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11/3/2024
 
 
 
 
 
Owner: Burlington Northern
Model:EMD SD45Built As:BN 6529 (SD45)
Serial Number:37137Order No:5773
Frame Number:5773-32Built:7/1971
Notes:Wrecked 7/4/1981
Other locos with this serial:  BN 6529(SD45)
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BN 6529
Title:  BN 6529
Description:  While ordered by BN, note the NP style cab windows on BN 6529.
Photo Date:  8/30/1975  Upload Date: 7/22/2017 1:29:45 PM
Location:  Havre, MT
Author:  Ron Hawkins
Categories:  Roster
Locomotives:  BN 6529(SD45)
Views:  185   Comments: 0
BN 6529
Title:  BN 6529
Description:  EMD SD45
Photo Date:  7/5/1980  Upload Date: 3/7/2011 9:08:34 PM
Location:  South Seattle, WA
Author:  Brian Ambrose
Categories:  Roster
Locomotives:  BN 6529(SD45)
Views:  431   Comments: 1
BN SD45 6529
Title:  BN SD45 6529
Description:  Burlington Northern Railroad SD45 6529 at Naperville, Illinois on an unknown day in June 1981, Kodachrome by Chuck Zeiler. Number 6529 was the rear unit on a light engine move and displays red class lights. The bus on the right was a BN MOW bus.
Photo Date:  6/1/1981  Upload Date: 9/21/2015 11:35:08 AM
Location:  Naperville, IL
Author:  Chuck Zeiler
Categories:  Action
Locomotives:  BN 6529(SD45) BN 6621(F45)
Views:  454   Comments: 0
BN 6529
Title:  BN 6529
Description:  On the afternoon of July 4, 1981 a series of events coalesced to produce a deadly and dramatic wreck that has few equals. As I left Trinidad, CO. on an Amarillo coal load we began to notice the sky above Raton Mesa darkening to a degree not often seen. Conversation was that, when this storm breaks, all hell's gonna break loose with it. We got a few raindrops on the windshield, nothing more. At Trinchere, CO. a train was in the siding waiting for us. We continued on to Texline, TX. and tied up, never knowing what had occured behind us. In the morning, after having been in town for over 14 hr. with no sign of a westbound train for us I inquired about the reason(s) we had not been called. I found out, soon enough. The storm we had seen forming did indeed break loose. The deluge it produced was of epic proportions. All the ditches, arroyos and gullies, plugged with years of accumulated brush and debris, were cleared out by the enormous amount of water produced by the storm. All this material had only one place to go - - Frijole Creek. A 90 ft. plate girder bridge spanned the creek at MP 227.78, a point nearing the bottom of a small hill with a cut and a left hand curve preceeding it. It was, at that time, well past daylight so, in "dark territory", no warning was available to the crew to announce the problem ahead of them. Extra 6529 east, a unit rail train of D&RGW cars headed for Amarillo, passed through the cut, rounded the left hand curve and plunged into what was estimated to be a 20 to 40 ft. wall of water. The bridge had been torn from the concrete abutments so 6529, obeying the laws of physics, arced forward and downward from the west abutment. The SD45 struck the east abutment about 15 ft. below its top surface with the second unit and the train adding their energy to the event. The results can be clearly seen in this series of pics that show the engines resting on the creek bed, partially buried in debris and surrounded by rail cars and bent, twisted rail. The head end crew perished in the incident and traffic was delayed for nearly 4 days as a result. The RR was severly criticized for running a train during such incredibly bad weather without the benefit of a track patrol preceding it. Settlements were forthcoming but the details were never revealed.
Photo Date:  7/4/1981  Upload Date: 12/20/2009 7:54:04 AM
Location:  Trinidad, CO
Author:  Karl Rethwisch
Categories:  Wreck
Locomotives:  BN 6529(SD45) BN 6378(SD40-2)
Views:  2749   Comments: 5
BN 6529
Title:  BN 6529
Description: 
Photo Date:  7/4/1981  Upload Date: 12/20/2009 7:48:22 AM
Location:  Trinidad, CO
Author:  Karl Rethwisch
Categories:  Wreck
Locomotives:  BN 6529(SD45)
Views:  1279   Comments: 1
BN 6529
Title:  BN 6529
Description:  All that remains of a once fine locomotive.
Photo Date:  7/4/1981  Upload Date: 12/20/2009 7:50:26 AM
Location:  Trinidad, CO
Author:  Karl Rethwisch
Categories:  Wreck
Locomotives:  BN 6529(SD45)
Views:  1235   Comments: 4
BN 6529
Title:  BN 6529
Description:  The SD45 was obvious scrap, as the pic reveals, but the SD40 was thought to be salvageable. Further inspection of the eng. revealed the cost of rebuilding to be in excess of its value.
Photo Date:  7/4/1981  Upload Date: 12/20/2009 7:48:59 AM
Location:  Trinidad, CO
Author:  Karl Rethwisch
Categories:  Wreck
Locomotives:  BN 6529(SD45)
Views:  1336   Comments: 1
Frijole Creek
Title:  Frijole Creek
Description:  The people are standing on the temporary fill placed by the RR to allow traffic to run until a new bridge could be installed.
Photo Date:  7/4/1981  Upload Date: 12/20/2009 7:49:47 AM
Location:  Trinidad, CO
Author:  Karl Rethwisch
Categories:  Wreck
Locomotives:  BN 6529(SD45)
Views:  1477   Comments: 1
BN 6529
Title:  BN 6529
Description:  Twisted rail and rail cars can be seen in the arroyo at a point downstream of the bridge location. 25 years later, parts can still be uncovered in the stream bed.
Photo Date:  7/4/1981  Upload Date: 12/20/2009 7:49:22 AM
Location:  Trinidad, CO
Author:  Karl Rethwisch
Categories: 
Locomotives:  BN 6529(SD45)
Views:  1530   Comments: 1


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