Nostalgia & History > ATSF Chloride District

Anyone have any operational information or history of the ATSF Chrloride District ?

Photos ?

One of those branches off my radar.

ATSF ETT #59  Arizona Division - 10-9-1921
https://wx4.org/to/foam/maps/2-Zukas/19/atsf/1921-10-09ATSF_Arizona59-Zukas.pdf
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/25 14:07 by train1275.

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Ran to an old silver mining area.  The depot in Chloride was still standing in February 2020 when I was last through there.

mike woodruff
north platte ne

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Nice, when was it torn out ?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/25 15:11 by train1275.

I think 1935?  I'll bet Evan would know for sure.

mike woodruff
north platte ne

What a great looking depot!  Thanks for sharing train1275.

Kent in CArmel Valley

It looks like the Santa Fe applied with the Interstate Commerce Commission to abandon the Chloride District in 1933:

https://www.abandonedrails.com/mcconnico-to-chloride

Matthew

I found the once a week schedule interesting. I wonder if that was adequate for all of the freight business, or whether some extra trains were run.

This railroad is covered in Chaper 9 of Myrick's Railroads of Arizona, v.6.  The branch was built by the Arizona & Utah Ry in 1899 primarily to serve the mines near Chloride, but with the usual grand plans for extensions, including one all the way to a connection with the LA&SL at Moapa, NV.  The road had operating rights over Santa Fe from the junction at McConnico, AZ east to Kingman.

Rainstorms in 1904 practically wiped out the railroad, and it wasn't until 1905 that the line was restored with backing from the Santa Fe, who would absorb it through a new subsidiary called the Western Arizona Ry. in January 1906.  Gold and silver may have been the headline minerals, but zinc and lead ores accounted for most of the tonnage the line carried.  The depot shown in the photo above was built in 1912 after Santa Fe extended the end of track closer to the center of town and the mines.  Train service was daily-except-Sunday until early 1917, when it went briefly to seven days a week.  Later that year, declining metal prices caused many mines to shut down, and train service went back to daily-except-Sunday in 1918 and dropped to once-a-week-on-Saturday by 1921.  In 1929, the branch carried a total of 2,523 tons, and 1931 saw just 479 tons moved by the time the last train ran on August 1.  The April 1933 ICC filing came to fruition with the abandonment of the branch on July 1, 1933. 

See also: http://arizonarailsruinstrails.blogspot.com/2012/01/arizona-and-utah-railroadwestern.html

Myrick's book contains photos of the town of Chloride, but none of trains running on the branch - just a roster shot of one of A&U's two locomotives.  The book says the road's first locomotive was a 2-8-0, and Iron Horses of the Santa Fe Trail has some minimal information indicating it became AT&SF 2420.  On the other hand, Strapac's Santa Fe Steam Compendium v.1 lists A&U #1 as a 1900-built Baldwin 0-6-0 acquired second-hand from Beaumont Terminal & Wharf, eventually going to Santa Fe's Texas subsidiary GC&SF as their 2420. 

A&U #2 is better documented (and the subject of the roster shot on page 158 of Myrick's book).  It was the "Richmond Tramp," a 4-6-0 cross compound demonstrator built in 1894 by the Richmond Locomotive Works that acquired its nickname by a habit of roaming the country without finding a home.  It was finally purchased in 1897 by the Randsburg Ry. (Kramer to Johannesburg, CA, another mining line eventually acquired by the Santa Fe and abandoned during the Great Depression).  Randsburg sold the engine to the A&U as their #2 in 1903.  When Santa Fe bought out the A&U, the 4-6-0 gained AT&SF reporting marks and the road number 260, seen in the first photo below from the low-pressure side at Oakland, CA in 1909.  Santa Fe put up with the engine as a compound for 6 years before converting it to a simple-expansion machine, and it's in that form that Phil Middlebrook rostered it once again (also with a new cab, stack, headlight, tender, etc.) at Los Angeles in 1920.  It went to scrap at San Bernardino in 1924.

Photos courtesy the Southern California Railway Museum.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/25 23:30 by Evan_Werkema.

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Thanks for the responses everyone !