Western Railroad Discussion > Albuquerque Airport Railroad Line GSA Auction

Here is a rather bizarre auction coming up for a spur that wanders around Albuquerque International Airport:

https://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/aucitsrh/?sl=FTWOR721015001

What is the history of this rail line and how did the US Government come into ownership of it?

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

Kirtland Air Force base is co-located with the Sunport International Airport

webmaster Wrote:
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> Here is a rather bizarre auction coming up for a
> spur that wanders around Albuquerque International
> Airport:
>
> https://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/aucitsrh/?sl=F
> TWOR721015001
>
> What is the history of this rail line and how did
> the US Government come into ownership of it?

Albuquerque International Airport is also known as Kirtland Air Force Base. The base and the airport share the runways and the base is much bigger then the civilian airport.

Back in the day before pipe lines and over the road trucking, just about any military base had railroad connections..   Depending upon needs and amount of trackage, they would have their owwn locomotives.

Some tracks went warehouses,  others to amo storage others to fuel.  Many handled troop trains or even public  excursion trains such as i Sou Calif, El Toro Marine base, March AFB, Edwards AFB.

In Riverside Calif area, Camp Haan, Camp Anza, March AFB.   San Bernardino had Norton AFB base and Camp Ono. Hemet CA Ryan field. Only for an example,  A list would go into pages.

This line was constructed for and owned by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) to serve Sandia Base.  Sandia Base was established as the result of the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos following World War II, and was a primary location for nuclear weapon development and production for many years.  Ownership of the line eventually passed from the AEC to Kirtland Air Force Base Base (KAFB) when Sandia Base was merged into Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB) in the early 1970's.

The Santa Fe operated and maintained the spur for a long time, under an O&M agreement with the line's owner.  However, this is no longer the case.  The line has not been operated in at least 10 years now, aside from the occasional storage of empty rail cars on the first 1/4 mile or so of the line.  Former customers on the line (aside from Sandia/Kirtland AFB base), consisted of a building materials distributor, a stucco manufacturer (which I believe was the last shipper to stop using the line), and a Phillips 66 refinery.  

KAFB recently decided the spur was not needed anymore after many years of no use,  and as such has been put up for auction.  There is interest in the rail line to support a future industrial development in the area.  

This spur is not to be confused with a different rail spur that served the Albuquerque Army Base, where the Albuquerque International Airport (Sunport) stands today.  A portion of this spur still exists up to Interstate 25 to serve a customer at the present end of line, but the remaining extension to the airport was severed long ago.   A large rental car facility was constructed on top of the spur's old footprint, effectively eliminating any future effort to re-establish the track as an airport passenger rail connection.  

Well a parking lot would not be much of impediament to a rail line to the airport, railrunner i would think did study a way to include the airport ?

During the 70's testing was done at Kirkland AFB using MRS1's such as this one I took a photo of in Aug 1979.  These Loco's were use to test various continers  to see if the impact from a locomotive would damage the containers , used to transport items for the NEC.  

Tom Hirsch
Cherry Valley, Ca

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Our Mojave AIr & Space Port was a Marine Corps Air Station. We use a spur from the Lone Pine Branch for unloading wind blades and turbines, and Progress Rail
has a switcher it uses to move cars around. We're seeking a grant to upgrade the rails.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

rgzfan Wrote:
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> Fly into ABQ and begin your handcar journey just
> yards from baggage claim...

It is pretty steep at 1.7% steady climb over the spur.  It climbs up and up and up.

Too bad when Railrunner had the money they did not utilize this to bring the train to the airport.  Now the five miles will probably go for scrap.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

> Too bad when Railrunner had the money they did not
> utilize this to bring the train to the airport. 
> Now the five miles will probably go for scrap.

agreed. Bill Richardson and crew were in charge back then, so legitimate forethought (as opposed to self-interest) was absent.

They would have to build  a new rail line to the front of the airport, that line does nothing passenger wise, going to rear side,, maybe a long moving walkway  or tunnel  would be needed perhaps that is why it wasn't incorporated, and the front side has a 300 foot bluff to deal with, so it  would be a 20 minute +  detour per train I am guessing?   There  is  a  15,000 person concert venue in the area, which is built to near  the existing line  perhaps  a stop could be included? for that  if the row was used ever?  get an RDC connection? or a van to meet the train, there is probably bus service currently.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/21 07:42 by dan.

I just looked at the aerial photos of the line and see some isolated freight cars of sorts sitting within Kirtland.   Training cars?

Chris

I remember seeing a few captive rail cars still on KAFB surrounded by a chain link fence. One car was a Santa Fe tank.

Posted from Android

chrisbutts Wrote:
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> I just looked at the aerial photos of the line and
> see some isolated freight cars of sorts sitting
> within Kirtland.   Training cars?
>
> Chris

when I was working over there in 2013 I was told that they were used for testing ways of detecting materials in freight cars by Sandia

I believe that was part of the border security program to detect radioactive materials in cars passing the border.

Out 

It looks like several sections have been removed or buried by sand.