This will not be the first time the locomotive has been in Duluth. In the 1990s and early 2000s No. 400 was used on the North Shore Scenic. It then moved to the Minnesota Transportation Museum’s Jackson Street Roundhouse in St. Paul, and operated on MTM’s Osceola & St. Croix Valley Railway tourist line based in Osceola, Wis.
In spring 2017, while being operated on the test rack at BNSF Railway’s Northtown Yard in Minneapolis, No. 400’s prime mover failed, and the unit was moved into storage as BNSF and the society worked on a long term solution to return the unit to service. BNSF located a 20-cylinder prime mover from ex-Santa Fe SD45-2 No. 6470, had it rebuilt at the railroad’s Topeka (Kan.) Shops, and shipped it to Northtown.
This winter No. 400 was pulled from the Northtown storage track and brought into the diesel shop. The damaged prime mover was pulled out and the rebuilt engine installed by Northtown shop forces, all at no cost to the society.
Built in May 1966, No. 400 was the first production SD45 built by Electro-Motive Division; it received the Hustle Muscle moniker by GN when the company purchased the unit. It continued to carry the name after it became Burlington Northern No. 6430 following the 1970 BN merger. In 1986 it was retired and donated in operating condition to the historical society. In 1989, the unit was repainted to its original GN paint scheme by BN at Grand Forks, N.D. It was repainted again by the Wisconsin & Southern at Horicon, Wis., in 2006.
The unit has made several appearances at the historical society’s annual convention held at different cities along the former Great Northern. On Aug. 15, 2009, No. 400 led a special train from Duluth to Grand Rapids and return for the national convention of the National Railway Historical Society that was held in Duluth that year.
In Duluth No. 400 will join another operating Great Northern diesel, NW5 No. 992. Built for GN branch line service by EMD in 1946, the rare (only 13 were ever built) unit was acquired by the Museum in 1996.
National Park Foundation reaches $27,795 from AMAZONSMILE Foundation.
I’d love to know the politics behind “send it to Minneapolis!” and a few years later, “send it back to Duluth!”
Hopefully sometime when GN 400 arrives in Duluth it will be paired up with the Lake Superior Railway Museum’s Northern Pacific SD45 3617 that would be awesome.