You are here: Home > Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Section > BN 5458

BN 5458

CB&Q purchased just 10 U28B's in the mid-1960's. The 106-110 came in October 1966 and the 111-115 in December 1966. They were mixed with other CB&Q power and based out of Lincoln, NE after being delivered. The next to last U28B was the 114 and after the BN merger was renumbered BN 5458. The 5458 along with the other nine ex-CB&Q U28B's remained assigned to Lincoln, NE.

The first time I saw the 5458 was also the last as a BN unit. It was stored at Lincoln on a cloudy July 1, 1982 when I noted it along with a lot of other stored power. The 5458 was retired in 1986 with the remaining BN U28B's. But the 5458 was not going to the scrap yard.

Transkentucky Industries Railroad Inc. is a coal hauling line in northern Kentucky and with traffic increasing were in the market for more U28B's to go along with the former Rock Island U28B's already on their roster. 6 of the 10 ex-CB&Q U28B's were selected and moved to Kentucky. I made a trip to Paris, KY in April 1993 and photographed two of them at work, one being the TTI 260 which was the former BN 5458.

Though acquired by CSX in late 1991, the railroad still goes by the name TTI. Most of the U28B's were retired and replaced by newer U-boats, mainly former U36B's from CSX. Some of the ex-BN U28B's were kept and two are still in service as of 2010! As I write this the 255 (ex-BN 5450, ex-CBQ 106) is at Carlisle, KY in work train service and the 260 (ex-BN 5458, ex-CBQ 114) is at Maysville, KS working the river terminal. Both are painted in TTI's dark blue paint with yellow lettering.

Who would think a pair of U28B's would still be in service in 2010! I will have to see about making a trip to Kentucky soon for some photos of them.