Chris Parker and I left the Forest Park Miniature Railroad and what should have been a ten minute trip back to the Hilton Hotel so I could take the NRHS bus to the BNSF Dispatching Center Tour at 2:00 PM turned into a thirty-five minute trip because of traffic. Chris dropped me off at the Hilton and I looked for a bus to take but there were none so I went to the registration room on the third floor and Eileen called to see if I could still make it. It turned out that I could take a taxi to the Dispatching Center in North Fort Worth and hope they would let me join the tour. A taxi was waiting and after he received some directions, we took off on Interstate 35 North to Western Center Road and turned left and soon I started looking for BNSF signs.
Here is the sign along Western Center Road.
Down that road brings you to this sign, where we turned into a driveway and the taxi dropped me off with an $18 fare and a four dollar tip.
Along the loop to the Network Operations Center are former business cars used for dinner parties and the like.
BNSF business car "James J. Hill", ex. Burlington Northern BNA 9 "Meramec River", ex. St. Louis-San Francisco business car 2, nee St. Louis-San Francisco coach 1086 built by American Car and Foundry in 1912.
BNSF 40-seat dining car "Canadian River", ex. Burlington Northern BNA 8 "Canadian River", nee Great Northern business car A-28 "Kootenai River" built by Pullman in 1947.
BNSF business car "Yellowstone River", ex. Burlington Northern BNA 4 "Yellowstone River", nee Northern Pacific "Yellowstone River" built by Pullman in 1955. It was primarily used by Norther Pacific Presidents Robert McFarlane and Louis Menk until the merger in 1970.
BNSF business car "Cyrus K. Holliday", ex. Santa Fe 54, nee Santa Fe 31 built by Pullman in 1918.
I walked into the lobby and was met by a smiling BNSF security officer who checked my identification and took me down an elevator to the BNSF store where I caught up with the tour group. Once I was finished there, I was asked to go upstairs and wait in the gallery for our tour to start so I went in and started taking pictures.
An official clock and model of the William Crook steam engine, the first engine of the Northern Pacific Railway.
A display case of telegraph equipment and Prince Albert tobacco.
Many excellent paintings adorn this gallery.
Steam engine locomotive bell and Northern Pacific emblem.
Two more display cases.
James Hill's desk and cigar humidor.
Dining car china.
A BNSF C44-9W.
Painting of the Stone Arch bridge in the Twin Cities.
A St. Louis-San Francisco F3.
Display of Rails and other things.
Northern Pacific steam engine model.
Great Northern steam engine model.
This display case had many interesting items.
Great Northern E8.
Views of the far end of the room.
Santa Fe Super Fleet emblem.
Frisco emblem.
Santa Fe dining car china.
Passenger timetables and other materials.
Dining car china and a few other items.
Many historical things are found throughout this gallery.
Out in the hall many Safety Awards are on display.
When the rest of our group arrived, we were given a tour of the gallery.
Rail is the most important piece of railroading. Once our tour here was done, we then proceeded as a group through key-card activated doors.
We went out onto a bridge enclosed by glass and below us was former business car "Canadian River". We were then led into a room with curtains on one side and sat around a large table where a film aboute History and People of the BNSF Railway was shown and I learned several new items. At the end of the program, the curtains opened to reveal below the BNSF Network Operations Center, also known as the BNSF Dispatching Center in Fort Worth, Texas.
Down below are 91 dispatching cubes that handle most of the BNSF Railway. There are joint local offices with the Union Pacific Railroad in San Bernardino, California; Springs, Texas; and Kansas City, Missouri. Overhead screens were updated by the minute of facts and other information with regard to railroad operations.
Each dispatcher has a view of the large screens from their workplace.
The screens changed every few minutes.
The passenger train desks are against the far wall.
In support of the Susan G. Koeman Breast Cancer awareness program, a special Baked Potato lunch was being offered to the employees today.
Dispachers busy at work!
One of the dispatcher's stations.
If a train crew has an emergency, a white light flashes on and off until the phone is picked up; we witnessed this occur during our visit.
Two more dispatchers hard at work.
This building is designed to withstand any tornado or other natural or man-made disasters.
Looking down into the Network Operations Center.
Bake Off/Bake Sale information on one of the screens. Another screen then caught my eye.
Amtrak On Time Performance.
Chicago Commuters On Time Performance.
Metrolink Commuters On Time Performance.
Seattle Commuters On Time Performance.
New Mexico Commuters On Time Performance.
Locomotive MDBF.
Locomotive Utilization. It was now time to leave and I went outside to wait then boarded the bus back to the Hilton Hotel in Fort Worth. A special thank you to the BNSF for having us and to the NRHS for providing me with the opportunity to finally see this incredible place.
Chris Parker was waiting for me in front of the hotel and soon we were driving north to our first stop on the way to Oklahoma, which would be at Saginaw Crossing.
Our wait here was not long as Amtrak's Heartland Flyer soon passed our location with former San Diegan F40PH 229 now Non-Powered Control Unit 90229 leading the train.
Over on the former Fort Worth & Denver, we found a BNSF coal train waiting so continued north and followed the railroad the best we could.
At Ponder, Texas we took time to ponder as we photographed Santa Fe caboose 999554, nee Santa Fe 1764 built by America Car and Foundry in 1929, now serving another use then proceeded to Gainesville, Texas where we stopped for a buffet dinner.
Before we left Gainessvile, we found the former Santa Fe station built in 1902 the took Interstate 35 across the Red River into Oklahoma, and drove thirty miles to Ardmore, where we checked into the Best Western Ardmore Inn for the night.
