Canadian Railroads > White Pass & Yukon DL-535

Lensed on a tripod (with K64) at the BBD (former MLW plant) in Montreal, September 1982... apparently now working a cement plant in Plaster City CA...

bob

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The US Gypsum plant at Plaster City, California, in Imperial County.

Along the old San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railroad at MP 130.

They have a 25 mile long line from Plaster City to the mine.

Mike

White Pass 114.. Skagway Sept. 05, 2009

Under the cover of darkness... I came out from my cave, under a glacier.

Yukon Yeti

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Yeti,

Here is you loco from Aug of last year down around the docks in Skagway. Nice to see the most modern class of units in the fleet. I hope to get another look next September in action on the grade.

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Awesome photos.

So do the USG engines still work in Plaster City? Haven't seen any new videos of them lately.

Yes, two are still in service!

US Gypsum bought two units, one was destroyed when
it was run into the loading tunnel at the mine!
Normally, the train was stopped short of the tunnel,
the locomotive cut off and run around, then coupling
up to the rear and shoving the cars into the loading
facility.

My understanding was the engineer, feeling sick was
asleep on the left side of the cab and the brakeman
was running and fell asleep! US Gysum used to run
around the clock! This was a 3rd trick accident.

It took 8 hours to extricate the engineer from the cab,
which was peeled off at the level of the armrests at
the side windows. The brakeman was able to crawl out on
his own.

US Gypsum was under OSHA rules as a private, narrow guage
railroad.

I was told the brakeman was fired and the engineer was demoted!

Us Gypsum went back and bought a third unit to replace the
destroyed one!

Mike

Did the three units in the order get cancelled due to the mine closing and shutdown of the rail line in 1983?

MThopper Wrote:
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> Did the three units in the order get cancelled due
> to the mine closing and shutdown of the rail line
> in 1983?

Correct. White Pass and Yukon ordered four of the DL-535 to be numbered 111-114 in 1982. With the mine closing and shutdown looming, they cancelled the order with the four units just about ready to leave the factory. They were already painted and lettered for the WP&Y. U.S. Gypsum (called called USG today) purchased two units (112 & 113) in 1984 to replace older GE diesels on there Plaster City operation. Around 1993, the #113 was destroyed in the accident at the mine. U.S. Gypsum then purchased #111, which was in storage for over a decade, to replace the wrecked unit. In 1994, with tourist traffic booming, WP&Y purchased #114 which was still in storage. At some point it was repainted into the newer Yellow and Green paint scheme.

Locomotive 114 was involved in a fatal wreck in 2006.

http://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-reports/rail/2006/r06v0183/r06v0183.asp

Part of the cause may have been a defective dynamic brake, that apparently was a factory defect.

GTD