Barstow Yard

Its beginnings date back to the construction of a southern transcontinental railroad connection by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF).

BNSF operates the transcontinental connection under the name Southern Transcon and, in 2019, employed around 1000 people at Barstow Yard.

AT&SF also acquired the section through the Mojave Desert from SP and reached the west coast through its subsidiary, California Southern Railroad.

The AT&SF was able to expand its original network from Kansas (Atchison and Topeka Railroad) to New Mexico (Albuquerque and Santa Fe) to the Pacific coast by the end of the 19th century.

After the train station was destroyed by a fire at the end of 1909, AT&SF built a large railway depot with a roundhouse for 25 steam locomotives.

10 tracks) in the west; the mainline locomotives (line haul) are replaced here by shunting locomotives (switchers), which move the trains to the drainage mountain and push the freight cars into the eastward classification bowl (48 tracks) in the center; here, the freight cars are put together into new trains, which are then transported to the departure yard (approx.

[8] At the end of the west side, the depot has a maintenance facility for diesel locomotives with six continuous tracks and further systems for refueling and cleaning, as well as a turning loop.

There is also a maintenance facility for freight cars (three continuous tracks) and several sidings for locomotives between the discharge hill and the exit group.

In the north, several busy bypass tracks border the area (BNSF Cajon and Mojave Subdivisions), which are also used by Amtrak and Union Pacific (UP).