A note on locos from Gordon Mott, Principal Railway Advisor – CPA (2003-4).
At least two of the 2300 MLW’s were still in service in early 2004 in Mosul and I was told a third was as well. Recent movement reports indicate that 2303 at least remains in service today. They rarely venture outside station limits and clearly are on their last legs. Additionally, I was told [on April 8 2006] by the chief loco guy that three of the five 2100’s are still in the enginehouse at Ramadi West. The other two were destroyed years ago. These are reportedly the all-time favorite locomotives of IRR drivers, and the chief of drivers who was sitting across the table as we were having this discussion agreed as he had been one of the regular drivers of them. Incidentally, these are the only IRR diesels to have also carried names, including “Baghdad”, “Mosul” and others.