You are here: Home > Great Northern Section > BN 602

BN 602

BN 602 was built as the GN 271B in April of 1952 as part of a 2 unit F7A set numbered 271A and 271B. From information gathered by the two GN Pictorials the 271A had a steam boiler while the 271B had extra boiler water tanks which is something I did not know. However, I have not seen photos of either pulling passenger trains. Eventually both were repainted from the as delivered Classic Empire Builder scheme into the simplified orange and green. Both the 271A and 271B were assigned to Western Washington in 1969. I have notes of seeing the 271A before the BN merger but not the 271B.

Seems to me the GN F-units got renumbered a lot faster than the NP's after the merger as I first saw the renumbered BN 602 on 6-27-70 at Interbay still in simplified orange and green. According to the Great Northern Empire website the 602 was repainted BN green on 6-13-75. This photo of the green BN 602 was taken at the former GN Interbay yard on 9-13-77.

Note how the nose stripes extend all the way above the headlight. A number of GN and NP F-units were painted this way. On 12-3-77 I caught the 602 leading a combined BN train #137/139 at South Seattle.

Having just the one single headlight sure helped to identify these units as former GN's! Here is a photo of the BN 602 taken from the other side on 6-1-78, also at Interbay, WA.

I have not checked but I get the impression that the GN 271B/BN 602 was assigned to Interbay from the date purchased until retired. It wore BN green for just 5 short years when BN retired it in December of 1980. Information I have is the BN 602 was sold to PNC and apparently scrapped.