Tower Landlord

Tower owners / BNSF Railway

845 structures · 25 states · 6 registrant names

BNSF Railway towers

BNSF Railway owns 845 constructed structures in the FCC registry — 1% of all registered structures — filed under 6 different entity names. Its largest state is Texas with 156. The most common type is the tower (25%), the median height is 80 feet, and 47% went up in the 2010s, more than in any other decade.

1234
  1. 1Structures 845
  2. 2Median height 80 ft
  3. 3Largest state Texas
  4. 4Registrant names 6
Texas156Washington76Minnesota64Montana62Missouri56North Dakota51California46Illinois40Oklahoma36Kansas34
BNSF Railway structures in its ten largest states, bars to scale. Source: FCC ASR, October 2026.

The names it files under

When you look up the tower on your land, the FCC record will show one of these entity names rather than "BNSF Railway". They are the same company for the purposes of your lease: the entity on the record is the one your lease has been assigned to.

Registrant name (as filed)Structures
BNSF Railway Co.650
BNSF Railway Company88
BNSF Railway CO.56
BNSF Railway Co48
BNSF Railway Compnay2
BNSF Rail Co.1

Types and age

Tower211Lattice tower187Monopole186Guyed tower164Mast37Pole31Other or unspecified23On a building6
BNSF Railway structures by type, bars to scale. Source: FCC ASR.
11950s181960s331970s341980s951990s1602000s4012010s1012020s
BNSF Railway structures by decade built, columns to scale. Source: FCC ASR.

Where its towers cluster

BNSF Railway has structures in 319 of the counties that have a page on this site. The counties where it owns the most are below, with its share of each county's registered structures — the higher the share, the more likely a tower lease in that county runs to BNSF Railway.

CountyBNSF RailwayShare of county
Denton County, TX2113%
Tarrant County, TX215%
Clark County, WA2118%
King County, WA173%
Clay County, MO1516%
San Bernardino County, CA142%
Riverside County, CA132%
Potter County, TX1315%

Every state

Texas 156Washington 76Minnesota 64Montana 62Missouri 56North Dakota 51California 46Illinois 40Oklahoma 36Kansas 34Nebraska 33New Mexico 30Arizona 28Wyoming 27Colorado 19Iowa 17Arkansas 14Wisconsin 13Louisiana 10Oregon 9Idaho 7Mississippi 5South Dakota 5Alabama 4Tennessee 3

For a landowner

BNSF Railway owns towers for its own operations — radio for a railroad or utility network rather than leasing space to carriers — so ground leases with it are less common than with tower companies. Whoever the owner is, the calculator values the rent you would give up.

Source: FCC Antenna Structure Registration, weekly public access file (r_tower.zip, created 2026-10-18). Families group FCC registrant names that carry the brand in the name; other registrants are listed as filed. Checked 2026-10-23.