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
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
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.
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
Your friendly neighborhood CNW fan.
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.
Lord Atmo wrote: 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 ?
My Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/JR7582 My Flickr Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wcfan/
EJE818 wrote: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.
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.