Western Railroad Discussion > BNSF 7816 ES44DC, H3 paint with H2 logo? (photo link)

Just saw BNSF ES44DC #7816 pass me leading a bare-table train towards Los Angeles. No big deal right? Well something caught my eye, four large yellow BNSF letters on the long good seen typically on BNSF heritage 2 C44-9Ws! First I thought, oh that's just a H2 GEVO, then I read the number again and said wait a minute, 7800s are way newer than the first run 77/7600s that were painted H2 back in 2005.

Couldn't snag a pic as it had passed me by the time I figured it out. But a photo of the unit is on the net taken back in June...
www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4223510

So what happened? Engine fire? New doors? Doors swiped from a wrecked Dash 9? The logo appears larger than those applied to factory painted H2 ES44s...

Kinda nice that the mechanical folks actually hung on to the doors to complete a logo regardless of which version of the BNSF logo it was.

Mr. MRL



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/15 15:24 by MrMRL.

Robert,

If you look closely you can see the letter F from the H3 swoosh logo on the longhood, so it looks like the 7816 had an engine repair (probably from a turbo failure, like all of the GE's) and the shop just installed the "engine cab" from a H2 GEVO. The GEVO's are built in individual cab sections, and the engine cab is the entire portion of the locomotive that is now H2 paint in the picture linked.

Thats a cool find.

DG .
Unknown, US

Yeah, a neat unit, for sure. I shot it on June 1, 2015 in KC: https://flic.kr/p/uhRqb8.

- Jeff Carlson

Posted from iPhone

Parts is parts!