Durango Diesel Trains: White Pass DL535 Locomotives

The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is a tourist line in Southwestern Colorado. First constructed in 1881 to haul passengers and freight traffic related to silver mining activities in the mountains north of Silverton, tourism has been the main business for the railroad for well over half a century. In 2019, the railroad announced the acquisition of four narrow gauge diesel locomotives from the White Pass and Yukon Route, another tourist line located in Skagway, Alaska. These are model number DL535 units built in 1969 by the Montreal Locomotive Works, which was the Canadian subsidiary of ALCO. Locomotives 101 and 107 were shipped by barge from Alaska to the port of Bellingham, Washington in the spring of 2020. From Bellingham, they were eventually shipped by truck the rest of the way to Durango, Colorado. Locomotives 103 and 106 were shipped during the Summer of 2021. Once in Durango, locomotive 107 received some work and was quickly pressed into service in late 2020 with the 101 entering in mid 2021 following a full repaint. Let’s visit the Durango and Silverton for a look at these first two unique and historic narrow gauge diesels in tourist service.

CoasterFan2105 is the home of all sorts of train and railroad related video content. Stop by every Friday at 9 AM Pacific time for an all new railroading adventure and be sure to check out all of my social media pages @coasterfan2105 for even more great railroad content. Thanks, and I'll see you down the line!