Western Railroad Discussion > Swansea, AZ Railroad

Back in 19th. century in San Quintin, B.C. there was a railroad being built by the British called "Ferrocarril Peninsular de la Baja California" and was a standard gauge chain and buffer type isolated railroad. The railroad lasted until 1910, as it wasn't very successful. The locomotive, a British 0-6-0 tank engine came lose when it was going to be loaded into the barge and fell into the Pacific Ocean and it's still there buried. Some people claim you can see it.

The rails and rolling stock (mostly flatcars) were stockpiled in San Quintin to be shipped to LA/SFO who knows where they unloaded them... But I understand the rolling stock and rails were later installed in Swansea, AZ for a mining railroad, probably interchanged with the Santa Fe. I looked up on Acme mapper for it and it shows the Topo map of the ROW. So I guess it no longer exists. But anyone has photos of it in operation? Any preserved rails or equipment of this? This is an investigation for the Baja California Railway Association.

According to Steam Powered Video's "Comprehensive RR Atlas of North America", the Arizona & Swansea RR ran from the ATSF (now Arizona & California) near Bouse northeast to Swansea, a mining town. Some info and references on Wikipedia here- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_and_Swansea_Railroad Do a Google search on the exact phrase "Arizona & Swansea RR", lots of references.

mapboy

SCORE's Parker 400 off road race course used to run right down the arroyo/canyon where the line
entered Swansea. A large number of the ties were still in place making passes a little bumpy at
times. Swansea had a number of foundations still in place and the ROW was fairly obvious in some
places and washed out in others. The area is fairly accessible via some decent roads though the
wash is best left to high clearance vehicles.

It's really cool to know this, but aren't there ANY photos of it's trains?

I don't think there's even much in the Myrick books. The line didn't last all that long,
maybe because the only way of town was down the wash which about every other
year was also inhabited by several feel of water. The ties were embedded in the
creek bed as if some flood mud packed them in place. The area is pretty scenic
and the town sits in a valley area which is fairly remote. Didn't have time to shoot
the westbound during the race (yuk-yuk).