BNSF East Goffs, CA
Follow the money. The size of the investment BNSF made in the 2020s to increase the capacity of the former Santa Fe double track CTC Needles Subdivision in California’s Mojave Desert is a good indicator of the value of today’s intermodal franchise to the company. West from Needles near the Colorado River (475 feet elevation), the railroad climbs a steady 1.4% grade for almost 30 miles through a pass in the Dead Mountains and around the north end of the Piute Mountains to the summit at Goffs (2580 feet elevation). Beginning in the 1980s, growing traffic resulting from globalization created long heavy intermodal trains that overwhelmed the existing infrastructure. All westbounds were limited to the progress that the slowest westbound train made climbing Goffs Hill. By 2023, BNSF completed a third mainline track from West Needles to East Goffs at a cost of $155 million.
Prior to 2023, the BNSF Dispatcher in Fort Worth would use the siding at Goffs just west of the summit to prioritize trains. The last few minutes of evening sun glints on a meet at East Goffs. An eastbound intermodal dims his headlight and holds for a westbound cresting Goffs Hill, then glides east and begins the long descent to Needles.
For a description of West Goffs see:flic.kr/p/2qYN23u
BNSF East Goffs, CA
Follow the money. The size of the investment BNSF made in the 2020s to increase the capacity of the former Santa Fe double track CTC Needles Subdivision in California’s Mojave Desert is a good indicator of the value of today’s intermodal franchise to the company. West from Needles near the Colorado River (475 feet elevation), the railroad climbs a steady 1.4% grade for almost 30 miles through a pass in the Dead Mountains and around the north end of the Piute Mountains to the summit at Goffs (2580 feet elevation). Beginning in the 1980s, growing traffic resulting from globalization created long heavy intermodal trains that overwhelmed the existing infrastructure. All westbounds were limited to the progress that the slowest westbound train made climbing Goffs Hill. By 2023, BNSF completed a third mainline track from West Needles to East Goffs at a cost of $155 million.
Prior to 2023, the BNSF Dispatcher in Fort Worth would use the siding at Goffs just west of the summit to prioritize trains. The last few minutes of evening sun glints on a meet at East Goffs. An eastbound intermodal dims his headlight and holds for a westbound cresting Goffs Hill, then glides east and begins the long descent to Needles.
For a description of West Goffs see:flic.kr/p/2qYN23u