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Apache Railway to shut down
That’s too bad. There also used to be a tourist steam railroad line south of there (which connected to the south end of the Apache Railroad’s line in Snowflake) going down to the Sitgreaves National Forest that shut down in the late '70s, I believe. Sad to hear the last little bit is going now.
I hope someone will buy the rail line. Was down there a month, looked plenty busy.
According to stories in the Arizona Republic newspaper, there is interest from a Phoenix firm in buying the paper plant. The plant currently processes recycled paper and wood pulp. Some of the paper byproducts are burned by a nearby company to generate electricity. Closure of the paper mill could cause the power plant to close too. So there may be a new owner for the plant and the railroad that services it. http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/20120731snowflake-recycling-plant-shutter-out-work.html?sf5341108=1>
Hopefully those Alcos will find a friendly new home and not meet the scrapper!
This is a shame and reflects the continuing downward spiral of the economy. How many Arizona jobs will be lost on and off the property? Surely, the mill will not be allowed to shut down for good.
Dang I was driving through Holbrook AZ just a couple weeks ago and saw a team of Apache engines, I should have stopped and snapped a couple pix.
I hope the ALCOS find a good home.
Hopefully a place can be found for the Alco’s, maybe donated to a museum.
Devastating news for the folks in Snowflake and railfans everywhere.
I’m not a fan of any closure let alone a rail service…
Wishing all the best from CANADA…
Sounds like three scenarios could be playing out.
First, Catalyst Paper may only be making waves because it is really looking for some kind of concessions to keep operating the plant, but more likely one of the next two will apply.
The paper plant and the railroad could be sold as two separate entities, and/or the Alco’s are sold. A potential purchaser would be the Erie-Lackawanna survivor in Scranton.
I wish some of the Tennessee Central engines that were there could finally return to the TCRM in Nashville!
I know the RS36’s have been offline for years, I think they were still running the C420’s.
Maybe Arkansas & Missouri…?
Wish one of those original Tennessee Central Alcos on the Apache could make its way back to Nashville and live out its life at the Tennessee Central Railway Museum. Back on its home tracks pulling excursion trains. How awesome would that be?!!
Wish one of those original Tennessee Central Alcos on the Apache could make its way back to Nashville and live out its life at the Tennessee Central Railway Museum. Back on its home tracks pulling excursion trains. How awesome would that be?!!
Missouri and Arkansas and Delaware-Lackawanna…are you listening and bidding for the Alcos???
I’ll be darned! Coincidentally - I had just finished re-reading Beebe’s classic, “Mixed Train Daily,” and had run across a reference to the Apache in that fine old book. If it goes into history it will join some fine old roads that are nothing any longer but dim memories. More’s the pity.
If anybody at the paper company is listening, we could sure use an alco at our little museum in Potlatch Idaho. We have the first locomotive of the Washington, Idaho and Montana RR, a 1908 Alco grad, and it sould be something to have another Alco on the property. Just sayin…
How many Alco locomotives (and what type) does the Apache Railroad currently operate? Supposedly they have some Alco RS-36s & RS-11s in service?
Years ago, (1960s/70s) they operated some FM switch engines (H-10 or H-12-44s?) but those units are long gone.
It’s time for all of us who care about the Tennessee Central to move to bring Apache 82, nee TC 400, home to Nashville. This engine, the last active TC engine, deserves a better fate than the scrappers. Only Cadiz RR 9, ex TC 51, is standing but it’s out of service sitting near I-24 @ US 68 just east of Cadiz.