You are here: Home > Great Northern Section > BN 146

BN 146


There is no mistaking the heritage of this BN SW9 at Seattle's Balmer Yard on 3-10-81.

The Great Northern orange and green is clearly showing through but is it the Classic scheme or the simplified scheme? The Great Northern Empire website shows the last scheme it wore was the Classic.

The BN 146 was built as GN SW9 14 in December of 1950 by GMDL in Canada. In 1969 it was noted as assigned to the Lines West Cascade Division. Many of the GN's Canadian built SW9's worked north of the border in Vancouver, BC and I have the feeling the GN 14 was among them.

While I never did see the GN 14 myself I did first see the BN 146 on 4-1-75 at Interbay in Cascade green. 146 was the number assigned to the GN 14 by the BN at the 1970 merger. Up to 1975 it was assigned to Vancouver, BC. I took a few photos of the 146 around Seattle in the late 1970's and the one shown was taken in 1981. It was the last photo I would take of the SW9.

The 146 was retired in October of 1985 and sold for scrap 9/86.