FanPix for December, 2002

The prototype for a new era -or so it was hoped. In the early 1990's, Burlington Northern was the first of three US class I railroads to embark on an ambitious project to apply natural gas power to railroad locomotion. With the help of Coast Engine and Equipment (CEECO) in Tacoma, SD40-2 7890 was converted to burn refrigerated liquid methane, and fitted with the radiator section from a scrapped SD-45 to handle the additional cooling needs. It was hoped that the RLM project would pave the way towards the use of cheaper, cleaner burning natural gas-powered locomotives, despite the need for an auxiliary fuel tender (BNGT 100, complete with cryogenic unit to keep the methane in a liquid state) and a substantial upgrade which included totally new pistons and power assemblies. (This wasn't the first natural gas conversion for BN. In 1985, the railroad converted GP-9 1961 to a hybrid that could burn either its own diesel or natural gas from a flatcar mounted trailer. The experimental unit was soon shelved and wasn't repeated.)
Hopes were high as the 7890 -prototype and first of four RLM conversions done by the BN - embarked from Tacoma for its maiden run, bound for an intensive period of testing in the Powder River basin. In spring 1992, the 7890 was added to the regular power of a Spokane-bound freight. Here we see it rounding its way into Mesa, WA. Only a few miles later, near Cunningham, the locomotive would run into its first teething problems of its short career, dropping its load as it leaned into the stiffening grades on the climb to Providence Hill. Finishing her first outing dead in consist was only a preview of the RLM project's fate. High conversion costs, teething problems, and the stigma of hauling the sizeable tender would combine to doom the project after only a few years. Photo by Jody Moore. Spring, 1992.