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Western Railroad Discussion > Abandoned NM LineDate: 05/30/02 11:47 Abandoned NM Line Author: bryanj While browsing at some topo maps of eastern New Mexico, I stumbled on an abandoned grade. It runs from Tucumcari, NM northwest to what is now York Canyon Jct. on the BNSF mainline south of Raton. What is the history of this former line?
Bryan Date: 05/30/02 12:18 Re: Abandoned NM Line Author: topper bryanj wrote:
> While browsing at some topo maps of eastern New Mexico, I > stumbled on an abandoned grade. It runs from Tucumcari, NM > northwest to what is now York Canyon Jct. on the BNSF mainline > south of Raton. What is the history of this former line? > It's the old SP French Branch that ran from Tucumcari (on the SP) to French (on the Santa Fe), crossed it there, and ran a ways beyond. It was abandoned circa 1956, IIRC. A portion of Santa Fe's York Canyon branch utilizes the right of way out of French. I'm sure others can post additional information. Date: 05/30/02 12:29 Re: Abandoned NM Line Author: slimjim I'll add to topper. Started life as the DAW, Dawson RY, subsidiary of EPSW, El Paso & Southwestern RY. The DAW ran from Tucumcari to the York Canyon Mine. Later SP had the lowen part and STSF had the upper part. The CMNW, Cimarron and North Western had a line in the area.
Date: 05/30/02 12:45 Abandoned NM Line Author: ATSF100WEST Hi BryanJ -
The line was built as the 132 mile Dawson Railway. In November of 1902, nineteen miles of track were built from French on the Santa Fe, to the coal mines at Dawson. From French, the objective was to get to the Rock Island at Tucumcari, that being achieved in 1903. Later, this line came under the control of the El Paso & South Western (SP). The Santa Fe's York Canyon Branch was built on the segment of the former Dawson Railway, to Dawson. From there the remainder of the YCB had to be carved out of the Vermejo Canyon, another 18.5 miles. The YCB started operation on November 24, 1965. Bibliographic Reference: "New Mexico's Railroads", Vol. II, 1990, by David F. Myrick. Mr. Myrick is an accomplished Southwestern Railroad Historian, having also served the Southern Pacific Railroad, in an executive capacity. His compendiums are visually riveting; his knowledge is UNSURPASSED! Take Care, Bob Finan ATSF100WEST......Out Date: 05/30/02 12:56 Re: Abandoned NM Line Author: bryanj Everyone, thank you very much. That's exaclty what I needed.
Bryan Date: 05/30/02 14:05 Re: Abandoned NM Line Author: eljay portions of the right-of-way are readily visible as you drive from springer, nm to mosquero, nm on nm state hwy 39. a pretty trip, too, if you like nm's expansive plains! eljay
Date: 05/30/02 14:32 Re: Abandoned NM Line Author: grande473 This line is the reason that even though the Rock Island owned tracks as far west as Santa Rosa, its train operations ended at Tucumcari. The line to Dawson was controlled by the El Paso & Northeastern but to get the coal to the west the EP & NE interchanged the coal at Tucumcari with the Rock Island and then took it back at Santa Rosa. The Rock didn't earn much from the haul and were less than enthusiastic to expedite the coal. After much bickering the carriers worked out an agreemnt whereby the EP & NE would run all train west of Tucumcari.
Southern Pacific entered the picture in the eary 1920s when it acquired the EP & NE and the El Paso & Southwestern. Myrick has this in his book. BTW the mixed trains met at Roy. The passengers swelled the town's population greatly. The former SP roadmaster for the line was still alive and lifing in Maxwell, NM in the 1970s. I wrote an article (1976) on him where he compared his track to the welded rail that the Santa Fe put in when it built the York Canyon Branch. Date: 05/30/02 19:38 Re: Abandoned NM Line Author: leswhite I drove from Raton to Dalhart a few weeks ago as part of my vacation and along the road about half an hour out of Raton came across a very distinguishable rr formation crossing the area......would this be the same line?
Date: 05/30/02 20:44 If you want to know more... Author: lowwater Here are some links:
http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nm/dawson.html http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/duckysplace/ http://archives.nmsu.edu/rghc/photo/collections.html http://home.swbell.net/lwsumner/history.htm And etc. The Phelps Dodge Stag CaƱon coal mines at Dawson were among the deadliest in US history; two explosions alone, in 1913 and 1923, killed 383 workers. The last of the mines closed in 1950. lowwater Date: 05/30/02 21:28 St Louis, Rocky Mountain Author: grande473 There were actually two railroad grades east of Raton. The one with track actually laid was the St Louis, Rocky Mountain and Pacific to Des Moines, NM. It was sold to the Santa Fe which operated it as an extra board until about 1935. The line also went west to Cimmaron and Ute Park with a branch to the Koehler mine.
Coal interchanged with the C&S at Des Moines wasthe major commodity. Trains were usually 28 cars long and hauled by two AT&SF light 2-8-2s. Because there was only one water tank between Raton and Des Moines, cutting off and running for the plug was a common occurance. Too bad that line isn't in place today. York Canyon coal would have an easy, direct route to Texas. The other grade, which never had track, was the Santa Fe, Raton and Eastern. Date: 05/30/02 21:32 Re: Abandoned NM Line Author: Evan_Werkema leswhite wrote:
> I drove from Raton to Dalhart a few weeks ago as > part of my vacation and along the road about > half an hour out of Raton came across a very > distinguishable rr formation crossing the > area......would this be the same line? No. The Dawson branch, and today's line to York Canyon, are well south of Raton. There were many, many other shortlines and branches in the area around Raton in the late 1800's and early 1900's, mostly mineral and timber roads. If you drove US-64 from Raton to Des Moines, NM, you roughly followed a rail line that at one time also connected those two towns. I don't have the books handy, but I believe this was part of the St. Louis Rocky Mountain & Pacific, later Rocky Mountain & Santa Fe, and finally rolled into the Santa Fe proper. The line was abandoned in the 1930's. If you ride the Southwest Chief south from Raton, you'll see the remains of grades and flyovers at several locations where other branches once took off for the hills. Last time I was through French, there were still some concrete footings from the Dawson Branch overpass. Date: 05/30/02 21:38 Re: St Louis, Rocky Mountain Author: Evan_Werkema grande473 wrote:
> Too bad that line isn't in place today. York > Canyon coal would have an easy, direct route to > Texas. The line to Des Moines apparently wasn't well suited to heavy traffic. The track was still in place in the early 30's when Santa Fe was building the "Colmor Cutoff" west from Oklahoma. They could have gotten trackage rights on the C&S from Clayton to Des Moines and used the existing StLRM&P track to connect to the main line at Raton, but instead they chose to strike out across the plains west from Mt. Dora in the general direction of Colmor. That effort ultimately withered and died amid the Great Depression, and was pulled up west of Boise City, OK for the war effort in 1942. Date: 05/31/02 02:09 Re: Abandoned NM Line Author: leswhite The road i drove according to my diary was 64/87 from Raton to Clayton and Dalhart then Logan to Tucumcari.....Evan_Werkema wrote:
> leswhite wrote: > > > I drove from Raton to Dalhart a few weeks ago as > > part of my vacation and along the road about > > half an hour out of Raton came across a very > > distinguishable rr formation crossing the > > area......would this be the same line? > > No. The Dawson branch, and today\\'s line > to York Canyon, are well south of Raton. There > were many, many other shortlines and branches in > the area around Raton in the late 1800\\'s and early > 1900\\'s, mostly mineral and timber roads. If you > drove US-64 from Raton to Des Moines, NM, you > roughly followed a rail line that at one time also > connected those two towns. I don\\'t have the books > handy, but I believe this was part of the St. > Louis Rocky Mountain & Pacific, later Rocky > Mountain & Santa Fe, and finally rolled into the > Santa Fe proper. The line was abandoned in the > 1930\\'s. > > If you ride the Southwest Chief south from > Raton, you\\'ll see the remains of grades and > flyovers at several locations where other branches > once took off for the hills. Last time I was > through French, there were still some concrete > footings from the Dawson Branch overpass. > > [%sig%] |