Railfanning in Kalama, Washington, in March, 1997

These train pictures were taken in March, 1997, while railfanning in Kalama, Washington. First is a pair of locomotives in BNSF paint, parked at the north end of Kalama. I'm not sure if these were the first BNSF locomotives I had seen, but they were the first I had the opportunity to photograph.

BNSF #1021 is a 4,400-horsepower Dash 9-44CW that was built by General Electric in October 1996. It was parked with a sister unit, whose number I can't decipher.

Aside from their paint scheme, these locomotive are essentially identical to Dash 9-44CWs previously ordered by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe before the BNSF merger, including the "gullwing" cab roof that was unique to the Santa Fe. 

This group of Dash 9-44CWs were the first locomotives to wear what would become known as BNSF's "Heritage I" paint scheme. The orange and green color scheme is based on the paint scheme of the Burlington Northern predecessor Great Northern Railway.

Further south in Kalama was a pair of Union Pacific locomotives with a parked northbound train. Union Pacific #9428 is a 4,135-horsepower Dash 8-41CW that was built by General Electric in December 1990.

Union Pacific #9428 had been recently repainted with Union Pacific's new "We will deliver" slogan, which was applied to locomotives between April and December of 1996.

A southbound intermodal train passed through Kalama, led by Union Pacific #3247, a 3,000-horsepower SD40-2 that was built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in June 1974. In March 1976, it was converted for 80-mph high-speed freight service, becoming Union Pacific SD40-2H #8007. It was converted back to a standard SD40-2 in April 1981 and regained its original number.

Burlington Northern #6318 is a 3,000-horsepower SD40 that was built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in November 1971. This locomotive was repainted shortly after Burlington Northern introduced its new "White Face" paint scheme in 1989, and it ended up with a unique paint scheme, combining the white cab front of the "White Face" scheme with the diagonal nose stripes of the original paint scheme. This was the only locomotive to receive this variation.

Most of Burlington Northern's SD40s were already off the roster by the time the "White Face" paint scheme was introduced. In fact, of Burlington Northern's 38 SD40s, only 7 lasted long enough to be assigned BNSF numbers. Burlington Northern #6318 would become BNSF #6324, while Burlington Northern #6303 would become BNSF #6318.