Airplanes riding the BNSF

I was out in Gillette, Wyoming to the west of the downtown yards in the morning of June 23. I saw ES44DCs 7656 and 7524 pulling two flatcars, each with a unfinished Boeing aircraft fuesalage on them. The rest of the train was a mixed freight. Where were these aircraft coming from? I would guess they were going to Seattle but why over the BN north exit of the Powder River Basin and not GN's high line through Montana? Also, is this a rare sighting on the BNSF or is this kind of load common?

Boeing builds the fuselages in the midwest, (I'm thinking in Kansas or Nebraska; maybe somebody else knows exactly where), and ships them to their plant near Seattle for final assembly. From there, coming up through Wyoming and Montana would be a direct route to meet up with the former GN line through the Cascades via Montana Rail Link. This type of move is relatively common and has been done for many years. I saw a fuselage train at Scenic, Washington in Stevens Pass back in 1998.

I am pretty sure that Boeing makes their airplane fuselages in Wichita, KS.

I just saw online that this train is shipped once a week. Lucky spotting on my part I guess.

Yes, Wichita, KS is the origionating point for the Boeing shipments. Used to see these trains quite often all through the 1980s and 1990s while working for BN out of Gillette.

Found this a little while ago on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8pTLPhl ... re=related
very interesting loads.

These indeed originate in Wichita KS. I live there now, and the elevated tracks run through downtown about a block from my loft. BNSF hauls 3 or 4 fuselages (and some other parts like tails in the odd shaped enclosed cars) from the aircraft assembly facility south of town through the city pretty regularly to a yard up north where I presume they get coupled to other cars for the trip out to the Pacific NorthWest. As the tracks through downtown are elevated, you can see the planes rolling through from pretty much anywhere. It's cool!