Trains – September 2019

WYOMING

WASHINGTON

SOUTH

DAKOTA

NEBRASKA

MONTANA

KANSAS

IDAHO

MRL

BNSF

BNSF

BNSF

Typical routing, not all lines shown

Direction

of travel

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nto

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att

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ret

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Ste

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s^ P

as

s

We

na

tch

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ok

an

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Sa

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int

Mis

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All

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Lin

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Kansas City

Newton

Wichita

N

0 Scale 200 miles

© 2019 Kalmbach Media Co., TRAINS: Rick Johnson

BNSF BNSF Railway

MRL Montana Rail Link

Direction

of travel

Direction

of travel

Direction

of travel

C

hances are high, if

you have flown in

the past few de-

cades, that you

have ridden on a

Boeing 737 air-

craft. Assembled

in Renton, Wash.,

outside of Seattle, one may not

know of the unique path the

aircraft has taken to get it to

cruising altitude so you could

lower your tray table and

recline your seatback.

People may not believe you

when you tell them that the air-

craft that you are in made its

path to flight from the rolling

prairies of Kansas, through the

Sand Hills of Nebraska, across

the Rocky Mountains, along

stretches of mountain rivers

and then over the Cascade

Mountains, including through

8-mile-long Cascade Tunnel.

The production of Boeing

aircraft and its partnership with

the railroads as part of its sup-

ply chain has been in place for

several decades. Components

and partial airframes for the

aircraft have ridden the rails

from Kansas, Texas, and Cali-

fornia since the 1960s.

Beginning in July 1997 with

the first 737-800 Next Genera-

tion aircraft, Boeing has been

moving full 737 fuselage

frames, along with wing assem-

blies and other components,

from Spirit Aerosystems of

Wichita, Kan., via BNSF Rail-

way and Montana Rail Link to

its assembly locations 2,200 rail

miles away in Everett and Rent-

on, Wash. (Deliveries to Everett

include components for the

construction of 747, 767, and

777 aircraft assembled there.)

Prior to 2019, when soft-

ware problems forced the

grounding of the 737MAX

fleet and slowed production of

new planes, the railroad was

moving up to 52 airframes

each month, and Boeing plans

to increase those numbers in

the future. In February 2018,

the 10,000th 737 fuselage

arrived at the 1.1 million-

square-foot Renton assembly

plant (see page 32).

Trains carrying aircraft

frames require special handling

and care due to its size and

need to ensure that no damage

occurs to the lading. Even

minor damage can result in the

total loss of the fuselage due to

integrity issues. In 2014, a train

carrying six 737 fuselages de-

railed along the Clark Fork Riv-

er while operating over Mon-

tana Rail Link near Alberton,

Mont. The derailment resulted

in several fuselages ending up

in the river. Due to the severity

of the damage that occurred

during the derailment the fuse-

lages were scrapped nearby.

Although they can move in

a dedicated train, fuselages are

added to the head end of trains

out of the Midwest and can

then be swapped out for Seat-

tle-bound trains at the yard at

30 SEPTEMBER 2019

A special Boeing fuselage test

train passes Greenwood, Neb., on

the BNSF Creston Subdivision in

April 2018. Two photos, Darrell D. Wendt

BNSF GP38-2 No. 2723 idles

beside a new 737 fuselage at

Balmer Yard in Seattle. Note their

similar sizes; couldn’t you just

imagine flying in the locomotive

instead? Charlie Conway

ROUTE OF THE 737

A Boeing 737 fuselage rolls through a country road crossing in Mills County, Iowa, on train KCKPAS, Kansas City, Kan., to Pasco, Wash.