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BN 5626

NP 2526 was built by GE 5/65 as one of 15 U25C's numbered 2515-2529 and soon entered transcontinental service across the Northern Pacific along with the earlier group of 2500-2514.

I was at Auburn, WA on Friday 9-19-68 and noted the 2526 there that day between U25C's 2517 and 2515, all from the same group built in 1965.

At the 1970 merger the NP 2526 was renumbered BN 5626 and was assigned to the Minneapolis area through most of the 1970's, probably assigned to coal train service. I first saw and photographed the 5626 at Interbay on 4-27-79 once it had been released into the general pool for trancontinental service after enough SD40-2's had been delivered for BN's growing number of coal trains.

This was one of the few former NP U25C's I recall that still had the nose mounted warning light, though the red lens had been replaced with a clear one.

Two years later the 5626 was retired in April of 1981 and sent to Tacoma, WA for scrapping at J Simon and Sons along with sister U25C's 5628 and 5629. I was at Tacoma on 5-30-81 and photographed the three together in the scrapyard but did not roster the 5626. Both the 5628 and 5626 were still pretty much untouched while the 5629 at the time was growing into a large number of smaller pieces.

Now I wish I had thought to get at least one last photo of the 5626 in Tacoma.