The Apache Railway is an

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...

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 oper ...

that operates from a connection with the BNSF Railway at Holbrook to the Snowflake Mill near

Snowflake, Arizona Snowflake is a town in Navajo County, Arizona, United States. It was founded in 1878 by Erastus Snow and William Jordan Flake, Mormon pioneers It has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names. According to 2010 Census, the populati ...

, . The APA was acquired by

Catalyst Paper Catalyst Paper Corporation is a pulp and paper company based in Richmond, British Columbia. It operates five pulp mills and paper mills, producing a combined 1.8 million tonnes of paper and 491,000 tonnes of market pulp annually. The mills most ...

from

Abitibi Consolidated Abitibi Consolidated Inc. was a Canadian pulp and paper company based in Montreal, Quebec. Abitibi-Consolidated was formed from the merger of Abitibi-Price Inc. and Stone Consolidated Corp. on May 29, 1997; the Company merged with Bowater in 2 ...

in 2008. The Snowflake paper mill shut down permanently on September 30, 2012. In late 2015, the railway was purchased out of bankruptcy by a group including

Aztec Land & Cattle Company Aztec Land and Cattle Company, Limited ("Aztec") is a land company with a historic presence in Arizona. It was formed in 1884 and incorporated in early 1885 as a cattle ranching operation that purchased 1,000,000 acres in northern Arizona from th ...

and Midwest Poultry Producers, L.P., thereby avoiding a shutdown and scrappage of the line. The railway continues to operate, and its revenues are driven primarily by car repair and storage. The railway's freight revenues have not yet recovered from the shutdown of the Snowflake paper mill then owned by Catalyst, although efforts to enhance them continue.

Traffic

16,000 cars per year (1996 figure) * recycled fiber *

pulpwood Pulpwood is timber with the principal use of making wood pulp for paper production. Applications * Trees raised specifically for pulp production account for 15% of world pulp production, old growth forests 9% and second- and third- and more gener ...

* wood chips * coal * paper * chemicals * grain

History

The Apache Railway was incorporated in 1917, when it began construction of a rail line from Holbrook south, reaching Snowflake in 1918. It was extended south to McNary in 1920. From October 1, 1931, until 1936, amid the Great Depression, the APA was placed in

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in c ...

. A tourist railroad, the White Mountain Scenic Railroad, operated steam powered passenger excursions over the Southwest Forest Industries-owned line from McNary to the logging camp of Maverick, AZ, beginning in 1964. As track conditions deteriorated, the excursions were cut back in later years to a point about half way to Maverick. In the final years, it operated north from Pinetop Lakes to a place called Bell Siding on

U.S. Route 60 U.S. Route 60 is a major east–west United States highway, traveling from southwestern Arizona to the Atlantic Ocean coast in Virginia. The highway's eastern terminus is in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where it is known as Pacific Avenue, in the ...

. In 1976, the White Mountain Scenic Railroad ceased operations and moved its equipment to

Heber City, Utah Heber City is a city and county seat of Wasatch County, Utah, United States. The population was 11,362 at the time of the 2010 census. It is located 43 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. History Heber City was first settled in 1859 by Robert ...

to be used on an excursion there known as the "Heber Creeper." The line from Maverick to McNary, with some elevations exceeding , was removed in 1982 after the McNary sawmill closed. By the 1980s, the Apache Railway was Arizona's only remaining logging railroad. The track from Snowflake to McNary was abandoned in 1982. In July 2012, the owner of the railroad and an on-line paper mill,

, announced that the mill and railroad would shut down and be sold later in the year. In December, Catalyst agreed to sell the railroad and mill to

Hackman Capital Hackman was a cutlery and cookware company founded in Finland in 1790. The Hackman brand is now owned by Iittala Group, which was acquired by Fiskars Corporation in 2007. In a 2008 survey which included both Finnish and international brands, it wa ...

. Hackman planned to dismantle the railroad along with the mill, but local officials who wanted to retain rail service formed a non-profit foundation to purchase the railroad from lenders, using a federal

Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing The Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) program is a program established in the United States by the passage of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). Under the RRIF program, funds can be made available for ...

loan, which was denied in November 2014. Hackman took over control again and put the railroad into bankruptcy in May 2015, while local officials attempted to secure a rural economic development loan from the

USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

. A bankruptcy court ruled on September 1, 2015, to postpone the sale deadline of the railroad, which the court valued at $7.2 million, until November 30.

Passenger service

The Apache Railway offered passenger service until the 1950s. In July 1954, the mixed train operated on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, departing McNary at 7:15am, arriving Holbrook at 12:15pm, departing there at 1:30pm and returning to McNary at 7:00pm.

Motive power

The Apache Railway uses

ALCO Century 420 The ALCO Century 420 is a four-axle, diesel-electric locomotive. 131 were built between June 1963 and August 1968. Cataloged as a part of ALCO's "Century" line of locomotives, the C420 was intended to replace the earlier RS-32 model. Original ...

(C420) and C424s. Current Roster: APA 81 - C420 APA 82 - C420 APA 83 - C420 APA 84 - C420 APA 97 - M424 APA 98 - M424 APA 99 - M424

Route

* Holbrook (interchange with BNSF Railway's Gallup Subdivision/formerly

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 and Topeka, Kansas, and S ...

) * Blair * Snowflake Pig Farm * Tours * Snowflake Junction * Apache Railway Shops * Snowflake Paper Mill (Catalyst Paper) * Snowflake Junction *

Snowflake A snowflake is a single ice crystal that has achieved a sufficient size, and may have amalgamated with others, which falls through the Earth's atmosphere as snow.Knight, C.; Knight, N. (1973). Snow crystals. Scientific American, vol. 228, no. ...

Abandoned routes

Abandoned in 1980. * Snowflake (interchange with the now defunct Standard Lumber) *

Taylor Taylor, Taylors or Taylor's may refer to: People * Taylor (surname) ** List of people with surname Taylor * Taylor (given name), including Tayla and Taylah * Taylor sept, a branch of Scottish clan Cameron * Justice Taylor (disambiguation) ...

* Silver Lake * Bell Siding * Sponseller (with several lumber spurs into the forest to the east) * Pinetop Lakes (with several lumber spurs into the forest) * McNary (interchange with

Southwest Forest Industries Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation was a global paperboard and paper-based packaging company based in Creve Coeur, Missouri, and Chicago, Illinois, with approximately 21,000 employees. In 2007, Smurfit-Stone was ranked 13 in Pricewaterhouse ...

) * Camp 28 (with several lumber spurs into the forest) In addition, a 2 to 3 mile (3–5 km) section of track used to run from south of Tours to Snowflake. Today's line runs from Tours to Snowflake Junction.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Apache Railway Arizona railroads Railway companies established in 1917 Catalyst Paper American companies established in 1917