GN Power on Burlington rails was
actually quite common at various times. A good resource for this is the last
chapter (“Great Northern – Tourists on Foreign Lines” of “Great
Northern Color Pictorial – Volume 2 –“ authored by Joseph W.
Shine and published by Four Ways West.
GN power shows up
on the C&S, FtW&D, CB&Q, as early as 1958. Sometimes it was leased,
sometimes it was pooled.
At one point in
time, CB&Q E7’s handled the Empire Builder from Chicago
all the way to Havre where they were swapped for F units out of the GN
passenger pool for the trip to Seattle
and back. On the return trip, the swap was reversed and the Q E’s handled
the train all the way back to Chicago.
In return, GN F
units on some Eastbound freights were not swapped out in St
Paul but ran all the way to just outside of Chicago and return.
There were other
arrangements in place in anticipation of the various merger dates. Some arrangements
were discontinued as the merger was delayed again, some continued.
The pics in Shine
V2 show GN power in various places on the Q system – worth a look for
anyone interested in this topic.
Best regards,
Steve
Steve Haas
Snoqualmie, WA