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Denver, Mesa & Gunnison No. 1320

For a relatively extensive railroad, the DM&G was curiously late to dieselize. The last of their steam fleet--the 160-class Big Boys--was retired in 1961, and apart from a smattering of diesel switchers, the DM&G was solidly electric. That changed in 1966 when the railroad ordered 25 of General Electric's new U30Cs. These took over most freight duties from the old "side-rod" electrics, which were gradually sold off to smaller railroads, or simply scrapped. After 1980, the DM&G's U-boats were the core of their motive power fleet.

Nonetheless, the 1980s weren't kind to the DM&G. Long-standing mines dried up, trucking siphoned off most of the freight, and local competitors were snapped up by larger railroads. The DM&G officially closed in 1995, its routes and rolling stock parceled out between the Union Pacific and the nascent BNSF.

No. 1320, shown here, was one of the U-boats sold to the BNSF, patched for that railroad as No. 3320. It was the last bearer of the DM&G colors when it was scrapped in 1998, closing the century-long reign of "the King of the Rockies."

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Since Franks extended for the Railroad History Jam to Monday, I figured what the hell, let's have one more DM&G livery. I hadn't made any diesels for the line, so the U20C was a natural fit for something that might be in the works...

Incidentally, this had the quickest development time of anything I've ever released; ~24 hours between creating the Illustrator file and uploading the livery to Steam.