In addition to my popular column and gallery on Phoenix Union Station, I've written about the Ghost Railroads of Arizona, the many lines that helped build the state that have mostly disappeared. Another column detailed the difficult enterprise of building railroads to Phoenix, ending its isolation. And most recently photographer Jack Delano's trip across northern Arizona during World War II. Many of these have additional photos, so check them out even if you read the text.
Now, a grab bag of railroad photos from the 1950s to today. A reminder: Phoenix is by far the largest city in North America without intercity passenger trains, mostly a failure of state government.
Click on the photo for a larger image:
The arrival of the first locomotive to Arizona Territory, Yuma 1877 (Library of Congress).
The Sunset Limited, premier train of the Southern Pacific, on its way to Phoenix in 1950.
The only Southern Pacific passenger train that didn't take the Northern Main Line through Phoenix was the Argonaut, shown above with three "Black Widow" diesels up front and plenty of mail and express cars. The Argonaut passed through Casa Grande. The Black Widows were usually reserved for freight service.
Baggage carts are waiting as the Argonaut arrives in Tucson in the 1960s (Bob Knoll photo).
In 1970, a year before the inception of Amtrak, Southern Pacific's Sunset awaits the highball at Tucson. Operating only every other day, the train was a shell of the former premier passenger train of the SP.
A Santa Fe train hauling a block of refrigerated boxcars ("reefers") near the Colorado River crossing at Topock in 1953. These cars also hauled Salt River Valley produce by the trainload when Phoenix was an agricultural empire.
When Williams was still on the Santa Fe main line, it had a busy yard with a roundhouse, as well as a Harvey House passenger station. A line rerouting around 1960 left the town on the "Peavine" to Phoenix, losing the fleet of mainline passenger trains.
Santa Fe freight action on the double-track main line near Holbrook in 1962. The lead locomotive is a new U25B, General Electric's first independent entry into the American diesel market. It was nicknamed the U-Boat.
When the Santa Fe still operated a fleet of passenger trains across northern Arizona, here is the San Francisco Chief at a servicing stop in Winslow, Easter Sunday 1969. Note the full-length "big dome" car, as well as "hi-level" cars first used on the El Capitan. Santa Fe stuck with passenger trains until Amtrak's debut on May 1st, 1970. (Steve Brown photo)
An A-B-B-A set of Santa Fe locomotives, painted in the blue and yellow freight scheme, hustles a block of reefers near the New Mexico state line.
The Chief rolls into Flagstaff in 1962 behind Santa Fe's iconic "Warbonnet" passenger locomotive design. The flags indicate this is the first section, with at least a second Chief following about 15 minutes behind.
Another shot of the Chief as it races into Flagstaff, a baggage-express car behind the locomotives.
A freight train in Santa Fe blue and yellow freight F locomotives rolls past the Flagstaff depot in the 1960s.
The Fast Mail near Kingman on the Santa Fe. This train carried mail and express with only one coach at the end.
Santa Fe near Williams with a merchandise freight heavy on TOFC (trailers on flat cars) in the late 1960s. The SDP45 was built for passenger trains, to replace the F-series locomotives seen above. By this time, cutbacks had left some of the fleet to be repainted in freight colors for freight service.
The Chief arrives in Williams Junction in the late 1960s. This station was established when the main line bypassed Williams, leaving it on the Peavine branch to the south. Here the passenger train to Phoenix met the fleet of ATSF transcontinental streamliners.
With extra motive power up front, the El Capitan crosses the famous bridge at Canyon Diablo east of Flagstaff circa 1960. The El Cap was combined with the Super Chief in off-season, but this looks like summer when they ran separately. This "hi-level" train set the standard for today's Amtrak Superliners.
And here's the Super Chief at the same location.
A passenger special at the yard of the Grand Canyon station. The images below show they were quite common. Until the late 1960s, Santa Fe ran a regularly scheduled passenger train between Williams Junction and the station at the South Rim, right below the El Tovar.
The regular daily train at Grand Canyon station along with cars from special trains in 1962 (Marty Bernard photo).
Moving closer to today, here's the Southwest Chief at Winslow. Images below show the depot at La Posada Hotel (former Harvey House), a masterpiece of architect Mary Colter. She designed numerous signature buildings for the railroad and also at Grand Canyon National Park. La Posada was beautifully restored by Allan Affeldt.
The two photos above show Flagstaff's first passenger depot, built in 1886, repurposed as the Santa Fe freight station, and still preserved. The iconic newer station opened in 1926. It's served by the Southwest Chief.
A BNSF container train rolls past the Flagstaff station. When Flag was a lumber town, a small rail yard was adjacent to the station. BNSF ripped that out around 2000 and now two heavy duty main lines are all that's left. (Ivan Sefyan Abrams photo)
The Grand Canyon tourist railroad operates from Williams to the Santa Fe station at the South Rim with both steam and diesel power. (Carol Highsmith photo)
More BNSF container stacks on a train at the yard in Winslow, still a crew-change point on the railroad's busy "Transcon."
On the other side of the state, here's Kingman's depot. It was built in 1907 by the Santa Fe and still stands. The town was named after Lewis Kingman, a civil engineer instrumental in helping the AT&SF beat the Denver & Rio Grande Western to Raton Pass into New Mexico. (Dean Cote photo).
The short line Arizona & California, which operates the former Santa Fe branch which runs northwest from Wickenburg through Parker to Cadiz, Calif., where it meets the BNSF Transcon. It's owned by the Genesee & Wyoming holding company (Joe McMillan photo).
The former Santa Fe depot in Parker, headquarters of the Arizona & California. At one time Phoenix to Los Angeles passenger trains used this route.
Another short line is the Apache Railway which runs from the BNSF connection at Holbrook to Snowflake Mill. Here a train hauls turbine blades for the Chevelon Butte Wind Farm.
A four-unit Apache manifest freight blasts through northern Arizona.
Back to SP country: Here's a five-unit train at Hayden in the early 1960s. The Southern Pacific heavily served Arizona copper regions.
A Southern Pacific GP-locomotive switches cars in Bisbee, 1971.
The Mission/Moderne SP depot in Casa Grande, long after passenger trains and set-off freight and express cars. The depot, which anchored the shady old downtown, was allowed to burn and was demolished,
Globe's two-story passenger station on the SP. It's been decades since the last passenger train left.
Also in the early 1960s, here are two SP freights passing at Mescal, a ghost town west of Benson. This was where the SP main and the old southern route (the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad) joined.
It's 2012 and a Union Pacific business train visits Phoenix using restored "covered wagon" diesels from the glory days of passenger service. (Dennis Stern photo).
Tucson in 1955. The crowd celebrates 75 years of Southern Pacific service to the Old Pueblo.
The restored Southern Pacific depot in downtown Tucson. Amtrak's Sunset stops here.
RELATED: Phoenix Union Station.
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My book, A Brief History of Phoenix, is available to buy or order at your local independent bookstore, or from Amazon.
Read more Phoenix history in Rogue's Phoenix 101 archive.
Very nice. I still remember seeing my first “Warbonnet” paint scheme in 1990 at the yard near Grand Avenue. Canyon Diablo is worth a trip but go prepared, I had a 4×4 truck at the time and needed the ground clearance.
Notice what’s missing on all the old train photos? Graffiti. I bet 99% of the rail cars in the USA are tagged. If you buy a model train these days, you can get rail cars with graffiti.
Hi. The photo that is labeled as a picture of the Santa Fe El Capitan is actually Amtrak’s Southwest Limited sometime in the mid ‘70s. You can see the cars painted in Amtrak colors.
These are beautiful images. I am particularly fond of the F-series locomotives, which IMO mix sleek and modern with retro at once. The Royal Gorge Route Railroad still runs these locomotives on a 12-mile section of the former Denver & Rio Grande Western track through the Royal Gorge. The 2-hour trip pulls the 1950s-era rolling stock through some of the most stunning scenery of the canyon, including across the famed Hanging Bridge.
Once again, thanks for the great pictures. I learned to appreciate the value and joys of rail travel too late; only on on my first trip to India, where rail travel has penetrated deeply into the fabric of life, perhaps more than in any other country. At any given point during the daytime, India has over 2000 passenger-carrying trains operating (not counting suburban commuter trains). On every subsequent trip to India, that’s how I’ve moved about the country (they go almost everywhere) and where I’ve met countless interesting people, from the Bombay-Delhi expresses to the steam-powered, rack-and-pinion Nilgiri Mountain Railway (not, amazingly enough, primarily a tourist train!). Would that we still had something remotely like their system here.
Great photos Rogue. Reminds me of my youth when dad was an engineer for the Northern Pacific which ultimately became the Burlington Northern. In the 50’s he took us on a couple of trips to Staples Minnesota, his turn-around from the Twin Cities. Amazing to sit in the engine and ride the rails with him. So long ago, but the photos help jar it all loose. Nice.
I have three photos I took at the Mesa Southern Pacific depot, long ago, to contribute to this: The depot building, a diesel-electric locomotive parked at the depot, and one of SP’s signature bay-window cabooses.
Nice photos, Joe. Thanks.
If you’re done looking at trains, there’s a great discussion taking place back at the Deliverance thread.
Biden and trains
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/president-elect-joe-bidens-dedication-to-trains-could-transform-domestic-travel?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=pol&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_mailing=thematic_ballot_120220&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bd67d4224c17c104802a222&cndid=48614199&sourcecode=thematic_ballot&utm_term=Thematic_Ballot_Subscribers
Sorry for the radio silence. I have multiple Seattle Times deadlines this week and may not be able to write a column for a few days. Thanks for understanding.
You sure struck a nerve with your last ST column. 700+ comments.
All, check out the links to previous railroad posts by Rogue; there are more photos. (The links are in the intro to this piece.)
Rogue, I’d like your thoughts on why the railroads don’t seem to be doing R&D on moving more of the nation’s goods in a timely manner, i.e., getting trucks off the roads.
Several problems are at work.
Except for BNSF (owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway) the major railroads are under constant pressure from Wall Street to deliver short-term profits. Wall Street frowns on the investment needed to grow traffic and aggressively market to shippers.
The culture of American railroading is also lazy and unwilling to do the things necessary to take traffic from trucking (which is subsidized by road building.
Thanks.
I wonder what it would take to “wake the railroads up.” It seems to me there is a goldmine waiting to be tapped.
Left out is the White Mountain steam train It was beautiful. Rode it as a kid in the early 70’s.
Thanks for commenting, but I didn’t include tourist lines.