Western Railroad Discussion > ATSF to Prescott, AZ?

When was the ATSF branch line to Prescott, AZ abandoned?  We were watching the 1972 Steve McQueen movie "Junior Bonner" the other night, and one scene is at the railroad station there, with a couple of locomotives, but now the station exists but no tracks; in fact, where the tracks were there is a road.

A great resource is David F. Myrick's Railroads of Arizona, Volume 6,  Jerome and the Northern Roads.

The petition for abandonment was filed on 5/29/84 after serious storm damage in 1983.

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

IIRC I went through Prescott in July 29th of 1966 on the morning train from Ash Fork to Phoenix.

Old Bob out in Lost Wages

Prescott, AZ 8-79

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RustyRayls Wrote:
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> IIRC I went through Prescott in July 29th of 1966
> on the morning train from Ash Fork to Phoenix.
>
> Old Bob out in Lost Wages

The national railroad map hanging on the wall in our office shows that branch dead-ending at Prescott.  There's no date on the map, but I've been referring to the physically same map since 1971.  Perhaps the line south of Prescott was taken up between your ride and the publication of the map?

ddkid Wrote:
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> The national railroad map hanging on the wall in
> our office shows that branch dead-ending at
> Prescott.  There's no date on the map, but I've
> been referring to the physically same map since
> 1971.  Perhaps the line south of Prescott was
> taken up between your ride and the publication of
> the map?

The Abra - Skull Valley line relocation was opened in 1962, allowing the segment from Prescott to Skull Valley over Ramsgate Hill to be abandoned.  This was a very rugged segment of railroad and a lot of it can still be traced on aerial photos.  There is a good article on this line relocation project in one of the issues of The Warbonnet, the publication of the Santa Fe Historical Society.  

There are two articles on the realignment; one pretty recent (last 3-4 years?), and I wrote two in 1998 on the Skull Valley Abra realignment and the Crookton line as well.

Once the Skull Valley line was opened in '62, Prescott was at the end of the spur from Abra, everything south of there to Skull Valley was abandoned. The Prescott line, as mentioned earlier, was finally abandoned in '84

It was abandoned in 1984 and torn up in 1991 after numerous preservation and tourist railroad start up attempts failed. 

http://sharlot.org/img/browsing_htmls/rr16.html
This page has numerous pictures of the track in 1991 right before it was torn up, of a Congress Gold RR. steam locomotive being fired up in Prescott in 1987 and a ATSF motorcar with railroad officials in 1987. Other pages in that photo gallery have tons of old pictures of Arizona railroads, most over 100 years old. 

The line was actually lifted/scrapped between January 1992 and July 1992 by A&K Railroad Materials.
I drove the entire line from downtown Prescott to Abra in my Nissan truck before getting stopped by an A&K truck with a friendly nod to vacant the ROW.
Good times as a 20 year old!
MAPAZ

Prescott, Az Rail map for Courier (50 yrs-20yrs - by Marc Pearsall)

Hyrail Prescott Branch at Entro-Point Of Rocks, AZ (Dec 1990)( Taken by Rob Bohannan on final rail inspection for City of Prescott)

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Thank you to all who replied.  My wife and I just came back from visiting my sister-in-law and her husband, who recently moved to Prescott from Nome, Alaska.  One of the topics of conversation was what had happened to the railroad through Prescott.  All is clear now!