Diesels from Durango
The 3ft (914mm) gauge Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (D&SNG) in Colorado, one of the USA’s most famous steam operated narrow gauge railways, has begun using diesel locos more regularly instead of the fleet of ex-Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad steam locos which previously worked almost all trains.
The increased frequency of forest fires, some of which have been blamed on coal-fired steam locos, is one reason for the change, although another is the relative ease and economy in using diesel locos.
The D&SNG has obtained several additional diesels specifically for use on its steeply graded route – most of its existing diesels were exindustrials designed for flat yard shunting or trip working.
The D&SNG ordered two rebuilt EMD F40 locos (ex-TriRail in Florida) which were to be converted to 3ft gauge and equipped with new 2,000hp Caterpillar engines by Motive Power and Equipment Solutions (MPES), in Greenville, South Carolina. While the loco bodies were rebuilt and delivered to Durango in 2020, their bogies and other equipment did not follow suit and in February MPES entered insolvency.
It is likely the locos, designated F40NG and MP2000NG, numbered 1201/1202 will never be used by D&SNG other than as shunters and they may be scrapped. No. 1202 was seen in Durango in August.
In April 2020, D&SNG bought two ex-White Pass and Yukon Route (WP&YR) Alco model DL-535E diesel electrics (Nos. 101/107) from Alaska and in May 2021 added two more, Nos.103/106. Constructed by Montreal Loco Works in 1969, these locos were all built for the WP&YR but sold to Colombian operator Sociedad Colombiana de Transport Ferroviaro in 1992, only to be bought back by WP&YR in 1999.
As reported in TRM August 2022, WP&YR has replaced some of its old diesel fleet recently. Following a major forest fire in 2018, the D&SNG was taken to court by the US Government and local residents as a spark from a coal fired steam loco was blamed for the fire destroying 54,000 acres of forest (see RM Headline News August 2019).
In March 2022, the railway’s owners agreed to pay the government $20 million and an undisclosed amount to local residents affected by the fire. As part of the court settlement, a fire mitigation plan has been agreed. Using diesel locos and converting some steam locos to oil firing are part of that plan.
The first loco to be converted to oil in 2018-20, using locally recycled oil as fuel, type K37 2-82 No. 493 had previously been plinthed out of use in Silverton since withdrawal in 1968.