You are here: Home > Great Northern Section > BN 2523

BN 2523

BN 2523 was built as a 2500 HP GP35 by EMD for the Great Northern and numbered 3040. It was the last of 24 GP35's purchased by the railroad and painted in GN's simplified orange and green paint scheme. Here is a bit more info on this locomotive.

Great Northern's second and final group of GP35's were delivered in July of 1965 and numbered 3026-3040 after the first group of 3017-3025 that were built the previous year. There is a nice photo of the GN 3040 on page 17 of the GN Color Pictorial Vol 2. The second group of GP35's were delivered with snowplows and a warning beacon on the cab roof unlike the first order where were not equipped with these features.

GN 3040 had the distinction of being equipped with Locotrol in 1967 being paired with F9B 472C which operated further back in the train with another road unit. I have only seen a few photos of this operations but it would be interesting to learn more.

I never saw the GN 3040 before the BN merger and it wasn't until 1977 that I finally got to see the former GN 3040, now the BN 2523. From looking at assignments in the various BN Annuals it looks like the BN 2523 was assigned as follows:

1970-1973 Superior
1974-1976 Lincoln

After that the BN 2523 came west. On 9-9-77 train #139 left Seattle at 12:54 PM with 2228/726/2232/6543/2501/2523/2536 (GP30/FP7/GP30/SD45/3 GP35's) heading south towards Vancouver, WA.

My first decent photo of the 2523 was this roster shot taken at Interbay, WA on 12-27-78, looking rather dirty.

Note the warning flasher on the roof and the snowplow on front.

I mention that as in this photo of the 2523 leading train #139 three years later on 4-25-81 at Seattle's Argo yard the snowplow is gone and it has a different warning flashed on the roof now. It also looks like "Vancouver, USA" was stamped on the GP35's side sill showing its assignment base location.

Note all the white around the trucks and fuel tank. Probably ash from the previous years eruption of Mt St Helens. Here is a photo of that same train leaving Seattle.

In 10-11-83 I photographed the 2523 leading Crew 3 out of Seattle southbound.

That was my last photo of the BN 2523. BN retired the 2523 in 10/87 but sent it to Boise, ID where went through the MK GP39M rebuilding program coming out as BN 2884 in September of 1990, getting the new BN whitefaced scheme.

I was a bit surprised to learn that I had taken no photos of the BN 2884! I did an internet search and was only able to find this one photo of the BN 2884 online.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/Locopicture.aspx?id=149489

Seems that the BN 2884 has been an elusive unit! Five years later in 1995 came the BNSF merger and the 2884 kept the same number but got BNSF lettering. It took 14 years for me to get a photo of the BNSF 2884 (and I thought the 7 years to catch the BN 2523 was a long wait!) but on 5-21-09 the BNSF 2884 was back in former GN territory at the ex-GN Balmer Yard north of Seattle.

Again, more changes. The rooftop warning flasher is gone replaced by ditchlights and it has a snowplow again.

The 2884 recently visited my hometown of Renton when it worked the Renton Rocket on 9-27-11 delivering Boeing 737 fuselages to the Boeing plant. Here it backs down a short remaining section of the former NP's Belt Line at the south end of Lake Washington towards the Boeing plant.

The BN green paint on the 2884 is looking very worn. One has to wonder if it will ever see BNSF orange and black, or be retired as have some of BNSF's other BN rebuilds and end up on some shortline.

Still, the 2884 does have the distinction of being the last GP series locomotive that the GN purchased.