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Sep 23, 2020

BNSF's 25th Anniversary

Welcome to the LaRosa’s Trains blog post commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. After the September 1995 merger of the Burlington Northern and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroads, the BNSF initially inherited several locomotive preferences from the two predecessors. The BN’s last diesel model was the Electro-Motive (EMD) AC traction SD70MAC whereas the Santa Fe’s last classes were the DC traction EMD SD75M and the General Electric DASH 9-44CW. Interestingly, some of the BNSF’s first locomotive classes were delivered in the ATSF’s red and silver Warbonnet paint scheme but with the lettering of the newly formed company. These included the DASH 9 and the SD75M as well as the isolated cab SD75I. This was before the railroad created the orange, yellow, and green paint scheme inspired by the old Great Northern Railway. For several years, BNSF purchased primarily DC traction units from GE and AC traction from EMD. While the DASH 9 has dominated the system for a while, the GE AC4400CW class was also purchased.

When GE Transportation introduced the Evolution Series in the early 2000’s, BNSF, along with Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern, acquired some pre-production GEVO diesel locomotives prior to the Tier 2 emissions standards that would take effect in 2005. Since that year, BNSF initially purchased fleets of the two standard models: ES44AC and ES44DC. In 2009, however, the railroad was seeking for an affordable AC traction model that can have a similar price point as well as a similar performance to a DC traction locomotive, plus several benefits of AC motors. The solution was GE’s four-motored, six-axle ES44C4, which can be spotted by an A1A-A1A wheel arrangement instead of the six-motor C-C arrangement in a regular ES44. Each A1A truck has one powered axle, one non-powered center axle, and another powered axle. It also has four air cylinders on each side, compared to two on each side of a typical C truck. Due to the success of the ES44C4, BNSF has been obsessed with four-motored AC diesels. When the Tier 4 ET44AC began production in 2015, the railroad chose only the four-motor option, so GE designated this version as the ET44C4 with the same A1A truck design.

Alongside the GE Evolution diesels, BNSF also acquired the Electro-Motive SD70ACe, the successor to the SD70MAC. In response to the GE ES44C4 a few years after its introduction, EMD developed its own four-motored SD70, classified as SD70ACe-P4. Unlike the A1A-A1A wheel arrangement used by the C4 model, the arrangement for the P4 version is B1-1B because the unpowered axle from each truck is the closest to the locomotive’s fuel tank. As soon as EMD introduced its primary six-motor Tier 4 freight model, the SD70ACe-T4, it also built a couple of demonstrator units with four motors, designating them as SD70ACeP4-T4. Oddly enough, they were painted in BNSF colors but with EMD markings instead because they belong to the builder. Unfortunately, according to Trains Magazine’s Locomotive 2019 issue, BNSF’s order for the SD70ACeP4-T4 was cancelled.

Like most other large railroads, the BNSF has rebuilt some of its existing locomotives to extend their reliability. One notable example is the DC2AC modernization program where a DC traction unit can be converted into an AC unit. BNSF began that program with some former Santa Fe DASH 9 units, where the six DC motors were replaced by four AC motors. Their Hi-Ad (high-adhesion) trucks were also swapped out for the A1A trucks. This resulted in the model name AC44C4M, which was designed to match the performance specs of the C4 GEVO’s.

In 2018, BNSF became interested in experimenting with a locomotive powered by an alternative source of energy. In response, GE Transportation was planning to engineer a zero-emissions electric locomotive powered only by onboard lithium ion batteries. By the next year, however, parent company General Electric sold its Transportation division to Wabtec Corporation. Nonetheless, the company decided to modify an existing demonstrator locomotive, GECX 3000, which was originally built in 2013 as an experimental dual-fuel prototype that could run on either regular diesel fuel or the cleaner liquified natural gas (LNG). In fact, the Burlington Northern Railroad demonstrated two of its locomotives with a separate LNG fuel tender during the 1990’s. This was arguably an inspiration for BNSF to try out alternative energy for its motive power. In the spring of 2020, several months after its construction, the rebuilt battery-powered GECX 3000 unit was painted in a red and gray scheme with Wabtec logos, due to the merger between Wabtec and GE Transportation. It also has a battery-charge symbol on top of the dynamic brake housing. As of this blog post, BNSF will be testing this unique one-of-a-kind locomotive in California.

The BNSF Railway is an asset of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. led by Warren Buffett, one of America’s top billionaires. It is also currently the only railroad to not utilize the so-called Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR), but that’s another story. It’s great to cherish those motive power memories that have made BNSF a successful railroad at the age of a quarter century and beyond.

Click on the following sources for further reference:

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