BNSF OCS - WHEN,WHERE, WHY?-

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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Recently, while going through some of the old Threads, I was struck by what, in my mind, seemed to be a glaring absence:

I could not find any mention of a BNSF OCS. I think the last one I found was a mention of one in which some of the TRAINS had ridden on one from East to West( specific locations escape me now). That has been some time ago. The biggest event in which an OCS had played a major role was mentioned by Mike Rose in an interview with another outlet of his trip west with JB Hunt and how their business arrangement was sealed on that ride.

There are all kinds of mentions and Threads regarding the UP’s OCSs. and alerts as to its movements, and of course, the appearances of that equipment behind the Steam Heritage movements.

Is the BNSF so secretive they must move their OCS’s about their system without any mention (no fans mention having seen one) . No one mentions a potential route or movement in advance, so I guess there are no pictures of it posted or remarked on this Forum.

Why, is something so potentially interesting to the ralfan community allowed to, seemingly, fly under everyone’s radar? I know at one time BN had rehabilitated a set of Passenger Units and as I recall they were really good looking ( Greenstein Paint scheme??). IIRC they were given to the Ill Railroad Museum(?). Not really sure of that. I don’t think I’ve ever seen photos of the OCS’s inventory of cars, let alone out on the system. Are they an embarrassment? I can’t imagine that!

Union Pacific sure uses their fleet to what seems a Corporate advantage and does not seem to hesitate to show their fleet as a mark of Corporate pride and publicity.

I know their are BNSF fans out there! I can’t help but wonder what’s the deal?

&nb

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OCT?? 'splain please.

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I’m guessing Office Car Train…but that’s a guess.

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Office Car Train~~…[ OCT ]~~ Make that OCS, My error![:-^]

Maybe, BNSF calls it by another name(?) BN Threads, and references seem to have refered to their rebuilt power for their Office Car moves as the ‘Executive F’s’.

NS refers to Executive Train moves as OCT’s OCS’s. At least that seems to be the major reference used to describe those company moves when mentioned on this Forum.

Pretty much, I’m shooting in the dark, and hopefully, somebody can set the record straight, correct descriptive terminology; not to mention supply corrected references as to specifics for BNSF terms. I Know from my point of view, it would really be helpful, not to mention appreciated![%-)]

It would be great, as well if someone could post some links to some of BNSF’s equipment used on their Office Car Special Trains.

Hope that 'Splains my question![X-)][%-)]

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I don’t think there was been a complete lack of posts regarding these cars, but perhaps fewer than those of the UP. For example, I remember one post regarding Mr. Rose and Mr. Buffett going for a ride shortly after the acquisition.

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This is the point that I’m getting to. UP’s train garners interest, photos, and postings, on a fairly timely basis.

It seems that BNSF has nowhere near the publicity, or postings or photos of their company moves. The move of the Chinese QJ’s when they came out of Texas was about as much interest as I think there has been on a BNSF special move. I live out here in what would be considered the middle area of the southern part of the Transcon and after a couple of years I’ve not seen an Office Train move in that time. It may be that they come through at night ( good possibility!) but none in daylight. What does their equipment look like? It just seems like if they regularly moved their office trains, the laws of chance would indicate that one might see one on occasion. Just curious, I guess, and somewhat interested iun this aspect of BNSF.

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Not that it hasn’t been, but I’ve never seen Norfolk Southern’s referred to as OCT. It is more commonly referred to as OCS for Office Car Special.

Tom

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I went to Google. Here’s what I found:

They may not be as “high profile” with their passenger equipment as UP…perhaps because UP has been around (same colors/etc) for a long, long time. BNSF has not “in current form” but its predecessor roads obviously have some history.

Hope this helps.

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Hi Sam, I don’t know if these are bussness specials or track inspection, but Ive caught these recently.

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Looks like (according to the BNSF site) the OCS came through Topeka, KS over Memorial Weekend this year. As I recall there is a museum of rail equipment historical to the Santa Fe in Atcheson (Atcheson Rail Museum on 200 10th St. in Atcheson, KS) that has some older passenger cars there. The info I can find for them on the web suggests that some of the rolling stock for the museum may be operable, perhaps by BNSF.

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CHAD,

Thanks for the photos!

It is really interesting tosee the differences in the kinds of equipment each railroad uses for its Officials.

The last car(of the two cars) in the first picture, is that one of the cars off of the old ‘Chief’ consists?

I guess that BNSF must use indicvidually power equipped cars, they do not seem to have one car that by

looking at it is obviously a power supply car. The second car back in the middle picture might be one, but it is

hard to tell.

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if you go to www.rrpicturearchives.net and look up contributer sites George Redmond he has a few pictures of BNSF OCF train going there centraila IL in june 2010