Completed in 1904, the Crown King Branch of the

Bradshaw Mountain Railroad The Bradshaw Mountain Railroad was a subsidiary of the Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railway (SFP&P) in Arizona. The railroad was built to serve the mines in the Bradshaw Mountains. The railroad built from a connection at Poland Junction and ...

, also known as Murphy's Impossible Railroad, linked the town of Crown King with the end of the

Prescott and Eastern Railroad The Prescott and Eastern Railroad (P&E) was a non-operating subsidiary of the Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railway (SFP&P) in Arizona. The 26.4 mile (42.5 km) common carrier railroad was built to serve the mines in the region. The railroad ...

Mayer, Arizona Mayer is a census-designated place (CDP) in Yavapai County, Arizona, United States. The population was 1,408 at the 2000 census. Mayer includes three sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places: Mayer Apartments, Mayer Business B ...

. Frank Murphy began construction of the

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

railway in 1895. Construction was completed in 1904 when it reached Crown King. The tracks were torn up in 1927, leaving what is now known as FR 259. The railroad got its name from the fact that Crown King is 2,000 feet higher than Mayer and the terrain between the two places is very steep. It's this fact that caused naysayers to believe that the two towns could not be linked by rail. In all, the railroad required five switchbacks, a tunnel and extremely high trestles to make the ascent to Crown King. Much of the current Crown King road (after reaching Cleator) follows the old railroad bed. The old trestles were used by risky drivers however they were removed and the road was fixed to accommodate passenger cars and trucks. This process included adding sharp turns to the road to connect the gap where trestles once stood. The road also goes around a collapsed tunnel where the tracks once went.

References

*Philip Varney, ''Arizona Ghost Towns and Mining Towns: A travel guide to history'', Phoenix, Arizona Highways Books, 1988, 117 pages.

External links

Interactive map and ICC Filings of the Crown King Branch between Mayer and Crown King, Arizona.
Rail transportation in Arizona Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Closed railway lines in the United States Railway lines opened in 1904 Railway lines closed in 1927 Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway lines