The

BNSF BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

Avard Subdivision runs of track between

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

, starting at milepost (MP) 425.2, to

Avard, Oklahoma Avard was a town in Woods County, Oklahoma, United States. The town is southwest of Alva, and northeast of Waynoka. The population was 26 at the 2000 census. After initial growth Avard began declining in the 1930s. Avard had a post offic ...

, MP 602, where it meets the BNSF Panhandle Sub.

History

The Avard Sub was built by the

St. Louis–San Francisco Railway The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway , commonly known as the "Frisco", was a railroad that operated in the Midwest and South Central United States from 1876 to April 17, 1980. At the end of 1970, it operated of road on of track, not includi ...

(SLSF) also known as the Frisco. It was built in the late 1890s into the turn of the century. In the Frisco days it was separated by two subdivisions. From Tulsa to Perry, Oklahoma, was known as the Perry Sub, where it crossed the

interlocking In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and tracks are sometimes collectively re ...

with the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Top ...

(ATSF). It paralleled the ATSF for about six miles and then the Frisco turned to the west. Then from Perry to Avard was known as Avard Sub. The ATSF had

trackage rights Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may ...

on the subdivision because of ATSF's intermodal business from Los Angeles, CA, to Memphis, TN. In the early 1980s, nearly 100 years later, the Burlington Northern Railroad (BN) merged and bought all of the Frisco. The ATSF still had trackage rights but the two subdivisions (Perry & Avard Subs) were combined into one to form all 177 miles of the Avard Sub. Then in 1995, the BN and the ATSF were merged to form the BNSF Railway.

1995 to present

After the merger the Avard Sub and all of its 100 years of existence, was

track warrant control A track warrant is a set of instructions issued to a train crew authorizing specific train movements. The system is widely used in North America. The warrant is issued by the train dispatcher and delivered to the train crew via radio. The train cr ...

(TWC). There were no signals except at interlockings and between Black Bear (ATSF interlocking at Perry, OK), and just outside Perry. There was only about 20 to 30 trains a day operating on the Avard Sub, mostly intermodal traffic. Then in 2012, BNSF signed an agreement with Asian markets to have containers back in Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, etc.), in 24 days. This meant more intermodal traffic. With the growing demands of crude oil and other general freight trains, BNSF was short on locomotives and train crews. It was crucial to upgrade the Avard Sub. CTC (

centralized traffic control Centralized traffic control (CTC) is a form of railway signalling that originated in North America. CTC consolidates train routing decisions that were previously carried out by local signal operators or the train crews themselves. The system cons ...

) and longer sidings were needed. In 2014 the Avard Sub was upgraded with CTC, PTC (

positive train control Positive train control (PTC) is a family of automatic train protection systems deployed in the United States. Most of the United States' national rail network mileage has a form of PTC. These systems are generally designed to check that trains a ...

), longer sidings, and a maximum speed of 70 mph for all qualified intermodal trains. In February 2018, BNSF announced their intention to add a new siding to the Avard Sub near Hopeton, OK. The work was completed by Millstone Weber in August 2018.

Trains

There are several types of trains that run today on the Avard Sub. * Intermodal Trains (S, Q, & Z trains) * Freight (Manifest) Trains (H & M trains) * Unit Trains (Grain, corn syrup, and rock trains) Intermodals are good to run 70 mph, however there are a lot of permanent speed restrictions across the Avard.

References

{{reflist

External links

BNSF Subdivisions
BNSF Railway lines Rail infrastructure in Oklahoma