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BN 4190

I've decided to make BN 4190 the first RS11 BN Tribute update after seeing it listed leading a BN freight over Stampede Pass on 2-19-71.

Northern Pacific purchased 10 RS11's numbered 902-911 in late 1958. (after 900-901 purchased earlier that year) Of the ten new RS11's just the 906-911 had dynamic brakes. Spotting feature of an RS11 with dynamic brakes is 5 air vents along the carbody as opposed to three on RS11's without them. NP assigned all of their RS11's to the St Paul division so they tended to stay on the eastern end of the system.

There is a good photo of NP 910 on page 24 of the NP Pictorial Vol 2 by Shine in the earlier scheme. And a photo of NP 910 in the simplified scheme appears on page 21 of the NP Pictorial Vol 3 by Kuebler.

After the 1970 BN merger the NP 910 was given the new number of BN 4190. The first time I saw this RS11 was on January 7, 1973 and it was still in NP colors on a northbound train headed through Auburn, WA at 09:15. That power set was 4264/2540/1873/4190 (C425/GP35/GP9/RS11) and all 4 of these units were still in their predecessor colors of SP&S-CB&Q-NP-NP paint.

The following year I photographed the 4190 for the first time at Washougal, WA 10-14-74. The photo quality is not the best but the five vents stand out clearly in this shot.

Another photo of it in NP paint was taken at Interbay on 12-18-75.

Next photo of the 4190 came on 8-4-78 at South Seattle and it was now in BN green.

In December of 1978 I was at Klamath Falls, OR and caught the 4190 there. Compared to the photo taken 4 months previous it was either washed or given another coat of BN green paint.

My last photo of the BN 4190 came on 5-3-80 but it was in cold dead storage at Portland, OR. Retirement was near, very near.

BN retired most of the RS11's in August of 1980, including the 4190. The rest were all off the roster by the end of the year.

However a number of the RS11's found new homes, the 4190 included. It went up to northern Minnesota with two other ex-BN RS11's (4185 and 4186) and after receiving a chopped short hood and yellow/brown paint entered service on the Erie Mining Railroad as the 7215. In 1986 the railroads name changed to LTV after a buyout. Then in 2000 the last train of pellets were run and the line was shut down. The 4190 (LTV 7215) was out of work again.

The 4185 had been purchased as a parts source and scrapped. But the 4186 and 4190 as former LTV 7216 and 7215 were acquired by the Morristown and Erie and moved to New Jersey. The 7216 (ex-BN 4186) was in pieces and never ran again.

But the 7215 was repainted black and entered freight service as well as being used on passenger excursions at the Whippany Railway Museum in 2005! Sure wish I could have ridden behind the former BN 4190! A number of photos of the 7215 can be found here on RR Picture Archives:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/LocoPicture.aspx?id=46807

As can be seen in the latest photos from June of 2010, the 7215 is currently out of service and is apparently up for sale. It would sure be nice to see a museum such as the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth save the former NP 910. Especially knowing the 910 once worked at Duluth itself!