The Trains of Kansas City; Railfanning at Kansas City Union Station and Santa Fe Junction!

Hello everyone, and welcome to Kansas City! On the first day of my summer vacation out to Kansas, I visited two of the most legendary railfanning locations in all the United States right here in Kansas City; Union Station and Santa Fe Junction. Both locations are among the most active of all train hotspots, with both seeing about 70 to 80 trains per day. The bulk of the action at both spots is BNSF and Union Pacific, with a handful of Amtrak trains sprinkled in.

Kansas City has always been a major railroad hub since the days of the cattle trails of the 1870s, with at one time featuring 15 Class I railroads. Though the railroads have obviously changed, the action has not, and the three busiest mainlines then are still the busiest mainlines today. At Union Station, these three mainlines are the Atchinson, Topeka, and Santa Fe mainline running right through the heart of KC, the Missouri Pacific (MoPac) mainline between St. Louis and Kansas City, and the Union Pacific mainline heading west out of KC. Here at Union Station, BNSF sees about 50 trains a day, while Union Pacific sees about 20 to 25 trains per day. Amtrak also features six trains here; the Southwest Chief (Amtrak Number 3 and Number 4) and the four Missouri River Runners to St. Louis.

Santa Fe Junction, the second location I visited this day of railfanning, sees features a greater number of lines coming together and a bit more action than Union Station. Santa Fe Junction features old Burlington Northern lines up to Nebraska, Frisco lines down to Southern Missouri and Oklahoma, and other MoPac and Union Pacific lines reaching north into Nebraska and Iowa. For those who have never heard or visited this place, Santa Fe Junction is half-a-mile west of Union Station on the Missouri-Kansas border, and the most unique feature is the former MoPac/UP bridge crossing the many BNSF lines on ground level over the Missouri River. One can expect to see over 80 trains a day between all the lines here, with the bulk coming off the Southern Transcon bridge and from the West Bottoms neighborhood of Kansas City.

I started off this hot summer day of railfanning at Kansas City Union Station, and spent the first four hours (from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.) here. In the four hours of railfanning, I managed to catch 13 trains; three Amtrak, four Union Pacific, and six BNSF trains. The three Amtrak trains were the eastbound Southwest Chief and the first two Missouri River Runners. The two most interesting catches of the morning at Union Station were the Amtrak Surfliner Car of the Amtrak California service and the westbound BNSF feed train. Here in the Great Plains region, feed trains are a common sight in summer on BNSF rails with trains featuring covered coal-hoppers headed to cattle farms. This was my first time ever seeing one, pretty cool. Other cool catches at the station were a BNSF Warbonnet on an eastbound land-barge and a plethora of fallen-flag rolling stock, including old BN cars.

As morning turned to afternoon, I visited Santa Fe Junction after catching the second Missouri River Runner. The action continued to be heavy as heavy as the morning was, with four Union Pacific trains, a Norfolk Southern light-engine move, and a number of BNSF trains on both the Southern Transcon and through the junction. The BNSF trains that run ground-level through Santa Fe Junction go noticeably slow due to the high number of tracks, switches, and other traffic heading in and out of the West Bottoms neighborhood. The four BNSF trains through the junction were my favorite on the afternoon, with the first one (a Z-train) featuring a H1 Dash-9. The H1 in my humble opinion is the best paint scheme BNSF has ever done, and it will be a shame to see them go as railroads are slowly phasing out the Dash 9s. Another great catch was the old Santa Fe hopper on the first manifest train in the junction. I left shortly after 6 p.m. after catching over a dozen trains.

One recommendation I will make about railfanning in Kansas City: railfan on cooler days. This day of railfanning was over 100 degrees today and as some of you might notice, the heat and the sun made filming at Santa Fe Junction difficult at times. Please excuse the shakiness at times in the video, as it was hard dealing with the sun at times. Still, I had a blast re-visiting Kansas City for the first time since 2022. Kansas City and both railfanning locations here are two I definitely intend on returning to within the next year. Hopefully when I return here it will be a much cooler day with a bit more action. Still, seeing 25 trains between two locations makes this day one to remember.

Thanks for Watching, and I hope you enjoy the video!

-N&W475.