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BN 2217

BN GP30 2217 was built in April of 1962 as the Burlington Route 940, the first of CB&Q's GP30 fleet. It was first of a group numbered 940-969. Here is a photo of the CB&Q 940 from rrpicturearchives:

After the BN March 1970 merger the CB&Q 940 was renumbered BN 2217. First time I saw the BN 2217 was 1-2-72 on a westbound at Skykomish, WA that had units 6492/5729/6485/5749/2217/806 (SD45/U33C/SD45/U33C/GP30/F9A) The 2217 was still in CB&Q colors at this time.

I got my first photo of the 2217 on 8-6-78 at Interbay, WA. It had been in BN green paint for quite some time already.. Note that it still has the upper and lower headlights from its CB&Q days.

On 4-29-87 I caught the 2217 leading a northbound BN Crew 3 with 2217/2556/7085/8138 (GP30/GP35/SD40-2/SD40-2) and cabooses 11393 and 12141.

Interesting that the 2217 sports two different types of warning flashers on the roof. Only time I ever saw that! Also the upper headlights have been removed and blanked out.

I also rostered the 2217 on 4-30-89 at South Seattle.

That was my last photo of the 2217 as it was sent to MK for remanufacturing emerging as GP39M 2823 in September of 1989.I photographed the 2823 at Interbay, WA 8-4-91 and it was still looking pretty sharp.

After the 1996 BNSF merger the BN 2823 was renumbered BNSF 2823 in May of 2001. It kept the BN green paint unit but did get the headlights relocated back to the low nose. Here is a photo from rrpicturearchives from March 2013 at Kansas City, MO::

By October of 2013 the 2823 had been repainted into BNSF H3 colors. At Garden City, KS in 2015 from rrpicturearchives:

Sadly the 2823 is currently out of service at Saginaw, TX and has been since 2020. The GP39M's number boards have also been removed so do not expect this unit to return to service anytime soon.: