Western Railroad Discussion > UP's Sunset Route customer question

Good Morning,

Can anyone fill me in on what type of on-line customers you would see along the Sunset Route west of El Paso?

This is for modeling purposes and a desire to get it right.

Thanks in advance for all info!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/14 05:24 by pilotblue.

There is little if anything out there between El Paso and Tucson in NM and AZ. That is seeing this many times while driving I10 for years. There are junctions with the Southeastern RR in Deming, NM. And the Eastern Arizona RR in Lordsburg, NM and Bowie, AZ. The steel plant on the west side of town had some people showing interest years ago but I don't if anything came of it. A lot may have changed in the last 3-4yrs since.

Posted from Android

Just off the top of my head:

Cement plant west of Tucson
Numerous manufacturing and warehousing facilities around Casa Grande
Unit grain train (actually cattle feed) unloaders near Maricopa. (Unloads from a long siding parallel to the tracks)
Coal fired power plant with unloading loop east of Tucson at Apache.
Interchange with a couple copper based shortline railroads.

Not much else. Its pretty empty out that way.

The Port of Tucson receives many loads per day. Inter-model, cold storage, and units trains such as the blade trains. They are also a trans load facility. The port is ten miles east of Tucson.

KR

When the UP leaves El Paso headed west, it is in no-man's land for many miles. It's first contact with "life" happens near Deming.

The SOUTH WESTERN Rail Road in Deming handles two main commodities. Sulfuric Acid is shipped in and out of the mines in quite large quantities. There is a mine producing Magnetite, which is shipped from Fierro (above Silver City) to Deming, where it is sent with UP out to Tucson, and then south into Mexico to the port, where it goes via ship to China.

Along with the mine acid traffic, copper and it's production products are moved around. There is also a Coal train that comes across the BNSF to Rincon, down SWRR to Deming, and then UP over to the Cochise area to the "Apache Generating Facility." There is also a "Lordsburg Local" that runs between Deming and Lordsburg weekly (or so).

In a small quantity, there are agricultural users of the rail. There is a grain loading facility on the SWRR at Spalding. There is a grain unloading facility at Nutt (the old Lake Valley siding). The SWRR also passes through a large dairy farm in the Uvas Valley, where there is a siding, and switching occurs occasionally.

SWRR exchanges with BNSF in a shared yard in Rincon, NM on the BNSF El Paso Sub, and with UP in Deming on the Lordsburg sub.


Farther west on the Sunset, is Lordsburg. And there is the Arizona Eastern Rail Road. They run north toward Duncan Az, and to the mines in Morenci. Again, expect the Sulfuric Acid traffic and related copper products. The AZER also has track rights on UP between Lordsburg and Wilcox AZ. Before Wilcox, they head north to the mines around Globe and Superior. The Gila Valley also produces some agricultural products and occasional grain cars are found on the line.

Hope this helps a little. Rick



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/14 07:07 by w5cf.

There is unit trains of coal going to Cochise and on the east side of Tucson. Wilcox has some traffic, haven't got time to look it up, off to camp.

mapboy

Lots of lose car loadings feed off the Phoenix line and interchange in Nogales.