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BN 9640

BN SD70MAC 9640 was built by EMD in July of 1995 as the 69th unit of 141 numbered BN 9572-9712 all delivered in 1995 and were primarily used as coal train power after delivery.

Well after the December 1996 BNSF merger came and went and the 9640 remained the BN 9640 for many years.

On a trip to the MRL in western Montana 5-25-03 the 9640 lead westbound coal train C-EBMSPB, a coal load headed to Boardman, OR on the UP. I followed this train from Paradise to Thompson Falls, MT through fairly hazy skies from wildfires. Power for that coal train was BN 9640/BNSF 8207/BNSF 9452 (SD70MAC/SD75M/SD70MAC) and 486 axles which comes out to 117 cars. This first photo of the BN 9640 West is at the Big Horn sheep viewing area just west of Eddy, MT.

Next photo was a few miles west at milepost 24 between Eddy and Woodlin, MT

And the final photo is from the MT-200 highway overpass between Woodlin and Thompson Falls, MT

A few days later I started my trip home to Renton from the MRL and back in Washington west of Spokane I saw an eastbound headed my way. Turned out to be the BN 9640 East headed back to the mines as train E-SPBEBM and the same three units it came west with. Only big difference was it was sunny and clear verses hazy and smokey. While I took a number of photos I will only post these two, first is coming off the ex-SP&S down to the ex-NP at Marshall, WA, around MP 8.8. The time was 0836 on 5-27-03.

Next I got ahead of the train and photographed it just west of Empire siding about milepost 4.6

So that was unexpected, catching the same train headed both west and east days apart. BN 9640 was renumbered to BNSF 9640 on January 14, 2004. The BN marking were removed and the BNSF circular cross added to the nose. BNSF lettering to the cab sides. Here is a photo from rrpicturearchives taken in 2018.

Current disposition of the 9640 in 2022 is unknown.