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BN 1782
In April of 1956 eight new GP9's were built for the GN and were numbered 704-711. All were built with dynamic brakes and GN 709 was the 5th unit of this order. It like the others were delivered in the classic Empire Builder scheme. The 709 was never painted into the simplified scheme but was painted Big Sky Blue. In 1969 the 709 was assigned to Lines West Cascade Division.
First time I saw the GN 709 was on 2-15-70 less than a month before the BN merger at Seattle's Interbay yard. It was of course in BSB by this time.
After March 1970 and the BN merger, the 709 was renumbered 1782 and assigned to Vancouver, WA until 1973 when it moved up to the former NP shops at Auburn, WA where it along with two other former original GN GP9's from the 704-711 group (BN 1781-1783, ex GN 708-710) would be based up to the time they would be retired.
First time I saw the 1782 was on 7-2-73 when it came north on train #147 into Seattle with units 2517/1782/4064 (GP35/GP9/RS3) The 1782 was painted green when I saw it. On July 5 it along with the 1781, 1783 and 1785 were at Interbay, no doubt just before heading down to Auburn and their new home. Based out of Auburn the 1782 worked locals as well as trains over Stampede Pass. My first decent photo of the 1782 came on 1-27-80 at Auburn as trailing unit for an eastbound Stampede Pass train sitting outside the shops.
The poor GP9 had seen better days. My next photo was taken June 15, 1980 at Auburn with the GP9 getting a freshly repainted short hood. I could not find any evidence of damage the 1782 might have received requiring a partial paint job and it did look pretty odd.
The former GN sky blue paint can easily be seen showing through below the walkway on the long hood in this broader view. And you can also see some GN orange on the long hood as well!
Next time I photographed the 1782 was on 3-18-82 and it was in fresh green paint once again and looking pretty sharp! The 1782 is shown here south of downtown Seattle on train #675 at Argo powered by 1782/2520 (GP9/GP35) It is nice to note that both units are former Great Northern. BN 2520 was built as the GN 3037 in 1965.
After 1983 the Auburn diesel shops were closed and the motive power assigned there, including the 1782 moved elsewhere. So far I can't find any information on the 1782 between 1982 and 1991 when it was retired from BN's roster. I also can't find any photos of the 1782 in that time frame either so the trail there has gone cold.
After it was retired 3/91 it supposedly went to Pielet for scrapping. However I turned up some more current info after a bit of searching. I found a photo of the Tennessee Southern 1782 at Mt Pleasant, TN taken in 2004. It was reported to be the ex-BN 1782. The bell on the long hood pretty much confirmed its GN heritage. Sadly it looked to be in dead storage. I will have to see if I can dig up more current info on the 1782.