Clyde/GM DL Class

The DL class were built by Clyde under license from GM at Kelso, NSW, between 1988 and 1990 for Australian National for general work including Passenger duties (such as hauling the Indian Pacific) and Trans-continental freights.

In 1995 these locomotives were handed over to National Rail. Due to the vibrations from the engine, the cabs were quite noisy and as such these locomotive found their way on more menial tasks such as banking trains through the Adelaide Hills and the Dunmore Stone Train. They also act as slave units on trains between Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

However in 2004, the DLs (now operated by Pacific National) were assigned to Melbourne to Brisbane Superfreighters as second units behind the usual NRs, to provide extra power on some of the more ruling grades between Taree and Acacia Ridge and further south in the Junee to Cootamundra area. The GM Turbocharged whine makes a nice change to the NRs roaring up the Border Ranges.

DL37 was destroyed in the Hines Hill collision in WA in January 1996, and DL36 sat at Port Augusta for years before it was cut up in 2018. Towards the end the class was mostly around Werris Creek on grain trains to Newcastle, but by September 2023 the entire class had been stored at Werris Creek and Lithgow. Scrapping has now begun, with DL46 and DL47 cut up at Werris Creek in September 2026.