolis' downtown skyline five miles away.
Built in the early 1970s on the site of a former Northern Pacific facility, this was one of the first major infrastructure projects of the newly merged Burlington Northern Railroad. The yard presently has a master retarder feeding 7 group retarders with a total of 53 tracks in the bowl (orignally it had 63). A set of remote control units drifts north off track Caboose 4 toward the North Receiver with a pair of faded warbonnet Santa Fe Dash-9s bracketing and SD40-2 in H1 paint.
To learn a little more check out these links from BNSF's own corporate site:
www.bnsf.com/news-media/railtalk/service/hump-yards.html
www.bnsf.com/news-media/railtalk/service/master-retarder....
Fridley, Minnesota
Friday May 5, 2023
Northtown Yard
Just another overview shot from this spot durimg the first day of our Minnesota adventure. John and I had some time to kill while waiting for Frank's delayed flight to arrive so made our way up to BNSF's giant Northtown Yard to have a look around. 44th Avenue has a nice sidewalk and passes directly over the diesel shop and affords a view compass south toward the hump, bowl, and main yard tower all set against the backdrop of Minneapolis' downtown skyline five miles away.
Built in the early 1970s on the site of a former Northern Pacific facility, this was one of the first major infrastructure projects of the newly merged Burlington Northern Railroad. The yard presently has a master retarder feeding 7 group retarders with a total of 53 tracks in the bowl (orignally it had 63). A set of remote control units drifts north off track Caboose 4 toward the North Receiver with a pair of faded warbonnet Santa Fe Dash-9s bracketing and SD40-2 in H1 paint.
To learn a little more check out these links from BNSF's own corporate site:
www.bnsf.com/news-media/railtalk/service/hump-yards.html
www.bnsf.com/news-media/railtalk/service/master-retarder....
Fridley, Minnesota
Friday May 5, 2023