The very early BN had quite a wild collection of power. Understandable - it was 1970. http://www.trainpix.com/BN/ROSTER.HTM lists a number of engine types I don't usually associate with the BN, maybe because they never received Cascade green. One surprise are the FTA and FTB. Which railroad did these come from, and how long did they last?
I had read somewhere that BN's FT's came from NP, and never received Cascade Green. I believe they were retired before that would have happened. I forget my source, a book or amagazine, but I think I remember it from Rob Leachmann's Northwest Passage. Can anyone confirm?
BN had at least one, if not two, active ex-NP A+B pairs of FT units. They were traded in fairly quickly. I believe they were slated to go in against the new SD45 order NP had coming. There may also have been a couple, that were deadlined as well, at merger time. Boxcab E50
Didn't one of those A+B sets go to Mexico? Seems to me several years ago I read about these units being the only ones outside of a museum. Want to say they were on the Sonora-Baja California (S-BC)?
The roster site I linked to shows only one A-B pair. You talking about this A-B set? http://railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=70693 And no, I can't confirn that these are ex-BN.
Nope, a little more investigation reveals that the 2203 was ex-NP 5410D and FTB 5406C, which were part of a trade-in deal for NP's first U-25C's. S-BC bought the units from a scrapper in 1964. So they were never BN's, just NP's - too bad they can't be returned and rebuilt in kind.
At the end of 1969, NP still had at least 6 actively rostered FT A&B units. AFAIK- All were on the Tacoma Division. The last pair that I ever recall seeing operate, were the 5409A+5410C. Boxcab E50
The BN aquired one active set of FT's from the NP but was retired in 1970 without even reciving their BN numbers (798 FTA, 799 FTB).
There is a photo in the book Burlington Northern Diesel Locomotives, Three decades of power by Paul D. Schneider (Kalmbach publishing) page 18, I cant make out the number of the NP unit as its so dirty.
