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BN 6535

BN SD45 6535 was built by EMD in August of 1971. It was part of the third group of BN SD45's numbered 6498-6542.

The first time I noted the 6535 in my logbooks was on 5-13-73 in the Interbay engine facility with SD40-2 6375.

My next encounter with the 6535 came on July 29, 1974 again at Interbay on the graveyard shift at a time when a friend and I were given permission to help hostle locomotives around the engine facility with instructions from the hostler and his helper.. BN train #83 had arrived at Interbay with units 6920/6535/2206/6415 and after servicing the 6920 was cut off and moved elsewhere by the hostler. I had been instructed to get on the 6535 and run the other three units through the wash rack being operated by the hostler helper.. Fairly easy maneuver but kind of wish I could have run the ex-NP 6415, but still fun getting to run the 6535 at least.

I took my first photo of the 6535 at Interbay on 12-25-78. I had received my first 35mm camera for Christmas and I could not wait to go up to Interbay and try it out, the 6535 being one of my first subjects to photograph.

On 8-25-80 I photographed the 6535 leading northbound BN train #138 with units 6535/6604/6384/6537 (SD45/F45/SD40-2/SD45) and BN caboose 10140 on the rear. This photo at Tukwila, WA was taken at 4:46 PM.

The 6535 was retired by the BN in August of 1986 so was on the BN roster for just 15 years.

However it was not scrapped but sold to the Wisconsin Central and became WC 6535. This nice photo of the repainted WC 6535 from 1994 comes from rrpicturearchives:

The WC 6535 was later rebuilt and renumbered to WC 7522 giving it a bit longer service life until the CN took control of the WC. One last photo showing the WC 7522 in Missouri on the BNSF in 2005.

CN has retired the WC 7522 and I would suspect the SD45 has been scrapped by now.

Note the extra cab windows, an option carried over from the Northern Pacific as their 30 SD45's also had the extra windows.