| BNA 22 at Saint Paul, Minnesota on May 22, 1984, Kodachrome by Chuck Zeiler. The former Dechutes River was renamed Stevens Pass. This car's heritage comes from the Great Northern, who bought the car new as the Skykomish River, GN #1260. Burlington Northern renamed the car to Stevens Pass and renumbered it BNA #22. On January 21, 1999, the BNSF renumbered the car to BNSF #60. The car had been remodeled by the Great Northern in 1963, and the Burlington Northern in 1982. The car's job was to function as a crew sleeper. Built in 1950 by the Pullman-Standard Company for the Great Northern Railway as part of the mid-century addition of the Empire Builder. Originally built as a 8 duplex roomette, 3 double bedroom, 1 compartment 4 section sleeping car. The Skykomish River served on the Empire Builder until the merger with the Burlington Railroad. In the early 1960's the popularity of the open section was declining so Burlington Northern sent the car back to Pullman to be rebuilt. After emerging from the Pullman shops the car received 3 new double bedrooms in place of the sections and was renamed Stevens Pass. After BN got out of the passenger business the car was retained for executive service and was rebuilt several times by both BN and BNSF. During the BNSF rebuild the entire car was painted with silver Imron, installed new stainless fluting, rebuilt the entire vestibule end of the car with new stainless steps, end sheets, custom stainless vestibule doors and stainless vestibule floor. In 2003 the car became surplus to BNSF and was sold to Ozark Mountain Rail Car who returned the original name to the car. |