The Burlington Northern - Santa Fe Railroad is a consolidation of many eariler railroads. The first major railroad to enter Springfield was the Atlantic and Pacific in the 1870's. This railroad became part of the Saint Louis - San Francisco railroad. The Frisco as it is more affectionately called had two main lines. One line ran from Saint Louis to Tulsa and Fort Worth. The other line ran from Kansas City to Memphis and eventually to Birmingham Alabama and Pensacola Florida. Both these lines intersected in Springfield, and Springfield became the headquarters of the Frisco.

The Burlington Northern was formed in 1970 by merging the Burlington Route, Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and Spokane Portland and Seattle railroads. The Frisco offered the BN expansion into the sunbelt states, and in 1980 the Frisco was absorbed by the Burlington Northern. The Frisco became the Springfield and Fort Worth divisions of the Burlington Northern railroad.

In the 1990s the Santa Fe began working more closely with the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe trains could often be seen traveling on the Springfield division. In 1995 the two railroads formally anounced plans to merge into one big railroad. It was eventually called the Burlington Northern - Santa Fe. This is a very interesting time for railroad photography. Many locomotives in the original colors of their parent railroads can still be seen. However, more and more locomotives are showing up in the BNSF Heritage I and Heritage II schemes, making for some very colorful photography.