Steam & Excursion > Al Rose: Prescott, AZ roundhouse and a notable 2-10-2

Prescott, AZ (which the locals pronounce "PREH-skit" from what I understand) was on the Santa Fe Prescott & Phoenix line that became the AT&SF branch to Phoenix.  The route through Prescott included a steep climb over Ramsgate Hill that entailed a helper  district between that point and Skull Valley.  An easier alignment was achieved in the early 1960's with the Abra-Skull Valley line change, which left Prescott at the end of a short, lightly-used branch from Abra.  Santa Fe abandoned service to the town after tropical storm Octave washed out parts of the branch on September 28, 1983 (the railroad already had an abandonment application in to the ICC).  The rails stayed on the ground for almost another decade as negotiations and surveys were conducted to see if a shortline operator could make a go of a freight and/or tourist operation. Nothing came of it, and the track was finally salvaged in May 1992.  Several reminders of the railroad's presence remain in Prescott, including:

- the old machine shop, now part of the Foxworth-Galbraith Home Improvement Center: https://goo.gl/maps/aMva3g9WaoUJSnkUA , https://goo.gl/maps/N86N13Sz8GEwcQmi8

- the two story stucco depot and office building, now realty and investment offices: https://goo.gl/maps/vGvnSNqHBnzXegr66

- the truss bridge over Granite Creek: https://goo.gl/maps/mMHLbUYtc5HasnLEA 

Santa Fe's roundhouse stood just north of the machine shop, but no trace of it remains today.  I haven't come across many photos of the roundhouse, but thankfully Al Rose stopped by in February 1946 and recorded the first view below.  The roundhouse and garden tracks were full of workhorse 2-8-2's and 2-10-2's, including one on the far right that deserves special mention. 

AT&SF 2-10-2 #940 was utterly undistinguished at the time - just another ungainly, fat-boilered, way-too-many-wheels 900-class 2-10-2.  In its final decade of service it boomed around various parts of the system.  It was almost certainly in helper service at Prescott in 1946, and would be reassigned to GC&SF territory in Texas at the end of 1947, then to the Oklahoma Division in 1949, and finally to the Pecos Division in 1953.  Its last trick was as a Clovis, NM yard switcher in June of 1954.  In August 1956, it was donated for display at Johnstone Park in Bartleville, OK, thus becoming the only Santa Fe Santa Fe-type to be preserved.  In 2009 it was relocated to a new display site next to the depot:

https://goo.gl/maps/37NMd4Gj4tadQaYN8

While it's unfortunate that more Santa Fe 2-10-2's weren't saved, at least the type faired better than the 2-8-2's that were keeping 940 company at Prescott.  The only surviving remains of Santa Fe 2-8-2's lie rusting in the riverbed at Topeka, KS after the bridge they were trying to hold in place during a 1951 flood washed away anyway.

Photos courtesy the Western Railway Museum Archives.

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It would have been nice if the ATSF had saved a 3800. When did the 940 get the bigger tender she has now? I wouldn't think she would need it as a switcher...

Thanks for posting some rare scene.

Theoretically then it would be possible to salvage an AT&SF mike from the riverbed and restore it to run on excursions over Cajon (or anywhere else). : - )  just kidding.

Tom

Txhighballer Wrote:

> It would have been nice if the ATSF had saved a 3800.

I agree, but nevertheless I'm grateful we have what we have.  The 2-10-2 in general is under-represented among preserved steam in the US - only nine examples in the whole country, and a third of those are Chinese QJ's!

> When did the 940 get the bigger tender she has now?

Stagner's Santa Fe Steam Survivors says 940 got the 12,000 gallon tender from 2-8-2 #3173 in 1950.

Short of that picture you'd never know that the Santa Fe had a roundhouse in Prescott, in fact that's the only picture I
can remember seeing of it. Prescott from a fan standpoint was quite a place but the line looked like it was an excuse 
to go find a hill to run over! The grades and curves were right out of the Rio Grande Southern except in standard gauge.
Add the mining branches like out to Crown King and the late forties/early fifties would have made a weeks worth of
chase quite worthwhile.

Out 

The end walls of the former Prescott machine shop (now a home center) are similar to the those of the long-gone Calwa and Barstow machine shops, all being constructed around the same time (1913 for the Prescott machine shop; 1912 for the Calwa and Barstow machine shops).

The Prescott roundhouse, built also in 1913, was demolished in 1954.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/22 22:36 by johnsweetser.

When was the last big steam-up at Prescott?

Thanks for a very interesting series!

Larry

WP-M2051 Wrote:

> When was the last big steam-up at Prescott?

I can't tell you specifically about Prescott, but Stagner's Santa Fe Steam - The Last Decade indicates that freight and switching was almost entirely dieselized on the Coast Lines (i.e. territory west of Albuquerque and Belen, NM) by the summer of 1951. Steam would get a brief encore or two on the Los Angeles Division on freight as late as the summer of 1952 and in passenger service into 1953, but I'm not aware of any similar reprieves on the Albuquerque Division.  Only four steam locomotives were still assigned to the Albuquerque Division as of January 1953 (two 2-10-2's, one 2-8-2, and one 2-8-0), and even they were likely in mothballs awaiting calls that would never come.  All four had been retired by the end of the year.

An article in the July 3, 1949 Arizona Republic of Phoenix about the shipment of lettuce and melons on the Santa Fe from Phoenix stated that one train the previous spring required seven helpers for the grade west of Prescott.  A photo accompanying the article showed a train of melons that had three helpers added at Prescott.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/17/22 22:44 by johnsweetser.

johnsweetser Wrote:

> A photo accompanying the article showed a train of melons that had three helpers added at Prescott.

The caption to the photo doesn't say where the helpers were added, just that they were used "on the mountain grades west of Prescott."  The train in question was eastbound, so by the time it got to Prescott, it was already past the referenced mountain grades. 

The accompanying article says trains out of Phoenix added helpers at Skull Valley (MP 80.6, elevation 4297.1 feet) and cut them off at Alto (MP 65.6, elevation 6082.1 feet). The maximum grade eastbound over that bit was 3.00% according to a 1951 track chart.  The article does not mention adding helpers at Prescott (MP 57.1, elevation 5370.4 feet) for the eastbound run to Ash Fork (MP 0 on the branch, elevation 5108.1 feet).  The maximum eastbound grade on that bit was a compensated 1.50% climbing up from the Verde River crossing near Del Rio. 

The grade for westbounds out of Prescott heading up to Alto also touched 3.00%, so helpers could be added at Prescott for that climb. 

There's a couple really good books out there on the history of northern/central Arizona and the number of lines that basically attempted to go north-south.

Phoenix was a late start as a capital - 1889 - so until then Prescott was the center of political power, and everybody wanted in, geography or not.   Myrick's book, as well as Shuppert's, document the various lines, charters, and attempts to get there.    And the number of line relocations over the years just by ATSF is just rather stunning resulting in today's Peavine.

The first railroad to strike south off the ATSF - the Prescott & Arizona Central - was a wooden-axle, dirt-track operation that gave up early, but that's the draw the then Territorial Capital had.
https://www.abandonedrails.com/prescott-and-arizona-central-railroad
Both books get into the logging and mining operations that sprung out of these original attempts as well.

The logging railroad network around Flagstaff was originally chartered to go down to Prescott and never made it.

And it would seem like ATSF made a practice of sponsoring connecting charters and buying stock control, letting them go bankrupt, and buying the finished track for pennies on the dollar.  That's basically how the Peavine evolved. 

What's surprised me is how traffic has grown on the Peavine, and how important a destination Phoenix has become to BNSF.   It was kind of a backwater under ATSF mostly on the seasonal produce trade, sure not under BNSF in the intermodal age.   Spent one night at Glendale and it's one of the noisiest yards I've ever seen.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/22 06:19 by randgust.

I wrote:

> > A photo accompanying the article [in the July 3, 1949 Arizona Republic] showed a train of melons that had three helpers added at Prescott.

Evan_Werkema responded:

> The caption to the photo doesn't say where the helpers were added, just that they were used "on the mountain grades west of Prescott."  The train in question was eastbound, so by the time it got to Prescott, it was already past the referenced mountain grades. 

I'm not that familiar with that line so I was making some crazy assumptions.
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/22 11:27 by johnsweetser.

While you're looking at wierd helper districts and line relocations in Arizona, don't forget Ash Fork to Williams.    While it's now been bypassed by the epic 1960 line relocation of the main across Arizona, that was just a miserable, steep, single-track line with a tunnel.   And for a brief time, ATSF assigned those wierd hinged 2-10-10-2's as helpers both there, and on the east side out of the hill from Flagstaff - Riordan (summit).
Today's super railroad across Arizona came out of some truly awful original engineering:
https://www.nhonews.com/news/2010/jul/13/johnson-canyon-railroad-tunnel-goes-back-in-az-hi/

callum_out Wrote:

> Short of that picture you'd never know that the Santa Fe had a roundhouse in Prescott, in fact that's the only picture I can remember seeing of it.

See also:  https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,3882171

Evan, thanks for posting that, missed it some how.

Out 

randgust Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> While you're looking at wierd helper districts and
> line relocations in Arizona, don't forget Ash Fork
> to Williams.    While it's now been bypassed by
> the epic 1960 line relocation of the main across
> Arizona, that was just a miserable, steep,
> single-track line with a tunnel.   

The single track line with a tunnel was by-passed as an upgrade line  when the north track (eastward)  was constructed in 1912. It had grades no worse than Cajon. The original line became strictly a westward downgrade line.  

> Today's super railroad across Arizona came out of
> some truly awful original engineering:

The current line (Crookton cutoff) was originally considered when the A&P was building west. The route was rejected for two very good reasons. First, a lack of water for steam locos, and second, the amount of dynamite and earth work needed to carve a ROW through some very difficult terrain. I wouldn`t charecterize the original line as   awful original engineering.

https://truewestmagazine.com/johnson-canyon/
That's really a case of 'how bad was it?' to be judged in comparison.  It certainly was the worst spot on the original railroad.

And, you'll see those postcard view of both steam and diesel trains going across that bridge into the tunnel mouth as standard tourist fare until the 60's.

"Johnson Railroad Tunnel" is still a searchable location on Google Earth, and you can see for yourself, any train view shown that way would be headed eastbound, so at least the postcard views of the bridge and canyon show eastbounds.    Maybe like Raton, passenger trains could handle it eastbound. 

I've never read that A&P seriously considered the Crookton as an alternate route for the original build, but if you've got a source I'd love to read it.   I don't challenge that in the era of mule dirt carts and water trains it wasn't possible though.   They were Missouri and Frisco financed in the beginning with ATSF not getting in there until about 1880.

Myrick does a pretty good job of documenting all the line changes and realignments in Arizona, and it's rather mind-boggling.   Isolating Prescott on a branch testifies to the fact that ATSF never considered a track location particularly sacred.   I think if there was an analysis of route-miles relocated since original construction, Arizona ATSF just might win.

 

randgust Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> https://truewestmagazine.com/johnson-canyon/
> That's really a case of 'how bad was it?' to be
> judged in comparison.  It certainly was the worst
> spot on the original railroad.

Cajon before construction of the North track in 1911 was 3%, both direction, which then became the South track westward until CTC in 1972. Raton is over 3 percent, and was the primary route until the Belen cutoff. So it wasn't the worst. In fact only a small portion was 3%.
>
> And, you'll see those postcard view of both steam
> and diesel trains going across that bridge into
> the tunnel mouth as standard tourist fare until
> the 60's.

Not eastward after 1912.  In fact some westward trains were run on the north track because of tunnel clearance. Though the Crookton line change was completed in 1960, the South line Williams to Ash Fork remained until 1964

>
> "Johnson Railroad Tunnel" is still a searchable
> location on Google Earth, and you can see for
> yourself, any train view shown that way would be
> headed eastbound, so at least the postcard views
> of the bridge and canyon show eastbounds. 

Yes, eastward pre-1912 before the North line.
 
> Maybe like Raton, passenger trains could handle it
> eastbound. 
>
> I've never read that A&P seriously considered the
> Crookton as an alternate route for the original
> build, but if you've got a source I'd love to read
> it. 

Myrick.

 I don't challenge that in the era of mule
> dirt carts and water trains it wasn't possible
> though.   They were Missouri and Frisco financed
> in the beginning with ATSF not getting in there
> until about 1880.
>
> Myrick does a pretty good job of documenting all
> the line changes and realignments in Arizona, and
> it's rather mind-boggling.   Isolating Prescott
> on a branch testifies to the fact that ATSF never
> considered a track location particularly sacred. 
>  I think if there was an analysis of route-miles
> relocated since original construction, Arizona
> ATSF just might win.
>
>