CD 147

In an e-mail to ICON on May 12, 2001, Brent Burger wrote:

"The GN used these Hemi's along their mainline up around Newport, Washington.  They must have had a rebuild through that area at the time those units were made, as that stretch had lots and lots of them and yet I do not believe I have seen them anywhere else on that line from Montana to the Pacific coast.  Being that classic dull aqua that Hemi's of those years are so well known and loved for, they went largely undisturbed in quantity for many years.  When the GN merged as part of the BN, the mainlines of the GN and NP were considered redundant from Sand Point, Idaho to Spokane, the NP grade was considered superior as a main, and as business dwindled along that stretch of the old GN, in 1983 the BN decided to rip up the tracks and all from Colbert (just north of Spokane) to Newport.  Regrettably, I never got a photo of them in use."