Along Santa Fe Street in El Paso, TX, near the EL Paso Laundry and Cleaners Company, stands a southwestern style warehouse labeled “Santa Fe Freight House”. Now, this building is now the BNSF Railway Depot for El Paso. And I love to see it when I enter into downtown El Paso along the new 375 loop.
Next to the Freight House is a wide lane of several railroad tracks, some with full trains, some with cars, and some with locomotives. Unfortunately, it is hard to see the action taking place because of the fencing (for good reason) and the size of the rail yard. I would love to see a place one day that would have a platform to simply observe that activity on the track. I’m sure it violates some security protocol, but it would certainly provide a safe place to enjoy the movement of trains.
I thoroughly enjoy seeing the Santa Fe Freight House as it brings back memories of the time when Santa Fe ruled the track before merging with Burlington Northern in 1996 and officially renaming itself BNSF in 2005. (Wikipedia). The adobe like style of the front truly makes a statement toward the building’s Santa Fe heritage. It is good to see the big blue cross still in use. At a time when “rebranding” means puring the old from existence, it is nice to see that BNSF is somewhat above that and allows a nod every now and then to the iconic trains that built the company.