Anyone alike the BN??

[SD60M]

As for me i love the BN. Does anyone else like them?

[Railfan1]

I don't have anything against 'em.

[dknelson]

It is hard to remember that the BN is a fallen flag!   My favorite BN areas are around Galesburg IL.

There is fortunately an historical society devoted to the BN (the CBQ, GN and NP each have thier own excellent historical societies).

http://www.fobnr.org/

 

Dave Nelson

[riogrande5761]

I like BN...  there were usually a number of BN freight cars on the Rio Grande so I've collected a sizable number.

[wjstix]

Well...I do have a BN "Executive" SD70MAC HO model in my cubicle/office here at work.

It took a while to like "Big Nasty" since I was a big GN fan as a kid...they did a lot of advertising when the "Big Sky Blue" scheme came out, plus I got to ride GN's Badger from Mpls. to Superior. But once I got old enough to drive and go up to Northtown yard and photograph SD-9's switching the hump I did start to like BN (plus they were one of the last ore lines to use cabooses (and have a wood trestle in regular use)...now I kinda miss 'em, though I do still see BN colors on some BNSF loco's.

[wctransfer]

Like Stix, I really started liking the BN (ok, well it was BNSF at the time, but still plenty of green to go around) when I started going to Northtown yard in about 2004. I can tell you this much, to me its much better than Santa Fe stuff (but I still shoot the old ATSF stuff, because they arent a dime a dozen anymore).

Alec

[SFbrkmn]

The BN has an interesting history in terms of how the rr was formed in 1970 but beyond that, not much of a BN fan. My late great uncle was a former Frisco man and his son was a Frisco-BN-BNSF man himself until retiring in 2004. He hates the BN w/a passion. At time of the Frisco-BN merger in 1980, SLSF @ Wichita,KS had two yd jobs during the wk, one on wknds, two through trains a day on the trk east to Springfield and tri wkly service to western KS and close to 30 some shippers in Wichita. In 1982, BN abolished service to the east down to a trwi wkly local, cut service to the west to two days a wk, slashed the yd to a single job M-F and moved the crew base 106 miles east to tiny Neodesha. This cut many engr, condr, brkmn, swtchmn jobs 2in Wichita and in  1983 Pete's son had to relocate to Ft.Scott, KS just to keep his seniority. BN treated its Wichita workforce like crap. In addition, they didn't think much of their shippers. By the time of the 1995 merger, only about 10 shippers were doing business w/the company.

[Lord Atmo]

i no longer hate or have any negative feelings towards the BN. they ruled and still rule

[dknelson]

Take it from a geezer -- no matter how much you dislike a railroad or a city or a rail line or a locomotive -- be it BN or GP30s --- take pictures of EVERYTHING.   When you are a geezer you never regret taking too many pictures, only too few.  

 

Dave Nelson

[Lord Atmo]

and on that note, i caught a lovely FURX unit in BN paint in Altoona. looked neat. i photographed it of course

[nanaimo73]

BN has ruined me and any chance at good railfanning i could've possibly had in this area 

How did BN ruin a teenager that lives outside of their former territory ?

[EJE818]

I like the BN and their paint schemes. I'll take any BN or ATSF power on any train, as most trains are pulled by BNSf H2 Dash 9s. I have to agree about Galesburg and it is still an excellent place on today's BNSF to see a constant parade of trains on both the old ATSF and BN lines. I always go to the yard and Peck Park. Peck Park sees over 120 trains a day and traffic through there has actually increased ven further due to UP trains on the ATSF coming off the new Edelstein connection. There are not many unpatched BN engines left but I will take them even if they are patched because usually you can't even tell the difference due to how small the patches are under the cab.

[WCfan]

I like BN. What I really like is ther paint scheme, adn where they ran. I've seen some nice photo's of BN goin' through the Moutains. When I see a BN SD40-2 I take it for granted, I've only seen 3! I got a picture of a pair running through Rochelle, one with the stripes, and one with the White Face. Made a nice shot.

[SD60M]

I like the BN and their paint schemes. I'll take any BN or ATSF power on any train, as most trains are pulled by BNSf H2 Dash 9s. I have to agree about Galesburg and it is still an excellent place on today's BNSF to see a constant parade of trains on both the old ATSF and BN lines. I always go to the yard and Peck Park. Peck Park sees over 120 trains a day and traffic through there has actually increased ven further due to UP trains on the ATSF coming off the new Edelstein connection. There are not many unpatched BN engines left but I will take them even if they are patched because usually you can't even tell the difference due to how small the patches are under the cab.

There are'nt too many unpatched BN units thats true but there are over 100 SD70MAC's still unpatched out there. I miss seeing the old cascade green units but when i saw three SD70's in pure BN paint unpatched and everything on the point of a coal train last year! that was a treat!

[espeefoamer]

I think BN is a pretty cool railroad.Thier paint scheme really fits the scenery in the Pacific Northwest.The first time I rode the Empire Builder,in1988,I realized why BN painted their diesels green!Also they ran E9s on thier Chicago area comuter trains for years after other roads had switched to F40PHs or other modern locos.That alone puts BN pretty high in my opinion.