"GN" 6307

By the mid 1960s, the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors had become the undisputed champion of the North American locomotive market. While General Electric was an up and coming threat, EMD still dominated the market in sales and reliability at the time.

EMD had two main freight product lines at this time, their four axle GP or "General Purpose" locomotives, and their six axle SD or "Special Duty" line. Before the SD40, EMD had success with older SD models like the  SD7/SD9, SD24 and SD35, but they weren't even close to the adoption rate of the GP locomotives. The SD40 would propel the SD line into widespread success with nearly every major North American railroad purchasing a version of the SD40. It would also mark the shift away from four axle power as standard. Today, neither GE nor EMD offer a four axle freight locomotive.

The SD40 would feature EMD's new 645 series prime mover. Equipped with a turbocharged, 16 cylinder variant; the engine was rated at 3,000 HP offering a sizable upgrade in power over previous models. EMD had long been known for reliability and easy serviceability when compared to competitors, and the SD40 proved no different. EMD would later release an upgraded variant, the SD40-2, with upgrades mainly focused on an improved, more modular electrical system.

In 1966, Santa Fe would order 20 SD40s from EMD. These would originally be numbered as the 1700 class, numbered 1700-1719. The class would be renumbered in the early 70s to the 5000 class, with 1707 gaining the number of 5007. It would manage to hang on to this number for the entirety of its life on Santa Fe. It was originally painted in the railroad's earlier blue and yellow freight scheme; sometimes called "pinstripe" or "bookend."

5007 along with her sister locomotives would eventually gain Santa Fe's new yellow and blue warbonnet scheme. In 1981, Santa Fe would rebuild the SD40s into the Santa Fe coined "SD40u" designation. The SD40u rebuild program brought with it many of the improvements that were introduced on the SD40-2. However, they were not brought fully up to Dash-2 specifications. The rebuilds helped modernize the original 20 SD40s and extended their service life for the coming decades. 

In the 90s, its headlight would be relocated from above the cab to the nose. This modification was becoming standard practice across much of Santa Fe's older locomotive fleet. It would also gain a set of ditch lights as per new federal regulations.

In 1996, the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway would merge to become the modern BNSF. The merger would bring about a large renumbering of locomotives in order to prevent conflicts between the BN and Santa Fe locomotives. Nearly all of Santa Fe's older EMD power would be renumbered, including 5007; gaining the new number of 6307. It would also receive a small BNSF patch on both sides below the cab.

Even though 6307 was over 30 years old, BNSF still managed to make good use her. Older power such as this would typically be assigned to local freights or yard switching, but could occasionally still be assigned to mainline freights.

6307 continued to work for BNSF until the late 2000s. In 2009, 6307's future began to not look so bright. Given BNSF already had a large number of SD40-2s, the decision was made to pull the SD40us from active service and off the roster.  This decision was likely spurred on by BNSF taking delivery of new GE ES44AC which were being numbered in the 6300 class. Soon, 6307's number would be taken by a brand new locomotive.

It along with other SD40u locomotives began to have all BNSF and Santa Fe markings painted over. It would soon gain the small and quickly applied reporting mark of "GN." GN stands for the Great Northern railroad, one of the major railroads that merged into the Burlington Northern in the 70s. BNSF will sometimes take old locomotives in storage and put them on a "GN" roster to get them off of the primary BNSF roster.

The 6307 would end up sitting in the Barstow yard for nearly a decade with its future unknown. It was speculated the locomotive may be sold off to a leasing company, short line, or be scrapped. Thankfully in 2019, the 6307 would be saved when BNSF decided to donate it the nearby Western America Railroad Museum. The 6307 is the most recent addition to our locomotive collection here at WARM. 

At some point in the future, we would like give the 6307 its Santa Fe lettering back along with possibly renumbering it back to 5007. Her sister locomotive, 5008, is preserved in full ATSF colors at the old Marceline Depot in Marceline, MO, the hometown of Walt Disney.