Nostalgia & History > Apache FM and Alcos 1971

1. #200 H10-44 @ Snowflake AZ
2. #700 RS36 @ McNary AZ
3. #900 RS36 @ McNary AZ
my shots, all on 8/3/71
 

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Love that first one. No doubt what that RR did for a living. 

Had to look twice, they had a paper mill at that location so I suppose they weren't too considered about bustin' up the raw material. One clue was the flat car being used for the shorter logs and being stacked cross-ways.

Apparently they had a proper sawmill here, this was also, apparently, the origin of those long distance log trains in the mid-90's, or whenever it was.

Interesting stuff.
t4p.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/21 12:26 by TCnR.

I'm always fascinated at images of the Apache's first paint scheme, thanks for sharing!  Interesting side note, Flake Willis worked on the Apache before going onto the McCloud River Railroad, where he introduced an adaptation of that paint job to the McCloud Baldwin diesels.  McCloud Railway resurrected that scheme when it repainted two of their diesels. 

To one of the replies, Apache Railway originally existed to connect the big sawmill at Cooley, Arizona, later renamed McNary, with the outside world, plus logging railroads into the timber beyond McNary.  The paper mill was built in 1961, which is what prompted them to purchase the three RS-36s.  The sawmill burned in 1979 and was not rebuilt, and the Apache abandoned the line from Flake to McNary in 1984.  The log trains in the early 2000s had nothing to do with the by then long gone sawmill or paper mill, those were cut from tribal lands in the region following a catastrophic wildifre season.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV   

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Excellent stuff!

Out 

Good explanation, I wasn't chasing the action at the time.
In those days there seemed to be paper mills in some odd places and all over the place.

You bring up an interesting point, TCnR.  The lumber industry experienced a sustained boom period in the first decade or so after the second world war, but lumber markets grew increasingly unstable and volatile in the back half of the 1950s.  As tends to happen, boom times tend to attract a lot of new operators and capital into the industry, but unfortunately what that did was to substantially increase competition for both private timberlands and government timber sales, which drove up prices on both right at the time that lumber prices softened and then sank, compounded by heavily subsidized softwood lumber imports from Canada that captured ever increasing market share percentage at the expense of domestic producers.  Companies dependent on USFS timber sales especially suffered as the average time between when a government timber sale went out to bid and when logging actually occurred tended to be about two years, and there were no mechanisms in place to adjust the final sale price to reflect market realities at the time of harvest.  Economic diversification and just a growing need to convert tree parts that had either been left in the woods to rot or burned in the wigwam burner sparked an enormous investment in flakeboard plants, plywood plants, paper mills, and other such facilities.  Hence the truth behind your statement about paper mills showing up in odd places around the country.

I don't remember or don't know right now if the pulpwood traffic on the Apache was an interline movement from McNary or came in from elsewhere.  Anyway, here's a couple C.G. Heimerdinger Jr. shots, one of the #200 with some loaded pulpwood cars and then the #800 with a couple Santa Fe woodchip hoppers and a long string of log loads. 

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV.     

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I love the design of those FM switchers--great lines.  And the roof over the cab deck was just a nice added feature.  Thoughtful.

Anyone have any info on the fate of the FM switcher.