Amarillo (BNSF/UP)

Amarillo sits at the crossroads of BNSF's Southern Transcon and the former Fort Worth & Denver (now Red River Valley Subdivision), making it one of the busiest and most operationally complex rail junctions on the entire BNSF network. Six subdivisions converge here: the Hereford Sub (Transcon west toward Clovis and Belen), Clovis Sub, Panhandle Sub (east toward Wellington, KS), Red River Valley Sub (southeast toward Fort Worth via US 287), Boise City Sub (northwest toward La Junta, CO), and Dalhart Sub (north). The Boise City and Dalhart subs operate as a directional pair between Amarillo and Pueblo, Colorado — southbounds on the Boise City and northbounds on the Dalhart.

Amarillo is a crew change point, so trains routinely pause here before continuing. The Junior Yard complex, bisected by the elevated I-40 freeway, handles train staging and crew swaps. BNSF completed a fourth main track through Amarillo in 2018 to relieve congestion at this chokepoint, and intermodal trains routed from California to the Alliance terminal near Fort Worth now pass through without crew changes thanks to the "Million Dollar Connection" and West Tower connector.

Multiple public viewing locations are available. The Pierce Street overpass provides an elevated vantage over the former FW&D depot (now BNSF North Yard office). SE 3rd Avenue near the old FW&D roundhouse area offers close trackside access. The NE 3rd Avenue area near the grain elevators (formerly DeBruce/Continental Grain) gives views of the Boise City Sub wye and occasional UP grain power. Several at-grade crossings on streets like Garfield, Johnson, and Hughes also provide ground-level opportunities.

Amarillo sits on the Texas High Plains at approximately 3,600 feet elevation, and the landscape surrounding the rail corridor is quintessentially Panhandle: flat, open, and windswept. The big sky dominates every photograph, with unobstructed horizons in nearly every direction. Wind is a near-constant factor — expect steady 15-25 mph gusts that kick up dust and make tripod work challenging.

The rail corridor through town cuts east-west, flanked by a mix of industrial structures, grain elevators, and the remnants of Amarillo's three-railroad past. The massive DeBruce (formerly Continental and Producers) grain elevators tower over the north side near NE 3rd Street and Amarillo Boulevard — the old Route 66 alignment. South of the main line, the 1910 Santa Fe Depot at 401 S. Grant Street stands as a Mission Revival landmark with its stucco walls, red tile elements, and large metal Santa Fe sign on the roof. The former FW&D depot under the Pierce Street overpass lost its ornate tower when the overpass was built, but remains in use as BNSF's yard office. Faded railroad heritage is everywhere — a Rock Island overpass near 3rd & Hughes Streets still carries BNSF traffic, and a Rock Island bridge over 6th Street retains its logo.

BNSF dominates Amarillo's rail traffic. The Southern Transcon funnels high-priority Z-trains (premium intermodal, the highest priority BNSF dispatches) and S-trains (standard intermodal) between Southern California and Chicago through this corridor. Mixed manifest freights, unit grain trains bound for Panhandle feedlots, and Powder River Basin coal trains heading to the Xcel Energy Harrington power plant northeast of town via the Boise City Sub spur add variety. The railfan guide compiled for the Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society notes it is not unusual for BNSF to run 100 trains per day through Amarillo.

Union Pacific has trackage rights in the Amarillo area inherited from the Rock Island, but UP trains are uncommon here. UP power is most likely spotted at the DeBruce grain elevator in Zone 9, where UP delivers grain via the old Power Plant spur. The Progress Rail Services freight car repair facility, located between the former Rock Island and FW&D tracks east of the yard, generates some local switching.

No passenger service operates through Amarillo. The last regular passenger train was the Texas Zephyr on the Fort Worth & Denver, which ended service in 1967. The Transcon's passenger service was handled via the Santa Fe's routing through Raton Pass, not through Amarillo.

The Pierce Street overpass provides an elevated view looking down onto the BNSF North Yard and the former FW&D depot area — useful for capturing yard operations and crew changes. Morning light works best from this position.

For the Santa Fe Depot at 401 S. Grant Street, the best photo angle is from the corner of E. 4th Avenue and Garfield Street in the morning, when the sun illuminates the Mission Revival facade. The active Transcon tracks run just south of the depot.

The former Rock Island overpass near 3rd & Hughes Streets offers an unusual vantage where the ex-Rock Island grade separation crosses over the former BN line — still active BNSF trackage. The Rock Island bridge over 6th Street, which retains the RI logo, makes for a compelling heritage photograph.

For open landscape shots of trains against the Panhandle sky, head south of town along US 287 where the Red River Valley Sub parallels the highway for over 300 miles toward Fort Worth. This road-and-rail pairing allows pacing shots and wide-angle compositions of intermodal and manifest traffic with the signature big-sky backdrop. A 200-300mm telephoto lens compresses the flat terrain nicely for stacked container shots at golden hour.

Amarillo's railroad history begins with the Fort Worth & Denver City Railway (FW&DC), which reached the area in the 1880s. The Southern Kansas Railway, a Santa Fe subsidiary, arrived by 1898, negotiating trackage rights on the FW&DC between Washburn and Amarillo. The Panhandle & Santa Fe Railway (P&SF) soon built an extensive network radiating from Amarillo, ultimately encompassing 570 miles of track.

The Chicago, Rock Island & Gulf Railroad arrived in 1903-04, extending its "Choctaw Route" from Memphis and Oklahoma City westward through Amarillo to Tucumcari, New Mexico, creating a transcontinental connection with the Southern Pacific. This made Amarillo a three-railroad junction, with East Tower (Tower 75) handling the complex crossing of all three main lines beginning in 1908.

Tower 75 was a 15x30-foot concrete interlocking tower built in 1927 on Santa Fe standard plans. It controlled the junction until the Rock Island's demise — it closed in April 1986 and was demolished in mid-1990. The Rock Island's Choctaw Route through the Panhandle was abandoned after the railroad's 1980 liquidation and dismantled by 1984.

The 1910 Santa Fe Depot at 401 S. Grant Street is the only surviving historic train station in Amarillo. It included a Harvey House dining room and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. A few blocks away, Santa Fe Locomotive No. 5000 ("Madam Queen"), a massive Baldwin-built steam locomotive from 1930 that logged 1.75 million miles, is displayed at 2nd and S. Lincoln Street.

Amarillo's distinction lies in its role as one of only a few places on the BNSF system where traffic complexity rivals Kansas City or Fort Worth. Six subdivisions converging at one junction means an extraordinary variety of train types, routings, and operational maneuvers. The directional running between the Boise City and Dalhart subs is an unusual operational feature — southbounds route via the old Santa Fe to La Junta, while northbounds take the former BN through Dalhart.

The 2018 fourth main track expansion makes Amarillo one of the most heavily tracked segments of the Transcon. Crew change pauses give observers opportunities to watch power swaps and listen to radio chatter on the Amarillo Complex frequencies. The layered fallen-flag heritage — Santa Fe, Fort Worth & Denver (Burlington), and Rock Island — is still physically visible in surviving structures, rail alignments, and even bridge logos around town.