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BN 6439
BN 6439 was built as GN 409. The 409 came from the second order of Great Northern SD45's built in April of 1967 and numbered 408-417. These ten SD45's were all delivered in GN's orange and green paint scheme and assigned to Havre, MT for the transcontinental freight pool.
Less than 3 years later the BN merger occurred and the GN 409 was renumbered to BN 6439. The 409 had never been repainted to Big Sky Blue so it roamed the BN system wearing GN's orange and green scheme until it was painted BN green some years later.
My notes show I first saw the BN 6439 leaving Auburn, WA 8-10-70 on train #174 with units 6442/6439/5711/806/5716 (SD45/SD45/U33C/F9A/U33C) and I marked down the 6439 as still being orange and green.
From rrpicturearchives here is a photo of the BN 6439 at Aurora, Illlinois from 12/70 in orange and green.
From the same day is this photo of the 6439 leaving Aurora. Oddly enough, the middle unit is the BN 6442, the same one I saw with the 6439 four months earlier!
The Easton OS book from 3-3-72 has an entry for the BN 6439 as well leading eastbound that day on what appears to be train #174 again.
On 1-5-77 I photographed the BN 6439 at Interbay, WA in BN green.
Then in 1980 I photographed the 6439 one last time, again at the ex-GN locomotive facility of Interbay 8-25-80
BN retired the 6439 in 1984 and it was traded to EMD as credit for a new order of EMD GP50's. No further info on the 6439 but it was most likely scrapped.