BNSF Railway train B-NBYLAC4-29 is a Baretable train (originating in North Bay CA and headed to Los Angeles CA), seen passing through Fullerton, California, on March 31, 2017. But if it is a Baretable train, why does it have containers? BNSF quite often runs Inventory Repositioning trains (also known as “Repo-trains”), which are intermodal trains hauling empty containers. They also sometimes use spine cars as well. These “baretables” often travel westward to Los Angeles’ Hobart Yard or San Bernardino, CA, from terminals to the north and east North Bay CA, Phoenix AZ and Denver CO) that don’t have nearly as equal a balance of inbound versus outbound freight. The railroad can symbol the trains as a “B” due to their light tonnage, which allows them to be run with different restrictions than loaded trains. And, as can be seen here, these trains also often include a lot of power in order to reposition excess locomotives that accumulate at these terminals. This B-NBYLAC4-29 is being pulled by eight locomotives: BNSF 6061, BNSF 6906, BNSF 7146, BNSF 4901, BNSF 7246, BNSF 4928, BNSF 3933 and BNSF 6764.
