Western Railroad Discussion > Bad News with a little Good News from Southwestern NM

First the little bit of good news.The former ATSF Depot at Bayard ,New Mexico has been nicely painted and restored.But as evidenced in image one, the track shows long time disuse.The Southwestern RR no longer runs trains north of Hurley.The magnetite export trains from Fierro have ended and no more iron balls are hauled in gons for the concentrator at the Chino Mine.In addition,with the reopening of Cobre Mine near Fierro a 3.9 mile long haul road from Fierro to the Chino Mine has been constructed. So, it's all trucking in the future from Fierro .A lot of the Fierro Branch has been dismantled.Image two is the Fierro Runaround with the train and its future replacement.Image three is magnetite train a few years ago with the Chino Mine in the background.Bill Webb

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Here is  a shot of the Bayard Depot before restoration with the Magetite train in the background.Bill Webb

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Found memories of watching my grandfather wave from the cab (or cab car) of these GP30s when they worked for Phelps Dodge Ajo. 

Now I'm more jealous!! The Fierro line was a total tease, there would be cars at the runaround and you could have
waited a month and not seen a train. Great shots, that line was pretty incredible in that it ran through intact ghost towns
on its' way up to the loadout.

Out

Nice coverage.
JB

Great to see the Bayard depot is receiving some care and is still on its original site.  It was unusual in being a 1910-era standard frame depot equipped with an open-air waiting room, whose filled-in openings are still in evidence in the photo. 

I still kick myself when we were in Hurley back in 1994 (?) and the SW was running to Fierro that day and we didn't stick around... darnit.

Boy, this brings back memories. . . having grown up in Bayard, Cobre High School Class of 1967!

That line was relatively busy. . . perhaps three trains each way every day hauling ore and returning empties to the Santa Rita mine, and maybe a mixed train every day or two carrying supplies to the other mine and hauling ore from the other mines. 

Of course, rail in this area started being cut back in the early 60's when the big mine trucks replaced the electrified rail in the pit. I think it was in the 70's that a slurry pipeline was constructed from the mine to the smelter in Hurley, which cut out the three ore trains each way every day. 

And now this. . . 

Time, and all of us, move on!