"Big Sky Blues!"

Interbay Yard, Seattle, May 1969. Here we see SD45 GN 425 in run 2 ambling north out of Interbay. Head-end brakeman looks like he is enjoying the view!

Next to the BN's gawd awful ugly green, this “Big Sky Blue” paint scheme is argueably the most ugly. Add a little dirt and both looked absolutely dingy. This unit was born in the "BSB" scheme, never carrying the magnificent Empire Builder paint scheme. She of course was swallowed up in the big merger, becoming BN 6455, and was probably re-painted in the BN green!

Great Northern also owned a handful of SPD45's, carrying a steam generator unit for passenger service.

Her big sister, GN 400, was dubbed “Hustle Muscle.” I was fortunate to see her in her Empire Builder colors at the GM Open House in September of 1989. It was indeed unfortunate that whom ever staged the locomotive display area at the open house, with a dozen or more GM “landmark” locomotives, had pure white gravel spread all over the area, making it a nightmare for photographers!

By the by, that’s the Northern Pacific Railroad bridge over the Lake Washington Ship Canal, in the up position in the background.

Railroad Stuff: Built GM July 1968, sn 33792 SD45, 3,600 hp 645E3. Went to US Leasing in 1983, becoming Chicago & North Western #6574. Rebuilt as Southern Pacific SD40M-2 #86118 in January 1995, becoming Union Pacific #4644.

GN 400, SD45, 3,600 hp “Hustle Muscle.” Built EMD May 1966, sn 31589. Now owned by the Great Northern Railroad Historical Society, on display at the Minnesota Transportation Museum, in St. Paul, Minnesota.