On my recent trip to Arizona, I encountered a railroad I hadn’t known. Due to a car breakdown and schedule juggling, I left I-10 and drove from Lordsburg, New Mexico to the Arizona mining town of Globe on the old US-70. I saw railroad a little along the way from Lordsburg- it disappeared and reappeared 30 or 40 miles later. And then I came upon an ARIZONA EASTERN train stopped on a single main track on the outskirts of Safford, AZ, apparently without a crew. Four orange, yellow and black diesels headed a mixed consist that included boxcars, covered hoppers, gondolas, and tanks. The railroad started as the Gila Valley, Globe & Northern in 1895, but it was taken over by Southern Pacific in 1905, becoming a branch of SP. SP spun it off as a short-line in 1988 and it is now owned by Genesee & Wyoming. The line runs 133 miles from Bowie AZ (on the UP Sunset Route) to the mining towns of Globe and Miami AZ. Another lines runs 70 miles from Lordsburg NM to Clifton AZ. And the AZ has trackage rights over 52 miles of UP between Lordsburg and Bowie. Commodities transported include copper, chemicals and agricultural and forest products.
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 01:16:57 +0000
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