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Great Northern SD9 Saved in Washington

GN 1730 heads south through Old Town Tacoma, Washington on a Tacoma to Pasco manifest on Aug. 19, 2020. Photo by Nate Shedd.

Great Northern SD9 Saved in Washington

By Railfan & Railroad Staff

REARDAN, Wash. — A BNSF Railway SD9 built for the Great Northern Railway in 1958 is heading to a new home in eastern Washington this week. GN 1730 was recently donated to the Inland Northwest Rail Museum in Reardan, west of Spokane, after being stored in the railroad’s Interbay Yard in Seattle. 

The locomotive departed the Seattle area on Wednesday on a Tacoma to Pasco manifest and was heading north to Spokane late Thursday. 

“No scrapper for this locomotive!” the museum posted on Thursday. The museum plans on restoring the SD9 to operating condition. The engine was built as GN 598 and worked for the GN and Burlington Northern throughout the Pacific Northwest. 

The Inland Northwest Rail Museum was established in 1967 and moved to its current home in Reardan in the 2000s. The museum’s collection includes a number of freight and passenger cars, a Union Pacific 4-6-2, a Northern Pacific F-unit and an electric from the Great Falls (Montana) Smelter Railway.

This article was posted on: August 21, 2020