Crawford Hill

You watch from Saw Log Road, an unpaved county road that leaves Nebraska Highway 2/71 about 5 km (3 mi) south of Crawford, runs 3.4 km (2.1 mi) east to a public grade crossing of BNSF's Butte Subdivision (FRA crossing 064825J, listed as a public highway crossing), and then follows the east side of the double-track main line south-east. About 2.2 km (1.3 mi) past that crossing the road hugs the outside of a horseshoe curve: for roughly 600 m (0.4 mi) it stays 20 to 30 m (65 to 100 ft) from the nearer track, at about the same level as the rails. The coordinates of this fiche are on the road at the apex of that curve.

From the apex the line runs away from you in two directions. The north leg recedes to the north-west toward Crawford; the south leg bends away to the south and south-west, toward the second, higher double-horseshoe near Horseshoe Road and, beyond it, Belmont at the top of the grade. Loaded trains climb toward you on the north leg, swing around the curve in front of you and leave on the south leg; empties come down the other way. Because the signals on this double track allow bidirectional running (Wikipedia), a train can appear on either track in either direction.

This is a roadside visit, not a trackside one. Stay on the county road and its shoulder: the right-of-way belongs to BNSF, and the regional tourism office, Discover Northwest Nebraska, warns that many viewing locations on this part of the line are entirely on private property. The famous panoramic views from the ranch land on the hill are sold as a paid package by the Ponderosa Ranch; this fiche covers only what can be seen free from the public road.

There is no published count of trains for this line, so plan for waiting. The helper crews based in Crawford are one clue that a heavy train is coming, since helpers are generally put on at Moody Road in Crawford (Wikipedia) before the climb.

Crawford Hill is where BNSF's line from Edgemont, South Dakota, to Alliance, Nebraska, climbs the Pine Ridge escarpment. Crawford sits at 3,678 ft (1,121 m) and the former railroad settlement of Belmont at 4,499 ft (1,371 m) (Wikipedia); the regional tourism office describes the climb as about 1.55 % over the 13 miles (21 km) between them, rising 800 ft (244 m) through two 10-degree double-horseshoe curves.

At this fiche the rails lie at about 4,020 ft (1,225 m) (USGS 3DEP elevation service at the coordinates), roughly a third of the way up the rise. The setting at the curve is open grassland: aerial imagery shows a treeless pasture on the outside of the bend where the road runs, and a band of trees inside the curve to the west. Ponderosa pines thicken farther south, where the upper double-horseshoe near Horseshoe Road winds through wooded slopes. Wikipedia describes the escarpment as buttes and grassy sand hills lined with ponderosa pines.

The roadbed of the present line is the product of the early-1980s rebuilding: Burlington Northern cut huge new cuts for a second main track, eased the curves and abandoned the Belmont Tunnel (Wikipedia). The result is a modern, wide double-track formation laid out in sweeping curves, which is why a train can be seen here bending around you rather than simply passing across the frame.

It is quiet, remote ranch country. The nearest services are in Crawford, roughly 8.7 km (5.4 mi) away in a straight line, and the road is gravel.

The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad built the line between Alliance, Nebraska, and Edgemont, South Dakota, in 1888 and 1889, in competition with the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad's Cowboy Line (Discover Northwest Nebraska). To get over the Pine Ridge escarpment the engineers bored the Belmont Tunnel, 698 ft (213 m) long and completed on 25 August 1889 (Wikipedia); it remains the only railway tunnel ever built in Nebraska. The tunnel was the final obstacle in connecting the line from Alliance to Crawford.

The route passed to Burlington Northern on 2 March 1970, in the four-railroad merger (Wikipedia). In the 1970s, Railroads Illustrated describes Belmont as a quiet community on BN's Alliance Division with sparse traffic. That changed when Burlington Northern built south from Edgemont into Wyoming's Powder River Basin coal fields, sending loaded coal trains east over Crawford Hill (Wikipedia).

Heavier trains needed helpers. The regional tourism office recounts how trains dropped their caboose at Crawford, coupled the helpers, tied the caboose behind them, climbed the hill and reversed the process at Belmont.

In the early 1980s Burlington Northern re-engineered the hill to add a second main track, eliminate the Belmont Tunnel and create several double-horseshoe curves that ease curve radius and reduce the grade (Wikipedia). The last train went through the tunnel on 3 May 1982 (Wikipedia). The curve in front of this fiche is part of that rebuilt alignment.

After the BNSF merger of 1996, the line received upgraded signalling and communications, and concrete ties were laid in 1999 to carry heavier tonnage (Wikipedia). Trains are dispatched from Fort Worth, Texas.

The Ponderosa Ranch calls Crawford Hill the steepest grade on the BNSF Railway in Nebraska, and the climb is laid out in two 10-degree double-horseshoe curves engineered in the early 1980s to ease the grade. The regional tourism office warns that many viewpoints on this part of the line are entirely on private property; this one is a public road.

What makes this fiche specific is the geometry: the county road does not simply cross the railway, it runs 20 to 30 m (65 to 100 ft) outside a horseshoe curve for about 600 m (0.4 mi), at rail level, on open grassland. A loaded coal train therefore bends around a person standing on a public road, with its head end and its rear helpers or DPUs in view on either leg.

The operation itself is a helper district. Manned helpers based in Crawford assist heavy loaded trains up the hill and are removed at Belmont (Wikipedia), so a single train can show locomotives at the front, in the rear and, with helpers, a separate set pushing.

The paid alternative exists and is worth knowing about: the Ponderosa Ranch, a 3,600-acre working cattle and hunting ranch about eight miles south-east of Crawford, sells a railfan cabin package ($75 per night) and day access to watch ($35), prices read on its website on 30 September 2026. This fiche does not replace that; it gives the free, public view from the county road.