The railroad has relied on GP7 and GP9 rebuilds since start up, but that is about to change. Former Chicago & North Western GP15-1 No. 4413, now NLR No. 422, has been repainted in Cascade green by Mid-America Car in Kansas City, Mo., but has not yet been accepted by the railroad. No. 400, ex-St. Louis-San Francisco (Frisco) No. 115, is being overhauled at Metro East Industries in East St. Louis and will join No. 422 in Cascade green when completed. This will be the second time the unit will wear BN green. After BN merged Frisco into its system in 1980, the unit was repainted Cascade green and renumbered BN 1390. It became BNSF No. 1490, then was sold to Locomotive Leasing Partners (LLPX). It worked for several years at the Bay Coast Railroad as its number 400.
Northern Lines Railway President Justin Chalich said, “We needed newer, more reliable locomotives. The two GP15s will replace older locomotives, No. 400 and No. 1411. Both have worked hard since they were built in 1952 and 1950, respectively. Northern Lines Railway operates over former Great Northern trackage. We wanted to recognize that heritage by retaining Burlington Northern’s Cascade Green color scheme, he said.
The Cascade green scheme was developed in the 1960s by the New York industrial design firm of Lippincott & Margulies. It was meant to represent the forest country of the Northwest that would be served by the new Burlington Northern, as well as the timber industry, one of the railroad’s major customers. The first unit to wear green was Chicago, Burlington & Quincy GP40 No. 629 in August 1968, painted in an experimental scheme with a wide white stripe along the body and narrow V-stripes on the nose. In the final version of the scheme, the white flanking strip was eliminated (except on passenger units with the stripe narrowed) while four 45-degree white stripes replaced the V-stripes on the nose. Repainting of BN’s diesel fleet began after the merger in March 1970 and was completed in September 1977.
NLR’s primary commodities are aggregates, building products, chemicals, coal, food products, lumber, manufactured goods, paper, scrap, steel and stone. In 2012, Archer Daniels Midland constructed a shuttle loading grain elevator on NLR’s Cold Spring/Rockville line between Waite Park and Rockville, Minn.
Curtis,
I think you are not referring to Grinstein (although the “Grinstein green” executive scheme came in vogue during his watch) in reference to the Burlington to Lou Menk in the 1960s. He did indeed end Burlington’s steam program but had no hand in 5632 being cut up. After the end of the steam program 5632 was sold to railfan Dick Jensen, and in a dispute over storage fees and other issues, it was taken to a scrap yard and eventually cut up.
Charles: Ditto! Those later schemes really did suck and bigtime too. Why mess up an attractive scheme that was designed by a team of professionals boggles what little mind I still got.
Steve: Sadly, several historic steam locomotives were cut up due to storage fee disputes as well as property evictions to name just two, Forget the date, but a Grand Trunk Western 4-6-2 met the scrapper’s torch for such a reason.
A big loss for ATSF and Diesel fans was when the very first CF7 #2649 got cut up in NJ. In my opinion, Santa Fe should have retained her, subsequently donating her to the Age of Steam in Dallas because she was so unique in the first place. Her hood came from a rare but wrecked GP7B.
JOSEPH – Good post about BN. In the beginning it was a great railroad. After a successful beginning it had its ups and its downs but on the whole was in good shape at the time of its merger with ATSF.
If two lousy railroads merging creates a railroad even worse, the inverse is equally true. Two great railroads merging made a railroad that’s even better.
I like the 1960’s modern original livery but I never liked the two successors, the white-face or the black-and-cream.
Hooray for Hollywood…Opps, I mean Northern Lines Railway, for reviving the original Burlington Northern Cascade Green scheme to their small GP15-1 fleet. I found this sceme quite attractive when it was first introduced to the railroad industy and railfan community.
BN was a well planned merger from the Get Go. True, a few bloopers were made along the way, but for the most part is was a Can Do merger that worked from the beginning. BNSF continues this tradition today.
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Nice, I’ve always liked both Burlington Northern’s paint schemes Cascade Green, and Cream & Green, and even the late Whiteface paint scheme. Burlington Northern is one of my favorite fallen flag Railroads and I guess if BNSF won’t do heritage units, leave it to the short lines to step up and do it.
AKA “Grinstein green.” The aformentioned gentleman became infamous when taking over the Burlington in the 1960’s for, among other acts, ending fan trips behind beloved O-5 Northern 5632, then cutting her up. He also observed when inspecting the C & S that it was overly “well-maintained.”
Nice, I’ve always liked both Burlington Northern’s paint schemes Cascade Green, and Cream & Green, and even the Wh
Never liked the BN scheme. But with time…..it looks pretty nice!