The Santa Fe Southern Railway is a
short line railroad
:''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.''
A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...
in
New Mexico
)
, population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano)
, seat = Santa Fe
, LargestCity = Albuquerque
, LargestMetro = Tiguex
, OfficialLang = None
, Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...
,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. In addition to carrying freight on occasion, it also operates as a
tourist railroad
A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...
called Sky Railway that carries passengers between
Lamy
Lamy is a German pen manufacturing company. Josef Lamy, who was a sales representative for Parker Pen in Germany, founded the business in 1930 by purchasing the Orthos pen manufacturer. Lamy was a pioneer in the use of moulded synthetic pla ...
and
Santa Fe: a distance of .
The
Santa Fe Rail Trail
The Santa Fe Rail Trail is a multi-use trail, part of the trail system in the city of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The trail begins at the Santa Fe Depot, in the Railyard arts district, and ends at U.S. Route 285, near Lamy, New Mexico and the Lam ...
, a multi-use trail, parallels its route.
History
Beginnings and the expansion of tourist operations
The Santa Fe Southern began operations in 1992, after the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison, Kansas, Atchison and Top ...
ended operations on its Lamy to Santa Fe branch line and a group of local businesspeople purchased the track to continue freight service in the area. Passenger service was added later on.
On October 8, 2010, the railroad was purchased by STI-Global, Ltd., an
Australian-based company. STI-Global said that the purchase would allow it to test the safety systems the company produces.
On May 20, 2011, the railroad was evicted from its headquarters at the
depot
Depot ( or ) may refer to:
Places
* Depot, Poland, a village
* Depot Island, Kemp Land, Antarctica
* Depot Island, Victoria Land, Antarctica
* Depot Island Formation, Greenland
Brands and enterprises
* Maxwell Street Depot, a restaurant in ...
in Santa Fe to make way for a new visitors' center planned to serve
New Mexico Rail Runner
The New Mexico Rail Runner Express ( AAR reporting mark NMRX) is a commuter rail system serving the metropolitan areas of Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is administered by the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) and the Ri ...
passengers.
On August 12, 2012, the railroad was featured in the
AMC
AMC may refer to:
Film and television
* AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain
* AMC Networks, an American entertainment company
** AMC (TV channel)
** AMC+, streaming service
** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company
*** ...
TV series ''
Breaking Bad''
season 5
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...
episode
"Dead Freight", in which one of the railroad's locomotives was delayed at a highway crossing in order to facilitate the theft of 1,000 gallons of the industrial chemical methylamine from a tank car near the end of the train. The locomotive featured was SFSR 07, a
GP7u. In the credits, special thanks were given to the railroad for making the episode possible.
Financial troubles and attempted recovery
The railroad's business fluctuated greatly; in 2004, it hauled 401 carloads of freight, and in 2007 carried 25,907 passengers, but in 2009 these counts decreased to 25 and 12,208, both record lows.
Towards the end of its existence, the railroad changed from separate freight and passenger operations to
mixed trains
A mixed train or mixed consist is a train that contains both passenger and freight cars or wagons. Although common in the early days of railways, by the 20th century they were largely confined to branch lines with little traffic. Typically, servic ...
(which carry both freight and passengers) at least twice a week, depending on the season.
The railroad also offered charter and special trains.
After the close of the 2012 operating season, things took a turn for the worse. On May 23, 2013, the Santa Fe Southern board chairman announced that he had laid-off all of the railroad's full-time staffers and many seasonal employees. The railroad did not operate any trains during the year 2013.
On April 24, 2014, the
Las Vegas Railway Express (LVRE) announced that it had reached an agreement with the Santa Fe Southern to jointly operate excursion trains that summer.
LVRE would provide the capital to restore the line to operating condition, while Santa Fe Southern would operate the trains.
End of regularly scheduled passenger excursion trains
On September 26, 2014, despite a reportedly-successful first summer, LVRE informed the Santa Fe Southern that it would be terminating the operation, effective on the 29th. Those who had purchased tickets for future excursion trains were informed that their trains were cancelled, and received refunds. Remaining freight operations were also suspended. Santa Fe Southern officials commented that they were unsure when the railroad would resume operations, and at the present time the railroad is still lacking regularly-scheduled passenger excursions, although it is still running private charter events (weddings, parties, corporate events, etc.), Private Varnishes, and the occasional movie or TV film shoot.
Revival as Sky Railway
In 2019, the railway came under new ownership, including
George R. R. Martin
George Raymond Richard Martin (born George Raymond Martin; September 20, 1948), also known as GRRM, is an American novelist, screenwriter, television producer and short story writer. He is the author of the series of epic fantasy novels ''A Song ...
and entertainment and restaurant business owner Bill Banowsky. It resumed excursion operations under the brand Sky Railway in December 2021.
Rolling stock
The railroad operates several coaches formerly owned by the
Central Railroad of New Jersey
The Central Railroad of New Jersey, also known as the Jersey Central or Jersey Central Lines , was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s. It was absorbed into Conrail in April 1976 along with several other prominent bankrupt railroads of ...
, as well as a
flatcar
A flatcar (US) (also flat car, or flatbed) is a piece of rolling stock that consists of an open, flat deck mounted on a pair of trucks (US) or bogies (UK), one at each end containing four or six wheels. Occasionally, flat cars designed to carry ...
and a
caboose
A caboose is a crewed North American railroad car coupled at the end of a freight train. Cabooses provide shelter for crew at the end of a train, who were formerly required in railway switch, switching and Shunting (rail), shunting, keeping a l ...
. Motive power consists of one
EMD GP7
The EMD GP7 is a four-axle ( B-B) diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and General Motors Diesel between October 1949 and May 1954.Pinkepank, Jerry A. (1973) pp. 53
Power was provided by an EMD 567B ...
and one
EMD GP16, the latter being a rebuild from a GP7.
References
External links
Sky Railway Official website
a railfan
A railfan, rail buff or train buff (American English), railway enthusiast, railway buff or trainspotter ( Australian/British English), or ferroequinologist is a person who is recreationally interested in trains and rail transport systems.
Rai ...
site, with photos
Santa Fe Rail Trail
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Fe Southern Railway
Rails with trails
New Mexico railroads
Heritage railroads in New Mexico
Transportation in Santa Fe County, New Mexico
Spin-offs of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway
Companies operating former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway lines
Transportation in New Mexico
Tourist attractions in Santa Fe County, New Mexico