Parral y Durango 2-6-0 Locomotives in Mexico

Class 1 (Locobase 12359)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 22, p. 134. See also Carmen Páez de Salayandfa, "El Piojito: Inolvidable Leyenda en Parral", Diario de Parral, 27 Augusto 2021, archived at [], last accessed 30 October 2022. Works numbers were 16946 in July 1899, 17681in April 1900, 18644 in January 1901, 19041 in May 1901.

A quartet of Moguls that ranked in the top quarter of 2-6-0s on the 3-foot gauge, the P&D engines came one by one to the small railroad of Colorado State (not the US state) that served silver mines over 70 km (43.5 miles) of track (95 km/59 miles altogether) . (Saenz de Salayanda refers to the five Moguls, but Locobase hasn't yet found the 3.)

The "unforgettable" railway's nickname combined the P of Parral and the shorthand Dgo in an affectionate diminuitive for the line that head south from Parral in Chihuahua State to Victoria de Durango in Durango State. The Baldwin six-coupleds pulled the miners' trains, which left Parral for "Nuevas Minas" ("new mines") at 6 AM and returned at 7 PM. In addition to miners, El Piojitos would haul wood, cattle cars, and boxcars;

Saez de Salayandia emphasizes the difference the railway made to the region through which it traveled, cutting distances and time and linking many times along the way. Narrow and small the tracks may have been, but they needed to negotiate grades that took them to 2,800 metres at the summit at 85 km. (Altitude difference to the mines was only 200 metres/656 ft).

2 and 4 eventually served the Cia Industrial y Azucarera SA sugar-refinery line in San Juan Covarrubias, Mexico. 1 may also have operated for the same line. The 5 went to another silver line, the Potosi & Rio Verde.