Blackwell Northern Gateway Railroad (BNGR) is a

short-line railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that oper ...

headquartered in

Blackwell Blackwell may refer to: Places ;Canada * Blackwell, Ontario ;United Kingdom * Blackwell, County Durham, England * Blackwell, Carlisle, Cumbria, England * Blackwell (historic house), South Lakeland, Cumbria, England * Blackwell, Bolsover, Alfre ...

, Oklahoma. It operates on tracks owned by the Blackwell Industrial Authority (BIA) and the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT). The BNGR was a replacement for The Blackwell and Northern Railway (BNR), which started service over the same line on November 4, 2002, and which was in turn the replacement for the prior operator, the

South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad is a short line railroad which operates of rail lines in Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri that used to belong to Missouri Pacific, Frisco and Santa Fe lines. SKOL is a unit of Watco. The present railroad was create ...

. The BNGR was chartered in Oklahoma on October 31, 2005, contracted to replace the BNR in late 2005, and began operating January 2, 2006. It is an employer for the purposes of the Railroad Retirement Act. It operates 35.26 miles of line from Blackwell to

Hunnewell, Kansas Hunnewell is a city in Sumner County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 44. History Hunnewell was founded in 1880. It was named for Boston financier and railway owner H. H. Hunnewell. Hunnewell ser ...

, with

trackage rights Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may ...

Wellington, Kansas Wellington is a city in and the county seat of Sumner County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 7,715. History 19th century Wellington was platted in 1871 and named for the Duke of Wellington. It w ...

. It interchanges with the

BNSF 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 ...

at Wellington, and (via the BNSF) with

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...

. It also generates revenue storing railcars for larger railroads. It had 8 employees as of 2017. When the region experienced flooding in May of 2019, the line was severely damaged in areas around Blackwell,

Braman, Oklahoma Braman is a town in Kay County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 217 at the 2010 census, a decline of 11.1 percent from the figure of 244 in 2000. History Braman was named for railroad developer Dwight Braman, when its post office was ...

, and

South Haven, Kansas South Haven is a city in Sumner County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 324. History South Haven was founded in 1872, and was named after South Haven, Michigan. The railroad reached South Haven ...

. The line was temporarily shut down since the owners could not immediately afford to make all the needed repairs. In October, 2023, BNGR filed to extend its leases on both the BIA and ODOT portions of its line.

References

External links

US Rail Partners, Ltd.

Blackwell Northern Gateway Railroad

Blackwell Industrial Authority
Oklahoma railroads Kansas railroads {{Oklahoma-geo-stub