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The first drawing outlines the majority of
American (and Canadian) railroad mergers that have taken place during the 1900's
(we're 24 years into the next century and millennium, and it still seems weird
to refer to it in that manner, it feels so 18-hundreds-ish!)
The heritage railroads are around the edge,
what we have today is in the middle, and what we might have in the future is the
big question mark. The heritage railroads are what was generally around
during the 1950-1960 years. The only railroad that has prevailed since
it's inception in the 1800's is the Union Pacific - way to go UP! And can
you believe the Conrail split-up is already 25 years behind us!
I have a few corrections to make already, as I stopped by a CN PDF
and noted the following: The IC merged in 2001, the WC merged in 2003,
Great Lakes Transportation merged in 2005, and the BCR merged in 2005.
Guess I need to add the KCS/CP merger now, huh? :-)
This page will load pretty slow, even on
hi-speed, as the JPEGs are full size around half a meg each. The BNSF
chart is 1.6meg. Please send me any additions or corrections.
I apologize up front for this page not being friendly to portable devices,
that's the way it goes.....
Disclaimer: A lot of the info... dates,
railroad names, etc, came off the internet, some from Wikipedia, so it may not
be as accurate as it should (or could) be, but they give the viewer a fairly
good idea of the family history and when things happened.
See the bottom of the page for a comprehensive BNSF Family chart, sans dates.