The Bighorn Divide and Wyoming Railroad (reporting mark BDW), founded in 1985, is a shortline railroad in

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

, United States. The company originally operated under the name Bad Water Line before its current operator purchased it in 2002. It operates of track within the state, including a line it owns between

Shoshoni The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions: * Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming * Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho * Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah * Goshute: western Utah, easter ...

and Bonneville, Wyoming, along with trackage rights over

BNSF Railway 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 ...

to Lysite that allow it to access a branch line to an oil facility. The company also performs switching at a rail yard near

Casper, Wyoming Casper is a city in, and the county seat of, Natrona County, Wyoming, United States. Casper is the second-largest city in the state, with the population at 59,038 as of the 2020 census. Only Cheyenne, the state capital, is larger. Casper is nic ...

, that is unconnected to its other operations.

History

The Bighorn Divide and Wyoming Railroad was formed as the Bad Water Line in 1985, with its origins in a trucking company that transloaded cargo to trains in Bonneville, Wyoming. In 1988, the company purchased a former

Chicago and North Western Railway The Chicago and North Western was a Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the "North Western". The railroad operated more than of track at the turn of the 20th century, and over of track in seven states befor ...

line to prevent its abandonment, and began operations between Shoshoni and Bonneville. The company renamed to the Bad Water Railway in 2000, and the following year began service on a newly built line between Lost Cabin and the

mainline in Lysite, which serves a

ConocoPhillips ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational corporation engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and production. It is based in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas. The company has operations in 15 countries and has production in ...

facility. Via a 2002 purchase, the Bighorn Divide and Wyoming Railroad took over the Bad Water Railway's operations. A railcar repair shop was built in Shoshoni, in 2006. The trucking company, railroad, and repair shop are all owned by local businessman Cliff Root. The Bighorn Divide and Wyoming Railroad was recognized by BNSF in 2013 for substantially growing its traffic, with an annual increase in traffic of approximately 14 percent per year from 2003 to 2013. Significant increases in business have come from fracking within the

Niobrara Formation The Niobrara Formation , also called the Niobrara Chalk, is a geologic formation in North America that was deposited between 87 and 82 million years ago during the Coniacian, Santonian, and Campanian stages of the Late Cretaceous. It is compose ...

, with the railroad carrying materials such as frac sand and drilling equipment.

Operations

The railroad owns and operates railyards in Bonneville and Shoshoni and is also the operator for a transloading facility in Bishop, Wyoming, (near

Casper Casper may refer to: People * Casper (given name) * Casper (surname) * Casper (Maya ruler) (422–487?), ruler of the Mayan city of Palenque * Tok Casper, first known king of Maya city-state Quiriguá in Guatemala, ruling beginning in 426 * David ...

) known as CTran; the facility in Bishop is not connected to the rest of BDW's lines. The company

interchanges Interchange may refer to: Transport * Interchange (road), a collection of ramps, exits, and entrances between two or more highways * Interchange (freight rail), the transfer of freight cars between railroad companies * Interchange station, a rai ...

with BNSF in Bonneville and in Bishop. Cliff Root reported the company handled around 10,500 railcars annually in 2007. In October 2019, the BDW fully purchased the Bishop facility, buying out the company Granite Peaks which previously owned a partial interest. The Bighorn Divide and Wyoming Railroad is headquartered in Riverton. In addition to its 4.2-mile long main line which it owns and operates, the company has 23.5 miles of trackage rights over BNSF between Bonneville and Lysite, which allow it to serve the CononcoPhillips oil facility in Lost Cabin via a 4-mile long leased spur. From Lost Cabin, liquid sulfur is loaded and brought to Bonneville. At the Bonneville yard, tank cars of sulfur are made up into unit trains which are then handed off to BNSF. BDW operates a total of of track in Wyoming, including trackage within yards; this translates to 31.7 route miles (51.0 km).

References

{{Wyoming railroads Wyoming railroads