Illinois Railway Museum Blog

Here's a brief history of Burlington Northern 9976. 9976 was built by EMD in 1953 as an E8 locomotive for the Chicago Burlington & Quincy railroad, wearing smooth stainless side panels and silver paint on the cab, nose, and roof. After the merger in 1970 that created Burlington Northern, 9976 retained its stainless sides and silver paint, all the way until the MK rebuild in 1977/78 when it was rebuilt to an E9Am. 9976 did receive the BN logo and name on the sides and new number boards with a new font sometime in 1970/71. For the MK rebuild, it was painted to cascade green and black, with the white hockey stick on the sides, and numbered 9908. The BN commuter E units were retired in 1992. 9908 was one of several that went to Maryland to operate on MARC as 92 and finally donated to IRM in 2005 along with MARC 91.

Photo: How MARC 92 looked in 2008.

MARC 92 sat dormant for a number of years and was started for the first time at IRM in 2009, running in the Diesel Days parade that year, back when we had the Parade of Power. More in depth mainline testing didn't happen for another year in September 2010. It wore a few different numbers during that time, filling in the blanks with whatever numbers we had, until the 9908 inserts were made. In late 2011, 9908 was brought into the shop for a lot of steel work around the nose. That is when the white epoxy primer was sprayed on, and lasted all the way to this year.

Photo: The nose after steel work back in 2011.

Around that 2011 timeframe is when we had decided to make 9908 into CB&Q 9976, a stainless sided E unit again. There would be a number of items that would need to be backdated cosmetically. The loco didn't have its standalone HEP generator when donated to the museum, so the HEP cooling hatch will eventually come off, along with the associated pipes and other accessories. The nose door was traded for one with a headlight with our friends at URHS in Boonton, NJ. We actually did the trade at the Streamliners at Spencer event in 2014 since we were both attending with locos in each of our collections. E8 locomotives had port holes with frames on each one where E9's were gasketed for the port holes that didn't open. We acquired a number of frames over the years to be able to cover that. A lot of the work was started, but later was put on the backburner for other projects that became a higher priority.

Photo: Accepting the nose door from URHS in Spencer, NC in 2014.

Earlier this year, Lee wanted to run 9976 since it had been quite a while since it last ran. The only issue was that it wasn't really presentable to be on the lead or trail as it was missing some side panels, still had some areas of the cab sides that were open and no nose door. The only way to make it presentable in the timeframe we had, which was pretty much less than two weeks, but we're all volunteers with real jobs as well, so really only a few days, was to make it something it never was. I dug up some photos of some other BN units, 9977 as one example, with the white stripes on the nose and decided to make it that. The rest of the loco was still green and it wouldn't take much to put some temporary skin over the missing areas, a couple pieces of plywood for the two missing panels in the rear, and some paint. Mark did some quick welding work with the nose door and cab sides after several others did some prep. I had some paint matched and went to town on the green. Lee and I masked the nose stripes in about an hour, just guessing by photos of 9977, a quick spray with white and the that part was now presentable. The remainder of the old green and white was cleaned with lacquer thinner, and shined with a light layer of compressor oil to give it the gloss of the new paint. The end result was way better than any of us had ever anticipated.

Photo: BN 9976 with fresh green paint on the nose.

This was simply a temporary paint job to make the unit presentable for the next year or few before really getting the project going once again to return the unit to Chicago Burlington and Quincy paint. BN 9976 is schedule to operate on Saturday, August 30th on the Nebraska Zephyr, Sunday, August 31st on the Heavyweight train, Saturday, September 20th with BN 3 on a six car bilevel train, and on Sunday, September 21st again with BN 3 on a heavyweight train. Other times it will be on display on track 91 inside Barn 9 through next year.

Photo: BN 9976 on the mainline during Diesel Days 2025.

If you would like to support the future restoration back to CB&Q 9976, donations would be graciously accepted here, scroll down to Diesel Locomotive Equipment Restoration.

Here's a short update on Milwaukee Road 33C. New low voltage wiring installation has begun in each of the start stations and the rear electrical cabinet. Here's a handful of photos showing that progress. If you would like to contribute to this restoration, please visit the Diesel Locomotive Restoration Fund page, scroll down to Equipment Restoration, and choose the Diesel Department - Equipment Restoration line.

Photo: Number 1 start station.

Photo: Rear electrical cabinet getting started with power contactors and reverser.

Photo: Terminal board from the main raceway to the number 2 start station.

Photo: Number 2 start station.

Photo: Dan putting together a wiring harness that will go to the number 1 start station.

Stay tuned for additional updates.

Work has begun to rewire Milwaukee Road 33C, our 1956 EMD E9A passenger locomotive. Existing wiring has been deteriorating and the insulation is extremely brittle in many places. It would be better to replace it now and have a reliable system in place rather than constantly having to repair areas of it. Below are some photo of the progress along the way.

This example of the wiring in the raceway that runs the length of the engine room show how brittle the insulation can get. This is to the engine room lights after the other wire was removed.

Photo: An example of the wire insulation.

Here all the wire has been removed from the engine room and pulled back to the steam generator room. The covers will be taken off the raceway in this room and that wire removed as well.

Photo: Wire removed from the raceway from the engine room to the no. 2 cabinet.

Both start stations will be rewired as well. This photo of the number 2 start station shows the extension that was added to the box for the switches added for the constant speed Head-End-Power. We will reuse the space for the interlock relays and switches for the prelube pump that will be added.

Photo: The no. 2 start station.

Here's a view sighting down the length of the raceway towards the number 1 cabinet and front of the locomotive. The lower section of trough was used for the heavy gauge wire for Dynamic Brake cabling and battery cable. The shelf in the trough was for the smaller low voltage and control cabling. The DB cabling was all removed during the HEP days. We will be reinstalling the DB hatch and cabling, and all the gear required to make DB function again.

Photo: The raceway to the no. 1 cabinet with wire removed.

There is space in both the number 1 and number 2 cabinets for the Dynamic Brake transfer switches. We acquired those transfer switches years ago from some whole electrical cabinets we bought from scrapped SD's out in Oregon. The bracket is still in place on the number 1 cabinet. The number 2 cabinet will need a little extra work since some equipment and brackets were moved and removed to make room for the drive shaft through the number 3 cabinet to the HEP alternator.

Photo: No. 1 cabinet with space for the DB transfer switch.

In the rear generator room, Jim is seen cutting the heads off the screws that hold some covers in place. This is part of getting access to the wiring to the rear terminal board and MU receptacle.

Photo: Jim cutting screw heads off to open a panel.

There is always extra work as seen here from years of critters making nests wherever they can get access into.

Photo: A lot of cleaning is needed.

Here's another round of wire to recycle in a fairly large crate.

Photo: A crate full of vintage E unit wiring.

Stay tuned for more updates on the rewire and restoration of 33C. If you would like to contribute to this restoration, you can do so here at Diesel Department Locomotive Restoration Fund.