The recent derailment and fire of a Union Pacific train on the Salt River bridge is a reminder that railroads still play a role in Phoenix, even if far less than in the past. As the late David Myrick explained in his seminal Railroad of Arizona: Phoenix and the Central Roads, eight attempts were made to build a line to the Salt River Valley before the Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad's first train arrived on July 4th, 1887.
Among the many impediments — capital, supplies, heat, permission of the Pima Indians to cross their reservation — bridging the fickle Salt River was among the most persistent. The bridge above shows a "ten-wheeler" steam locomotive and two cars on the second iteration of the span. The first saw a flood destroy its approach trestle in 1890, then was severed entirely by the Great Flood of 1891, which also did substantial damage to canals and farmland; adobe structures collapsed from the rain.
In 1902, part of the bridge gave way without warning, dropping the locomotive 20 feet into the riverbed, killing one and severely injuring another, and leaving a passenger car hanging precariously. In 1905, the flooded Salt washed away a segment of this second bridge just minutes after a passenger train had crossed it. Similar washouts plagued the railroad's crossing of the Gila River.
Finally, the current heavy steel truss bridge was built in 1912-1913. UP says it will rebuild it — or at least replace one of the truss spans — which is good news for continued freight and potential future passenger service. Given Wall Street's pressure to suck profits from major railroads and Phoenix's relative unimportance on the system, I'd be surprised if UP built an entirely new and modern bridge.
Such was not always the case.
Phoenix was once a railroad town, with multiple passenger trains daily and heavy volumes of freight originating from the agricultural empire made possible by Theodore Roosevelt Dam and its successors (which also prevented catastrophic flooding as seen in 1891 from washing out the bridge). Previously I wrote about Phoenix Union Station.
But getting steel rails here in the first place wasn't easy. The Southern Pacific built across southern Arizona, reaching Tucson in 1880, with the incentive of federal land grants. The same was true in northern Arizona with the Atlantic and Pacific, which was absorbed by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. But Phoenix was walled off from the north and east by mountains and the escarpment of the Mogollon Rim.
The Maricopa and Phoenix, eventually becoming part of the Southern Pacific, was the first breakthrough. The second came in 1895, when the Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railway — a subsidiary of the AT&SF after 1911 — arrived in the territorial capital. It came via the twisty "Peavine" that left the Santa Fe main line at Ash Fork and went south to its namesake cities, as well as linking to mining short lines along the way. A second Santa Fe route branched west from near Wickenburg to cross the Colorado River and the railroad's main line in California.
Locally, the Phoenix, Tempe & Mesa Railway Co. built from Tempe to Mesa in the 1890s. Part of its remains are the roadbed of light rail (WBIYB) today. Another road, the Arizona Eastern was built from Phoenix and Tempe to Florence. Many of these early lines eventually folded into the SP benefited from the leadership and engineering skill of Epes Randolph.
But these were only spur lines, even though 11 pairs of trains ran daily here. Phoenix lacked a transcontinental railroad in the era when such an asset was of prime economic importance.
As far back as the Pacific Railroad Surveys of 1853-55, carried out under orders from Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, future Confederate President, a route that would have gone through the Salt River Valley was considered. It would have gone roughly from east of present-day Willcox northwest through Aravaipa Canyon and the Gila River Canyon.
Considering the primitive tools available to railroad builders, forbidding topography and Apache resistance, it's not surprising that this route never happened. At least as a transcontinental — rails ran each way eventually with a gap between Superior and Globe. Had it happened, this railroad not only would have reached prime copper country but put Phoenix on the map much sooner.
Instead, what eventually became the Northern Main Line or Phoenix Main Line came about in segments, many built by individual companies instead of big SP making it happen.
For example, in 1909 the Phoenix & Buckeye Railroad Co. was incorporated by Phoenix bankers and lawyers (Sheriff Carl Hayden was a director). Buckeye (once Sidney) was rich in alfalfa and ranching; a brief boomlet from a gold mine in the White Tank Mountains added interest. It was built through Tolleson, Avondale, and Buckeye to the Hassayampa River. Yet another line was constructed to Chandler. And none of these came easily.
Surveying of the Northern Main Line finally began in July 1924 and it opened in November 1926. It allowed the Southern Pacific to beat a potential competing line west of Buckeye and, more important, to avoid double-tracking the southern line through Casa Grande and Tucson. Construction methods had advanced substantially from 40 years previously, including the use of REO Speed Wagons (not the band) to carry track workers.
When the 210 mile line from Picacho Junction through Coolidge, Chandler, Mesa, Tempe, and Phoenix to Wellton opened just east of Yuma, it rejoined the SP lines to Los Angeles and San Diego. Decades of dreams and hard work ("with many a fortune won and lost, and many a debt to pay") were crowned. The old Maricopa branch would be cut back to Kyrene.
SP shifted almost all of its transcontinental passenger trains to Union Station, completed in 1923. SP built a new Tempe depot in 1924, replacing one lost to fire. Mesa saw a lovely new station opened in 1931; inside were murals by California artist John MacQuarrie. For decades to come, Phoenix enjoyed daily intercity trains service to New Orleans and Chicago, Los Angeles and the West Coast on SP, and a daily connection to Santa Fe's legendary main-line passenger "varnish" at Ash Fork (eventually Williams Junction).
Rails also moved heavy volumes of express and mail. These were carried on the front end of passenger trains, as well as SP mail trains.
The Northern Main Line was as important as air conditioning to ending Phoenix's isolation and enabling growth.
As critical, the main line enabled the Salt River Valley's bounty to be moved more quickly and farther to outside markets. These were principally citrus, lettuce, tomatoes, and other produce carried in refrigerated boxcars, much of it packed in the downtown Warehouse District. The "reefers" were iced from massive ice docks along the tracks downtown and on the Santa Fe beside Grand Avenue. Mechanically produced ice was fed into the cars' bunkers to keep the produce cool on its journey to eastern markets. Livestock came in cattle cars to the massive Tovrea Stockyards; Arizona beef traveled out in reefers from the slaughterhouses.
Given the desert routes, both Santa Fe and Southern Pacific were quick to adopt diesels in the 1940s to replace water-guzzling steam locomotives.
To handle this traffic, each railroad built and expanded yards. The SP's is between 16th and Seventh Streets. SP also built a bypass line south of Union Station exclusively for freight trains. The Santa Fe Mobest Yard opens up at McDowell and 19th Avenue, running south. In addition to hundred-car trains originating here and others running through, both railroads built spurs to lure new industries and served them with local freights. By the 1990s, SP added a smaller yard on Phoenix's west side and Santa Fe built container and automotive yards in Glendale and Peoria. When you cross the overpasses at Seventh Street and Seventh Avenue, you get a sense of the extensive trackwork that once ran beneath — now it's a single track.
In 1964, a line shift stranded Chandler from the main line, which ran via Gilbert.
In 1996, Union Pacific acquired Southern Pacific, once mighty and by then ailing. This brought together the two companies that had built the first transcontinental railroad. Late that same year, Santa Fe merged with Burlington Northern as America's once large number of Class I railroads dwindled to five.
By this time, the Salt River's agricultural Eden was being given over to sprawl at the rate of an acre an hour. Amtrak stopped service to Phoenix when the state refused to help keep the line to Wellton up to speed- and safety-standards. This left Phoenix the largest city in North America without intercity passenger trains. The UP's active line now runs from Picacho through Phoenix to Arlington; the rails west are out of service but could be revived.
As for freight, while railroads still play "a significant role," the biggest outbound commodity is scrap metal; inbound new automobiles are the big load. Arizona has one of the smallest freight origination footprints in America, certainly for its size. The dreamers and builders of 120 years ago couldn't have imagined such a future.
Gallery (click for a larger view):
The Maricopa depot when it was the junction for trains to and from Phoenix, circa 1890 (Library of Congress).
This 1899 map shows the Santa Fe, Prescott, and Phoenix Railway, connecting to the main line at Ash Fork. The line from near Wickenburg through Parker and to California had not yet been built.
A mortgage bond for the Santa Fe, Prescott, and Phoenix Railway Co.
The 1902 Salt River Bridge collapse (Photographer unknown).
Above, advertisements and a news article promoting early Phoenix service to LA, San Diego, and points east.
The Skull Valley station on the way north from Wickenburg. It was still there when I took the train with my grandmother in the 1960s. It seemed as if the whole town turned out to greet us (Photographer unknown).
Newly completed Phoenix Union Station welcomes Santa Fe passenger trains in 1923 while construction continues on other tracks (McCulloch Bros. Collection/ASU Archives).
Laying tracks near Phoenix in the 1920s. Most track workers were Hispanics or Pimas (Library of Congress).
Picacho Junction, where the two main lines diverge, in 1926. The Northern Main Line is complete. (ASU Archives).
Southern Pacific's Golden State rushes toward Phoenix sometime in the 1950s (Photographer unknown).
Above, some of the ads for premier SP passenger trains featuring Phoenix once the Northern Main Line had been completed.
A lettuce train prepares to leave Phoenix in 1927. The refrigerated boxcars have ice shoved into their bunkers to keep the produce fresh (McCulloch Brothers Collection/ASU Archives).
A rare photo of the Coolidge Southern Pacific depot and yard. By the time of this photo, circa 1970s, it was living on borrowed time (Photographer unknown).
The Gilbert SP depot, with station agent Frederick Cannon standing beside the bay window, was built in 1905. It eventually served the main line after Chandler was cut to a branch in the 1960s. The station, sadly, was demolished. (Courtesy of HD SOUTH, Home of the Gilbert History Museum).
Mesa's handsome downtown passenger depot completed in 1931. It burned in the late 1980s. Coolidge's charming station was demolished around the same time.
The trackside view of Mesa's station, with a semaphore signal.
The east side of the station in the 1960s. With parked cars, baggage wagons, and the semaphore signal set for stop, a passenger train is due.
Another angle shows an outdoor waiting area on the right and baggage and freight rooms at left, as well as a loading ramp for freight. With the semaphore signal gone and windows boarded up this looks like the last years of the station. Below are other shots from Joe Schallan around the station in 1973:
A Southern Pacific diesel locomotive switches cars beside the freight station attached to the west side of the Mesa depot.
"Covered Wagon" F locomotives in charge of a freight train pause to snag orders from the pole at Mesa's SP depot (Bob Knoll photo).
The two images above show the Tempe depot (Tempe History Museum).
Amtrak's Sunset stops in Tempe in 1987 (Tempe History Museum).
An aerial view of Santa Fe's Mobest Yard in Phoenix. Switching caused horrendous delays until the yard was moved farther south in the 1970s.
The old station at Mobest Yard, McDowell at 19th Avenue and Grand. This was for freight crews, not passengers.
Another aerial, this time of the SP Phoenix yards in 1942.
Looking straight down at where Seventh Avenue crosses the tracks of the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads. At the top are tracks feeding into the Santa Fe freight station. To the left is Union Station. At an angle to the middle-left is the SP freight bypass and a structure for storing passenger cars out of the heat (Arizona Memory Project photo).
Until dieselization was completed in the 1950s, this kind of 4-6-4 steam locomotive was common on Southern Pacific's Sunset Route through Phoenix.
Heavy-duty Southern Pacific steam power is in charge of this train of reefers carrying Salt River produce.
Refrigerated boxcars depended on icing stations where workers dropped large cubes into the bunkers of the cars to keep perishables cool. SP, Union Pacific, and Western Pacific jointly owned the Pacific Fruit Express. In its heyday it owned 40,000 reefers and operated 20 ice plants and five maintenance shops (Jack Delano photo/Library of Congress).
Another view of shoving ice into reefers.
As SP dieselized, it moved its famous cab forward 4-8-8-2 "malley" locomotives around the system, including to Phoenix. They were originally built for the tunnels of the Sierra Nevada line ("the hill), protecting the engine crew from smoke.
An Alco PA passenger diesel in Daylight passenger colors.
Before SP adopted the "bloody nose" paint scheme (below), its freight locomotives and switch engines wore the "black widow" design.
Another Black Widow, this one for the SP subsidiary St. Louis Southwestern, far from home in the Phoenix yard.
Switchers such as this Alco unit made up and broke up trains at SP's Phoenix yard, as well as moving freight cars to and from the Warehouse District and industrial spurs.
By the late 1950s, SP introduced the "bloody nose" design for both passenger and freight locomotives. This is at Benson, headed to Tucson and Phoenix.
SP diesels in the Southern Pacific yard, 1960.
On the Southern Pacific, the workhorse of hauling Salt River Valley produce and citrus were PFE reefers.
The Santa Fe roundhouse at Mobest Yard around Fillmore and 20th Avenue (John Almond photo). It has since been demolished, but the turntable remains.
Above, Santa Fe's Mobest Yard in the 1960s and 1980s, including diesel fueling and servicing facility, car-repair barn that also cleaned and serviced passenger cars, and turntable after the roundhouse had been demolished.
The Mobest Yard office near 19th Avenue and Fillmore Street in 1994. It was built to replace the wooden structure at McDowell.
A modern locomotive in Santa Fe's iconic "warbonnet" pain scheme rides the turntable at Mobest Yard.
A BNSF "Veterans' Special" travels near Castle Hot Springs on its way south to Phoenix in 2012. Regular Santa Fe passenger service ended in 1968 (David Greenberg photo).
Two years later Amtrak returned to Phoenix for two days with this exhibit train headed to Chandler's Arizona Railroad Museum (Ryan Schmelzer photo).
The BNSF transfer train to hand off and pick up cars to the Union Pacific in 2019, going under the Seventh Avenue overpass. When the overpass was completed in the 1960s, about 17 tracks were in this location on the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe. Union Station is in the background.
Above: Scenes from the Southern Pacific yard between Seventh and Sixteenth Streets in the 1960s and 1980s. The top photo shows the classic "Black Widow" design for freight locomotives, replaced by the "bloody nose" scheme. The bottom shot, probably of an aging GP-7, shows the deteriorating financial condition of once-mighty SP. The Phoenix yard gradually lost its roundhouse, diesel shop, and tower.
SP locomotives in Phoenix wearing the brief "Kodachrome" paint scheme when the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe merged in 1983 (ATSF locomotives were painted identically except for "SF" — the final railroad would be SPSF). In 1986, the Interstate Commerce Commission denied the merger on competitive grounds and gave the holding company a year to break up. One result: The SP was sold to Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz's Rio Grande Industries and combined with the Denver & Rio Grande Western under the Southern Pacific name.
The same yard in 2019, now owned by Union Pacific.
Back to the former Santa Fe in more recent years. BNSF freight heads past the Glendale station (it once catered to passengers, too) on the way to Mobest Yard. It was handed off north of Wickenburg from the Arizona and California, a short line operating the former ATSF line via Parker. (Benjamin Dziechciowski photo).
The little-known BNSF (former Santa Fe) "sidewinder" freight spur that winds south from Buchanan Street along 11th Avenue and south of the Maricopa Freeway to serve industries. The locomotive is painted in old Burlington Northern colors. (Adam Elias photo). At one time, SP had a similar spur that ran south.
Related: 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.
This remains one of my favorite Arizona anecdotes, as told by Mr. Myrick. It concerns the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad, from the west, to Tucson in 1880:
"Track laying continued another 21 miles to Casa Grande but, by the middle of May [1879], it was so hot that the men could not handle their tools and again work was temporarily halted. Early the following year, the men picked up their tools, and pushed on to Tucson to arrive on March 17, 1880. A wild celebration took place three days later when the silver spike was driven by Crocker. Telegrams were dispatched to mayors and other prominent officials all over the world telling them that the ancient and honorable city of Tucson had at last been connected by rail with the outside world. In their drunken enthusiasm, the revelers dispatched a wire to the Pope in the Vatican, informing him of the good news and requesting his benediction. During the celebration, the return telegrams were read, including one from His Holiness who sent his blessing but, for his own edification asked, "Where in the hell is Tucson?" This was not appreciated by all at the banquet and the perpetrators, who had intercepted the wire to the Pope and bribed the operator to reply with their own message, wisely remained silent."
Posted by: Joe Schallan | August 11, 2020 at 06:07 PM
I took the train to Chicago when I was 9 with my mother and my sisters. Somewhere along the Mississippi the train became stranded and it was mid summer. With the train stationary and no air moving the cars were stifling. My mother led us to one of the Pullman coaches, put us inside and bolted the door. When one conductor after another stood outside demanding my mother vacate the Pullman she refused, telling them she would move back into coach when the air conditioning was working. Nothing would get her to budge and they weren’t going to manhandle a demanding woman knowing there was a lot of justification in her stance. Eventually the train got underway and we rode the rest of the way to Chicago in our own Pullman accommodation. It wasn’t in the budget but we flew home.
This wasn’t the first time my mother stood her guns when things weren’t as advertised and it could embarrass us kids to be the center of attention. When I got older I admired her fire and insistence on being treated fairly and never as a 2nd class consumer no matter what the occasion.
Posted by: edward dravo | August 12, 2020 at 02:40 AM
FYI:
The bridge was fixed and trains were running last Friday. It took about 10 days. It is supposed to take 4 weeks to fix Rio Salado Street and the park below it.
Priorities you know.
Posted by: Ramjet | August 14, 2020 at 12:05 PM
The bridge news is under Phoenix and Arizona links to the left. These are updated daily. Do you guys read them? If not, I can save a lot of time.
Posted by: Rogue Columnist | August 14, 2020 at 01:52 PM
Just trying to keep people informed. I read the Republic Daily
Posted by: Ramjet | August 14, 2020 at 03:55 PM
Yes, I read them Rogue.
Posted by: HMLS | August 14, 2020 at 05:51 PM
I read the front pages and the Arizona and Phoenix stuff every day.
I need it to keep up as I dont get much local stuff. I dont watch tv or listen to radio. I do get the AZ Mirror and New Times. Thanks for posting Jon. Any news on your next book?
Posted by: Cal Lash | August 14, 2020 at 05:56 PM
Cal, the publishing industry is in turmoil. But my next book is scheduled to come out next spring.
Posted by: Rogue Columnist | August 15, 2020 at 02:24 PM
Thanks Jon.
I'll try hard to be around.
Posted by: Cal Lash | August 15, 2020 at 10:34 PM
I wonder if anyone, besides me, is concerned by the parallels between America in the 2020's and Germany in the 1930's.
I know it is off topic, but I thought it important.
Posted by: Ramjet | August 16, 2020 at 07:22 AM
Rogue — Of late the links on the upper left are my headlines for the day. I find them very informative. Hope you keep it up.
Posted by: IA_Ed | August 16, 2020 at 11:11 AM
Thanks Rogue, I read the links in upper left.
Posted by: ironj01 | August 17, 2020 at 01:01 PM
For Ramjet...
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/03/20/weimar-america
I too check the Front Page and Arizona news links daily.
Thank you for your continued efforts.
Posted by: 100 Octane | August 17, 2020 at 05:26 PM
What say Rogue about the 18 August KTAR article reporting Amazon adding 500 jobs in Tempe?
Posted by: drifter | August 18, 2020 at 02:03 PM
Drifter, I say: Why didn't Phoenix try to win them to downtown or Midtown?
Posted by: Rogue Columnist | August 18, 2020 at 03:00 PM