Pasco, WA: BNSF/NP Pasco Railyard and Amtrak Station

Yard: (Satellite, 306 photos)

Tower: (3D Satellite)

Depot: (Satellite)

Roundhouse: (Satellite)

3D Satellite, looking South

It still has a yard tower.

Street View

Cerita Sakura posted

BNSF Pasco Hump Yard

Pasco was a railroad town from the beginning when Northern Pacific (NP) Railway’s named the town in 1881. The Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway (SP&S)was completed from Pasco to Portland along the Columbia River in 1908 and the line was opened from Spokane to Pasco in 1909.

Pasco became home to the first electronic freight classification hump yard in the Pacific Northwest in 1955. Classification yards are where railroad cars are separated into blocks of cars headed for individual destinations. These blocks are combined to form new trains.

A hump yard is inclined on both ends. When cars are mechanically released, they roll down the tracks into the proper section. The new $5.5 million hump yard provided faster handling of increased traffic from the Columbia Basin agricultural business.

NP and SP&S merged into Burlington Northern in 1970.  In 1996 Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway merged with BN to become Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway, now BNSF Railway. More than 400 BNSF employees work in Pasco. BNSF’s Pasco yard is one of eight BNSF hump yards vital to the movement of over 1.5 million carloads of freight each year.

Bradley Broadbeck: Always a pain taking the train in there!!

1 of 25 photos posted by Scott Butner
Order here: https://scottbutnerphotography.squarespace.com/readytohang-wall-art/p/pasco-railyard

 

Steven J. Brown posted
Burlington Northern SD40-2 8130 (built 1980, became FURX 8130 to GMTX SD38-2 3303) outside the NP Roundhouse (torn down in 2007) in Pasco, Washington - October 23, 1990.
Steven J. Brown shared
Steven J. Brown shared

Allan Gilbert: I had a comical run-in with a special agent there. The folks in Fort Worth sounded so over talking to him. Best part was I'd already gotten my shots and was leaving anyway.

Street View, looking North

 

Crystal Goolsby, 1955
Brianna Fontak posted

This yard still has most of its tracks. Note the bridge across the Columbia River.

1964 Pasco and 1965 Eltopia Quads @ 62,500

And the turntable and roundhouse foundation still exist.

Satellite

The Amtrak station looks rather new but it pays homage to depot architecture.

Street View

Trainorders

I assume the old Amtrak station was down here somewhere.

Satellite

I can't decide which building was the depot.

EarthExplorer: Jun 2, 1948 @ 27,200; AR1XB0000010049