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BN 684
I took an interest in researching the BN 684 after purchasing an HO version of this locomotive from Athearn recently.
BN 684 was built in Jan 1953 for the Great Northern Railway as EMD F7A 464A.
GN purchased four A-B-B-A sets of F7's in 1953 and numbered them:
462A,B,C,D
464A,B,C,D
466A,B,C,D
468A,B,C,D
By itself the 464A produced 1500 HP.
Over time the F7 sets were broken up and it's been noted that in 1969 the 464A was assigned to Lines West on the Spokane Division.
Looking at my records from 1969-1970 I can't find any sightings of the GN 464A so it may have been transferred to the Seattle area sometime after the BN merger as it was assigned to Interbay in 1973.
I do remember seeing the BN 684 in the mid-1970's wearing a very tattered GN orange and green simplified scheme sublettered for BN as in this photo at New Westminster, BC 7-6-74.
It was probably painted BN green sometime in the mid 70's as the photos I have of the 684 taken in 1977 look to be in pretty fresh BN green leading southbound BN train #139 out of Seattle on 3-16-77. Note the interesting A-A-A-A set of locomotives (684/644/830/610).
On June 29, 1977 I took a roster shot of the 684 at Interbay.
And this last up close nose shot of the 684 was taken at Seattle's Argo yard, as leading train #139 it had stopped to make a pickup and is seen pumping air.
The 684 was retired by BN in Dec 1980 and sold to the Seattle and North Coast as S&NC 102 where it worked for a few more years mostly out of Port Angeles to Port Townsend, WA along with ex-BN F-units 610 and 704. I managed to photograph two of the S&NC F's on the Seattle side where they had a yard but not the 102. Luckily others were able to photograph the 102 as seen here:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/LocoPicture.aspx?id=127994
The S&NC lasted until 1984 when it was abandoned and the three F7's were out of a job.
Fast forward to 1996 when the Grand Traverse Dinner train out of Traverse City, MI started up using two of the former S&NC/BN units, the 684 and 704 and they were painted into a flashy scheme. The ex-BN 684 became the GTDT 1951 as seen in these photos on RR Picture Archives.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/LocoPicture.aspx?id=52200
The dinner train service came to an end in 2004 with the equipment being moved to Oswosso, MI in 2006 where the ex-684 sat for years.
Then came new life for the F7A when the Dinner Train was moved to Columbia, Missouri in February 2011 with the start up of the Columbia Star Dinner train. Now re-lettered CESX 1951 (for Central States Rail Association) both F7A's were painted into Wabash colors. The dinner train was set to begin during the summer of 2011 so service has begun.
On Sunday Sept. 25th C.L. Childs of the Kansas City area paid a visit to Columbia to see the Brunch train and while it wasn't running that day, he did take a few photos of the 1951, originally the BN 684. He has graciously allowed a couple of those photos to be used on this update.
I think the BN 684 looks great in its new "colors" and I am hoping to see and ride behind it sometime in 2011. The ex-BN 704 used on the Dinner train along with the ex-BN 684 is also of special interest to me but that story will be told in another BN Tribute update.