BNSF- Burlington-Northern-Santa Fe is one of USA's largest railroad companies, a fusion product of really many former companies. It is a gargo operator, whose main business is to haul intermodal trains all along the US Pacific coast and over the mountains inland, way behind the deserts and mountains toward the east. This picture is from the small township of Placentia, south of Los Angeles and this is the main line from southern California over the mountains towards the east. The picture shows four BNSF's locomotives hauling a roughly 50 cars long container train towards the mountains and deserts in the east. The first locomotive no 7818 is a General Electric type GE ES44DC. It is a fairly new locomotive, built in 3/2010. Picture in Placentia CA 28.10.2016 by Ilkka Siissalo.

FUNET railway pictures archive - United States of America

For the United States, railroads are mainly for cargo traffic. Compared with Europe, US passenger rail traffic is really poorly developed, most of the passenger trains are hauled by huge diesels as very few lines have been electrified at all, speeds are slow and the trains run not frequently at all. Even in the vicinity of major cities it is not uncommon that the passenger trains run only a few times during morning and evening rush hours and otherwise not at all. Cargo traffic, however is well developed, although that also relies on diesel power. As is well known, diesel fuel prices in USA are by far cheaper than in Europe, so it still makes sense not to electrify main lines, and electrification would anyway be expensive as the distances are huge in comparison with mainland Europe. The tracks used are often much heavier than in Europe and train lengths and weights are remarkable. It is not uncommon to encounter freight trains that slowly roll past a given standpoint for more than five minutes before they have gone by and which may have 5-7 locomotives, often some at the end of the trains or even in the middle.

Picture categories

One of the few long distance passenger traffic trains in the west, this is the Amtrak "Surfliner" service no.777 stopping at the Anaheim station in southern California south of Los Angeles, bound for San Louis Obispo. At the beginning of the train there is just a simple (and ugly) double decker steering wagon and at the back the pushing locomotive was this Amtrak 459, which is an EMD type F59PHI built in 1998. Picture at Anaheim station (a.k.a. Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center) 25.10.2016 by Ilkka Siissalo.

Pennsylvania GG1 #4861 receiving maintenance at the Pennsylvania Railroad's Meadows Yard in Kearny NJ. February 1968. Kodachrome & Scan by Jeff Sumberg. (16k) Uploaded Dec 14 1995

White Pass and Yukon narrow gauge 73 (Baldwin 2-8-2 built 1947) seen at Skagway Alaska, 19 September 1982 with driver J.D.True. Photo and scan copyright Pat and David Othen. Uploaded Nov 21, 1995

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