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Burlington Northern

A Great Adventure, 1970–1979

Earl J. Currie

$45.00

Burlington Northern (BN) formed from the merger of four railways. Success required complex planning and implementation programs. Then the electric-power industry summoned BN to transport immense amounts of low-sulfur coal, and railroading as an adventure began for thousands hired to improve or increase the railroad’s capacity, lines, tracks, and fleet size. Soon, BN’s lines handled the highest tonnages of any railroad line in the world, past or present. This, the first in a two-volume series, covers this important decade.

Earl J. Currie spent forty years in line management of operations and maintenance in the rail industry, including as BN’s Senior Vice President–Maintenance and Transportation.

Rails Northwest

8 1/2″ x 11″ / 444 pages

Illustrations / footnotes /glossary / bibliography / index

Clear

Gift Wrap Design

Gift wrap ($5.00)

Description

Most men who have really lived have had, in some shape, their great adventure. This railway is mine.”—James J. Hill“

Others also found their great adventure with Great Northern—thousands of dedicated, loyal employees spent their working careers in service of the company.”—John Budd, president of the Great Northern Railway

Burlington Northern (BN) formed from the merger of four long-affiliated railways that shared James J. Hill and John Budd’s spirit of railroading as a great adventure. Still, the move required complex planning and implementation programs. Soon after “M-day,” the electric-power industry summoned BN to transport immense amounts of low-sulfur coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana across thousands of miles of BN rail lines. To cope with the unexpected but exiting demand, the company hired and trained thousands of workers to improve the railroad, increase its capacity with a much larger fleet of coal-hauling cars and locomotives, construct new lines, build new sidings, add miles of double track, and upgrade thousands of miles of existing track to meet higher standards. In just a few years, BN lines were handling the highest tonnages of any railroad lines in the world—past or present. Burlington Northern: A Great Adventure, 1970–1979, the first in a two-volume series, covers this important decade.

Earl J. Currie spent forty years in line management of operations and maintenance in the rail industry, including as BN’s Senior Vice President–Maintenance and Transportation.

Rails Northwest

8 1/2″ x 11″ / 444 pages

Illustrations / footnotes /glossary / bibliography / index (2019)

ISBN 978-0-9961225-606 Hardbound

 

Additional information

Dimensions N/A
Format

Hardbound, Paperback