BNSF's OLDEST and WACKIEST Locomotive!

BNSF has had a lot of cool locomotives over the years from cabless emds to gevos with Specialty Trucks you won't see anywhere else and of course loads of Oddball engines but there's one locomotive that stands out Above All the Rest partially because of the way it was made but mainly because of its long history and overall uniqueness it's called the beep and is one of the most unique wheel engines you've likely never heard of so what makes this engine so interesting it's just a normal old cab forward switcher right well there's several things that make it special from the paint to the internal workings and of course it's a long history with the giant railroads it's worked for [Music] let's start off with this thing's Origins the beep was made in 1943 as a vo1000 by Baldwin locomotive works you might recognize the name Baldwin because they're the same company that made engines such as Western Maryland 1309 the Pennsylvania Railroads experimental S2 turbines and Rio Grande number 491. vo1000 number 2220 was delivered to the Santa Fe in the latter half of 43 and was sent to work in Rail Yards all across the atsf system switching cars sorting goods and helping to make up countless trains day in and day out year after year [Music] 2220's first of many modifications came in the 60s when it was repainted from the zebra scheme into Santa fe's blue and yellow switcher scheme the standard paint job for all yard engines at the time [Music] it was also during the 1960s that Santa Fe started noticing some problems a lot of their older diesels were starting to show their age especially their classic F7 units which were beginning to deteriorate after Decades of pulling heavy long-haul trains and on top of that the railroad was in need of more switcher engines to work their numerous yards rather than scrap or store the extensive yet agent F7 Fleet Santa Fe decided to start up a rebuild program which would turn the f7s into cf7s effectively making them brand new again while also extending their service life and adapting them to the much needed switching capabilities even in its early stages the program proved to be successful so Santa Fe decided to try and rebuild some more of their agent locomotives speed specifically non-emd switcher engines and in 1970 vo1000 number 2220 rolled into the Cleburne shops as a test subject the locomotive was stripped down to a bare frame and essentially given the same treatment as the f7s 2220 was given a new electrical system new Bloomberg b-type trucks a new long Hood similar to that of a gp7 and a new EMD 567 series engine installing the new engine required considerable modifications to the old cast steel frame but the guys at the shop made it work finally the number 2220 which changed to 2450 and the paint job was changed to Santa fe's billboard scheme which is what the engine still wears today after the rebuild the only original Baldwin parts that remained were the cab the frame and one Builder's plate and come December in 1970 2450 rolled out of the shops as the beat the nickname being a portmanteau a Baldwin Jeep or Baldwin general purpose locomotive to break it down further [Music] because of the rebuild the beat became the only locomotive of its kind since Santa Fe decided it would be too costly to rebuild its other non-emd switchers which were subsequently taken off the roster one by one over the next few years in 1987 the beat became the last cab forward switcher on the Santa Fe but its service life was still far from over from the mid 80s and onward this little engine was put to work as a shop switcher and leaser unit schifflin locomotives around 24 7 at Shops such as Cleburne Argentine and Topeka as well as doing General switching work for the Port Terminal railroad Association in Houston because of its cast steel frame and blumberg trucks this made the beat very well liked among engineers the cast frame gave it a considerable amount of weight meaning it had more attractive effort and could maintain a good grip on the rails when pulling big heavy engines or a long cut of cars and the Bloomberg trucks made for a very smooth ride the beep was also given several upgrades during its life to keep it useful and up to date this included another and Final renumbering in the late 70s this time to 1460 in the mid 80s it was given air conditioning and had some modifications to the window Arrangements on the back of the cab there was also a repaint somewhere along the line and remote control capabilities were added in the early 90s and a four stack exhaust manifold was added in the 2000s [Music] even after the murder in 1995 the beat continued to see frequent use and it actually became even more unique once BNSF was created it was already a one-of-a-kind engine to begin with but it somehow dodged bnss renumbering program becoming one of only three blue and yellow Santa Fe engines to not be renumbered it did receive a BNSF patch though so it didn't walk away completely unscathed the beep would continue to work under BNSF still is a shop switcher at the Topeka locomotive shops until 2009 when it was finally retired after 66 years of continual service it was still operational when it was stored just outside the Topeka shops and in May of 09 it was donated to the Western America Railroad Museum in Barstow California where it still resides today thanks for watching if y'all enjoyed this video consider checking out some other ones of mine also maybe pass Yourself by the merch shop we've got a new t-shirt that's just come out anyways till next time

Channel: Southern Plains Railfan

Views: 191,306

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Id: xiipQuXct4w

Length: 7min 2sec (422 seconds)

Published: Fri May 26 2023