Built by General Electric in Eria, PA in July 1997, this GE C44-9W (Dash 9-44CW) is one of many Dash 9s built for the BNSF Railway after the BN/ATSF merger in 1996. At the time these units were delivered, they were painted in the Red and Silver Warbonnet scheme since the railroad didn't have an official paint scheme. Afterward, BNSF developed the Heritage 1 paint scheme and were applied to their next order of Dash 9s (BNSF 960 - 1123) up until 1998. BNSF then applied their commonly now known as Heritage 2 paint scheme on the rest of their Dash 9s that were delivered from 1998 - 2004. Over the years, railfans have called this scheme seen on BNSF 712 the fakebonnet scheme due to not being a true warbonnet paint scheme that was applied to Santa Fe's Superfleet in the early 90s. Today, many of these units can still be found in this scheme and BNSF's heritage schemes. The Dash 9s can be found in any type of service the railroad can throw at them.
