You are here: Home > Great Northern Section > BN 1835

BN 1835

As MRL 108 has recently left the MRL for the SRY in BC it seemed it was time to make an update on this GP9.

MRL 108 was built as Great Northern 683 in April 1956 and assigned to the Montana Division. After the 1970 BN merger it was given the number 1835 and continued to work in Montana assigned to the Havre shops on the ex-GN. The high short hood was chopped and made the front end. (GN’s GP9's operated long hood first)

By 1987 when I first saw the 1835 it was working on the ex-NP lines in Western Montana. This is my first photo of the 1835 as the middle unit on the Paradise Local at Sandpoint, ID 4-23-87 just before heading east.

The next morning the 1835 was set out at Paradise to be picked up by the Polson Turn which arrived at Paradise with 2 GP38-2's and GP9 1717. The 1835 was added to the point and then headed east for Missoula passing Quinns at 11:10 AM April 24, 1987.

Earlier that same morning I had rostered the 1835 at Paradise before the Polson Turn arrived as the early morning sunlight looked really nice.

Later that year came the MRL and the 1835 became part of MRL’s roster being numbered 108. By August 1988 it was painted blue and I first saw it as the MRL 108 at Paradise, MT 7-12-90 at just about the same spot I had photographed it as the BN 1835 as it was working the Paradise Local which was not running that day however.

That was the last time I would photograph the 108 until December of 2007 when I saw it in storage 12-15-07 at Livingston on a winter trip to catch the ex-NP SW1200's also in storage there.

Of course when I photographed it I had no idea of it’s heritage and that it was really an old friend I had photographed before when a BN unit. The 108's time in Montana would soon end as by September 2008 it along with MRL GP9 128 departed the MRL for the SRY in British Columbia arriving there later that month. Word is that it will be used for parts or turned into a slug. While I was glad neither the 108 or 128 were ex-NP GP9's it is still sad to see any GP9 leave the MRL.

Update: Thanks to recent info from the MRL Yahoo List it was learned the MRL 108 and an SD9 died and froze up in a UP Chicago yard on a cold December day while being returned to MRL after being leased to IMRL. This happened a year or two before the demise of IMRL. The locomotive was not worth repairing which is why it will be used for parts.