It’s very doubtful. Some of Berkshire’s subsidiaries include Dairy Queen, Fruit of the Loom, GEICO and NetJets, which to my knowledge haven’t had their names changed by Warren Buffett. IF BNSF chooses to change its name, it is because BNSF management decided to do so.
Without plowing through my NY DeLorme (which overlaps into Mass.), Northeast topos, and back issues of Railpace and R&R, I’ll go from memory and say the B&A did not cross the summit of the Berkshires at the State Line Tunnels but crossed that barrier well east of Pittsfield. Oh yeah, if that model of the tunnel face is riddled with tiny holes, it’s probably the same layout I saw years ago where they mistakenly thought the little black spots on the rock face were pigeon holes. The spots are actually metal plates which are anchored into the rock, not just on the tunnel exterior but all the way along the tunnel ceilings as well. At least that’s what I remember (and photographed) from my last visit there 19 years ago.
How about “BNSF Transcontinental” and just label everything “Transcon”
You’re right, Bruce - at least according to the April 2004 Mountain Railroads issue of Trains - and that is a little bit of a surprise for me at least. On page 32 with the profiles for the New England Gateway Routes, the one for the Boston & Albany shows the summit of the Berkshires as being at Hinsdale at elev. 1456 ft., which is about 12 miles (scaled) east of Pittsfield (which is in a little dip at elev. 1020 ft.) on a mostly +1.4 per cent grade. There’a another summit shown over the Coastal Divide further east at Charlton at elev. 895 ft.
- Paul North.
BNSF stock was selling at $70.00 per share. Buffette bought the shares at $100. per–30% overpriced. He must know something we don’t. This guy is no dummy. I certainly hope it all works out well. There are no plans to change the rr name, nor the CEO and nothing is in the works to relocate to Buffetts home base of Omaha.
Post of the twenty-first century!!!
Paul, that April 2004 Trains profile was intentionally simplified. The B&A’s summit was actually about three miles east of Hinsdale, closer to Washington really. The site was marked, at least in Conrail days, by a sign which read, “TOP OF THE BOSTON LINE…1,459 FT A.S.L.”
Maybe he should hire Jimmy Buffet to write songs for BNSF commercials.
Other names: DLR (David Lee Roth)
VHRR (Van Halen Railroad)
Jimmy and Warren are, in fact distant cousins but how does Van Halen figure into this?
Don’t worry! When Buffette (sic) gains control, it will be called BNSFe Railway, but later changed to “Gekko Rail”. Maybe “Gekkoe Rail”. Dunno.
It is referred to as Washington Hill but according to my Conrail track chart of the line the actual summit is in the town of Hinsdale, a couple hundred feet west of the town line.