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BN 148


BN 148 was built in December of 1950 as Great Northern SW9 16.

GN 14-16 were built in Canada by GMDL and intended for use in the Vancouver, BC area. They were classed by GN as SW7's. The three were delivered in the classic orange and green Empire Builder scheme. The 16 later was repainted Big Sky Blue and was the only GMDL switcher to get BSB paint. There are photos of the 16 at Vancouver, BC taken 10-4-68 in the Great Northern Color Pictorial 2 on pages 64 and 69 showing it in Big Sky Blue. The SW9 was assigned to the Lines West Cascade Division.

After the 1970 BN merger the GN 16 was renumbered to BN 148 and continued to be assigned to Canada along with the other two SW9's, now numbered 146 and 147.

Though I have photos of the146 and 147, I never saw the 148 in the Seattle area and do not have any photos of it. In fact there are no photos of the 148 online, just photos of the 148 after BN retired the SW9 in 10/85 and sold it to NRS the next month. In August of 1986 the 148 went to Lake Whatcom Railway for a short while before going to NREX where it sat in a deadline for years, still in BN paint, the last photo of it taken in 2009.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/LocoPicture.aspx?id=108283

There is no info on the 148 after 2009 so it is either still in Illinois rusting away or has since been cut up for scrap.