FURX 7227 (ex-BN), BNSF 159 (ex-SF), and BNSF 7129 at St. Louis, MO

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On February 10, 2007, I was railfanning along TRRA's Merchants Subdivision in North St. Louis. While near North Market Street and North 1st Street, I spotted a train to the north coming south off the Merchants Bridge near Bremen Avenue. The green color of the locomotive in the far distance indicated to me that a former Burlington Northern locomotive was leading the train.

Southbound at North Market Street

The train came south approaching North Market Interlocking featuring a colorful lash up featuring FURX 7227 (ex-BN), BNSF 159 (ex-Santa Fe), and BNSF 7129. The train is a transfer run from TRRA's Madison Yard in Venice, Illinois, to BNSF's Lindenwood Yard in southwestern St. Louis, Missouri.

FURX 7227 (ex-BN, BNSF), BNSF 159 (ex-SF), and BNSF 7129 pass Grossman Iron & Steel
FURX 7227 (ex-BN), BNSF 159 (ex-ATSF), and BNSF 7129 pass Grossman Iron & Steel.

First Union Rail (FURX) 7227 is an SD40-2, built by Electro-Motive Division (EMD) for Burlington Northern (BN) in 1980. After working for BN, the locomotive became FURX 7227 before being sold to Norfolk Southern (NS). In February 2021, the locomotive was sold to Progress Rail.  

Continuing west past downtown St. Louis

After the train passed North Market Interlocking, I gave chase to catch it when it passed the downtown St. Louis skyline along Chouteau Avenue. At Chouteau Avenue and Compton Avenue, I photographed the train as it passed with the Gateway Arch in the background. 

FURX 7227, BNSF 159, and BNSF 7129 pass downtown St. Louis and the Arch
FURX 7227, BNSF 159, and BNSF 7129 pass downtown St. Louis and the Arch.

BNSF 159 is a GP60M built by EMD for the Santa Fe in 1990. The locomotive at this time still featured the Santa Fe Warbonnet paint scheme but had been patched with BNSF lettering. The BN and SF merger became official on December 31, 1996, as the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway. This name was later shortened to just BNSF Railway in 2005.

FURX 7227, BNSF 159, and BNSF 7129 pass the Metrolink maintenance facility at Jefferson Ave
FURX 7227, BNSF 159, and BNSF 7129 pass the Metrolink maintenance facility at Jefferson Ave.

BNSF 7129, like FURX 7227, is an EMD SD40-2. 7129 was built as BN 7129 in 1979. Sometime around 2010 the locomotive was renumbered to BNSF 1928 because a newer BNSF locomotive was number as 7129.

Photographs taken on February 10, 2007, at St. Louis, Missouri.

Comments

  1. Shelly GApril 29, 2022 at 8:58 AM

    Nice BNSF action! I especially like the shot with the Arch. Nicely done.

    ReplyDelete

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