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BN 6463
In January of 1969 EMD produced SD45 522 for the CB&Q. It was one of 15 SD45's built for the Burlington numbered 516-530 and painted in the green/white scheme.
After the BN merger in 1970 I only noted one CB&Q numbered SD45 in the Seattle area and that was the 522 coming into Interbay on a westbound 7-7-70 in a consist of GN 418/CBQ 522/BN 6434. After that all ex-CBQ SD45's I would see had BN numbers. The 522 was eventually renumbered BN 6463. First time I saw the 6463 was on train #174 leaving Auburn, WA 11-20-71 at 1:46 PM with 118 cars. Power for #174 that day was 6463/6496/1878/732/724 and GN caboose X139 on the end of the train. The 6463 was still in Burlington colors at that time.
After it was painted BN green I saw it numerous times in the Seattle area. This photo shows it at Interbay yard in Seattle 11-13-78 still with the full Burlington headlight package.
Later on 8-6-79 it was back at Interbay looking pretty much unchanged except for being maybe a little dirtier.
That would be my last photo of the BN 6463. It was retired 15 years after being built 2/84 and returned to the lessor. It found a home on the CNW along with the other returned CB&Q SD45's and was renumbered CNW 6582 in September of 1984. It was retired in 1994 just before CNW merged with the UP in 1995.
In 1993 MK was contracted for rebuilding a large number of older retired locomotives for Southern Pacific. The ex-BN 6463 was in this group. It came out of the program classed as an SD40M-2 in October of 1994 with 3000 HP but it still looked like an SD45 and was now numbered SP 8668.
In 1996 Southern Pacific was merged in the the Union Pacific. The SP 8668 was at Seattle Argo yard on 1-17-00 when I photographed it. Hard to believe this started out as a Burlington SD45!
On 6/12/03 SP 8668 was renumbered to UP 2744. It is also now classed as an SD40-2 and currently is in UP colors and still in service! From CB&Q 522 in 1969 to UP 2744 in 2008 this SD45 has certainly hung on for quite sometime!