You are here: Home > Burlington Northern Section > BN 9401

BN 9401


Despite being numbered BN 9401, this EMD delivered in November of 1993 was actually BN's first SD70MAC as BN 9400 was held up at the factory until December 1993 waiting on chrome handrails to be added. The 9401's serial number from the order was 926335-1 showing it as the first unit of the order. There were 75 units in this order numbered 9400-9474 and all were delivered in Executive colors of green and cream sometimes call Grinstein Green. So while the 9400 got all the glory, it was really the 9401 that gets the credit as the first SD70MAC on the BN roster.

Here is a good photo from railpictures.net of the BN 9401 soon after delivery in 1993 for crew training at Aurora, Illinois.

https://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=26760

The SD70MAC's were all assigned to Alliance, NE as they were intended for use on the growing number of coal trains.

Just a few years later in December 1995 the BNSF merger occurred and the BN 9401 continued to work coal trains. It was eventually relettered BNSF 9401 in October of 2001 but has yet to be repainted into BNSF colors

I photographed the BN 9401 at Tacoma, WA as trailing unit facing rear end first on a northbound coal train on 3-17-19.

Considering the 9401 is 26 years old it does not look bad for BN's first delivered SD70MAC. Time will tell if it ever sees BNSF's orange and black but for now it is good to see the SD70MAC as a "heritage" unit still in Executive colors.