The Clarkdale Arizona Central Railroad is an

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

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 ...

that operates from a connection with the

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

Drake, Arizona Drake was an unincorporated community on the Verde River in Yavapai County, Arizona, United States, and a station on the BNSF Railway's Phoenix Subdivision. Drake is also the junction and western terminus of the Verde Canyon Railroad. Drake is ...

. The AZCR runs from Drake to

Clarkdale, Arizona Clarkdale (Yavapai: Saupkasuiva) is a town in Yavapai County, Arizona, United States. The Verde River flows through the town as does Bitter Creek, an intermittent tributary of the river. According to the 2010 census, the population of the town w ...

. An

excursion train An excursion train is a chartered train run for a special event or purpose. Examples are trains to major sporting event, trains run for railfans or tourists, and special trains operated by the railway company for employees and prominent customer ...

also runs on the line through Verde Canyon and is operated by the same owners under the

Verde Canyon Railroad The Verde Canyon Railroad is a heritage railroad running between Clarkdale and Perkinsville in the U.S. state of Arizona. The passenger excursion line operates on of tracks of the Clarkdale Arizona Central Railroad (AZCR), a shortline. ...

. The AZCR is owned by David L. Durbano.

Traffic

The AZCR handles 1,500 cars per year of inbound

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

, coke, lime, bauxite, and fly ash to the

Phoenix Cement Company The Phoenix Cement Company, headquartered in Phoenix, operates a cement plant in Clarkdale in the U.S. state of Arizona. Built in 1959 by the American Cement Company to make cement for construction of the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River, ...

and shipping outbound

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...

. The Verde Canyon Railroad carries 100,000 passengers per year (2013 figure).

History

Verde Valley Railway

From 1913 to 1989 the line was operated by 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 ...

(Santa Fe Railway). On November 17, 1911, the Verde Valley Railway was

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

ed as a

non-operating subsidiary In the United States, a paper railroad is a company in the railroad business that exists "on paper only": as a legal entity which does not own any track, locomotives, or rolling stock. In the early days of railroad construction, paper railroads h ...

of the Santa Fe Railway. Construction from Cedar Glade (west of Drake) to Clarkdale was immediately commenced on February 13, 1912, and was completed on February 1, 1913, at a total cost of $1,286,061. It was built to support the

United Verde Mine The United Verde mine was one of the largest copper mines in the United States. The mine was located in the town of Jerome in central Arizona, in the southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southw ...

Jerome, Arizona Jerome is a town in the Black Hills of Yavapai County in the U.S. state of Arizona. Founded in the late 19th century on Cleopatra Hill overlooking the Verde Valley, Jerome is located more than above sea level. It is about north of Phoenix alon ...

. On December 31, 1942, the Verde Valley was conveyed to the Santa Fe Railway by

deed In common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions, sealed. It is commonly associated with transferring ...

. On April 14, 1989, the Santa Fe Railway sold the Clarkdale branch to David L. Durbano. The new railroads were named the Clarkdale Arizona Central Railroad for freight and the

for passenger service. Passenger service resumed in November 1990.

Motive power

The AZCR has seven locomotives that were all built by originally by EMD. The railroad has 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 1 ...

(AZCR 2164), two

EMD GP9 The EMD GP9 is a four-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division between 1954 and 1959. The GP9 succeeded the GP7 as the second model of EMD's General Purpose (GP) line, incorporating a new sixteen-cylind ...

(AZCR 3413) (AZCR 2279), a pair of former ICG Paducah-rebuild GP26's (2601 and 2602) recently acquired from the Cimarron Valley Railroad (2019), and a pair of

EMD FP7 The EMD FP7 is a , B-B dual-service passenger and freight-hauling diesel locomotive produced between June 1949 and December 1953 by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division and General Motors Diesel. Final assembly was at GM-EMD's La Grange, Il ...

s (1510 and 1512, used to power the excursion). The vintage FP7 diesel locomotives are two of only ten remaining in operation in North America. They were originally built for the Alaska Railroad in 1953 by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors in LaGrange, Illinois.

Route

The route is nestled between two national forests and adjacent to a designated wilderness area, follows the

Verde River The Verde River (Yavapai: Haka'he:la) is a major tributary of the Salt River in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is about long and carries a mean flow of at its mouth. It is one of the largest perennial streams in Arizona. Description The ri ...

the entire way and features a long tunnel and many bridges. *

Drake Drake may refer to: Animals * A male duck People and fictional characters * Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name * Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * ...

–

BNSF BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

Phoenix Subdivision * Mack – goes not appear in timetable. * Bear – named because a bear was shot there during construction. * Perkinsville – a ghost town * Sycamore * Clarkdale

References

* * *

External links

Verde Canyon Railroad
official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarkdale Arizona Central Railroad Arizona railroads Spin-offs of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Companies based in Arizona Railway companies established in 1989