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BN 5659

BN 5659 was built by GE as the CB&Q 571 in March of 1966. It was one of 16 U28C's received by the Burlington Route that year.

At the BN merger it was renumbered BN 5659 fairly soon as I saw it as the BN 5659 on Sunday May 24, 1970 on an extra east at Monroe, WA headed for Stevens Pass. The lashup that day was NP 2521/BN 1837/BN 1790/BN 5659 (U25C/GP9/GP9/U28C) which seems rather underpowered by todays standards! It was still in CB&Q red and assigned to Lincoln, NE at that time. My first photograph of the 5659 came well after it had been repainted into BN green. Here it is at Interbay, WA on 7-16-79.

A few months later I caught it leading train #130 at Gold Bar, WA on the Stevens Pass line 9-18-79.

It was waiting in the siding for three westbounds to pass before continuing east which gave me the opportunity for a good roster shot of the U28C.

Once the three trains had passed the BN 5659/5640/C&S 924/5675 (U28C/U25C/SD40-2/U28C) headed up train #130 started out of the siding at Gold Bar.

And one last shot of #130 roaring into a curve east of Index, WA.

Time was running out for the 5659 when I took these photos. With the last of BN's SD40-2 coming on line and the economy taking a nosedive in 1980 all of BN's U25C's and U28C's were put into storage by the end of 11/80. The 5659 itself was retired a year after that in November 1981 and eventually sold for scrap.