Santa Fe Peavine Line - Follow a Train!

[atsf_arizona]

Hello, all,

I am in-progress with some
addition to my Community Webshot home pages, it's Volume 6: Santa Fe Peavine Line (Ash Fork to Phoenix) - Follow a Train!

Here's some sample photos, you can see more in this album at my Community Webshots Home Page:

http://community.webshots.com/album/93527793aeZLxm

More to come as the weeks progress.

==================

In January 1961, the Santa Fe's 'Peavine Line' branch
to Phoenix, Arizona, still left the transcontinental Santa Fe main at
Ash Fork. Phoenix (denoted on ATSF timetable as the Salt River
Valley) was a large vegetable farming area, and Santa Fe
during season ran lots of of reefer trains to carry the
goods to Eastern markets.

The power on these trains at that time was varied; F7s, GP9s,
and occasionally even the new SD24s. Here we see three Santa
Fe Geeps in the brand new blue and yellow Santa Fe paint scheme
introduced in 1960, bringing a load of empty reefers through
the rugged mountains above Prescott, down towards Glendale and Phoenix:

The Peavine Line south of Prescott and north of Skull Valley
was a twisting, turning, 3% grade - which made for great train
watching as the Santa Fe reefer trains snaked over bridges and
through the desert mountains.

The Santa Fe's GP9s were actually numbered 700-751; this painted
and lettered 1996 Atlas GP7 is acting as one of those engines.
The MicroScale decal sheet had '779' as one block and so I
took modeling license to save myself time and to use that number,
even though ATSF never actually had a GP9 number 779.
(I wanted to make sure the numbers all lined up neatly!)

The Prieta 3% grade line depicted here (freelance scene) between
Prescott and Skull Valley had a very short time left; in March 1961,
Santa Fe started building the Abro cutoff, which bypassed Prieta grade and
the city of Prescott with a much easier 1.5% grade. However,
I model that magical window of time in which charming little
Prescott was still on the Peavine mainline, so here, it's
January 1961.

=========================

I am getting ready to integrate the painted Kato Unitrack into the
scenery (the photos keep pointing out to me it's time!)

Enjoy and thanks to all of you for sharing.

==========================

John Sing
singj@us.ibm.com
San Mateo CA

'puppybig' on the Kato Unitrack Forum
'atsf_arizona' on the Atlas N Scale Forum

Modeling the Santa Fe's 'Peavine Line'
from Ash Fork AZ to Phoenix AZ in the 50's/60's
(that's where I grew up)

Visit my Community Webshots home page:
http://community.webshots.com/user/atsf_arizona

'Best of' my photos:
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/johnsing

 

[ezdays]

John

I took a quick run through your site. Great modeling and a great knowedge of the area and the era. I just knew you had to be from around here to have that kind of interest.

I'll take a closer look at your site later when I have more time.

Don

 

[Ray Marinaccio]

Nice work John.
This is an interesting area to model. Lots of railroad history in this area. Even narrow gauge.
Although most of the track has been removed it's not hard to follow the right of way. The P&E line out of Prescott would be an interesting line to model.

 

[ezdays]

John and Ray,

We had a cabin up in Highland Pine, just north of Prescott. There were signs of tracks running near where you entered the populated area, a few miles off the highway. Do either of you have any idea what ran through there? I'm not sure if there was any mining up there or what. The first structures were built there in the early 50's.

Don

 

[Ralph]

Beautiful pictures of an excellent layout!
Ralph

 

[Ray Marinaccio]

Don
Was this near Hwy89? If so I would say that was the AT&SF line north. There was a branch east through Prescott Valley, Dewey, Humboldt, Polland Junction to Mayer. In the early years this line went to Crown King and Poland to bring ore down to the smelters at Mayer and Humboldt.
This link is a map of part of the Peavine that has been turned into a hiking trail.

[http://www.yavapaitrails.org/peavinepicturesmap.htm]

This is a Az. railroad map.

[http://www.azrymuseum.org/Information/Arizona_Railroad_Map_2002.pdf]

A little Prescot RR history.

[http://pnilz.pni.com/prescott/history/railroad.html]

An interesting RR story.

[http://www.titchenal.com/stories/ExpRem/ExperRem.html]

There was a narrow gauge line that went from Jerome junction to Jerome at one time, this was replaced with what is now the verde valley railroad.

 

[SmolderZ]

The rocks look great atsf_arizona!

 

[ezdays]

Ray,

Some great links. I'm going to print that map out, love it. Thanks...

No, not off Rt. 89. Highland Pine is about 5 miles out Iron Springs Rd. then a few miles west of the highway. You can see the cabins in the distance from the highway. There is an abandon track bed just before you actually enter Highland Pine. My boys went out there a couple of times and came back with spikes and insulators they found there. Looking at the map, it might have been that line running from Skull Valley to just north of Prescott. We sold our cabin close to 10 years ago so we haven't been up there since. Maybe the next time there's a train show.

Don

 

[Ray Marinaccio]

Don
Yea, that should have been the line to Skull Valley.
I'd like to find some more maps of the area.
Maybe John can give us some more info.

 

[atsf_arizona]

Hi, all,

All my info on the Peavine Line comes from David Myrick's Vol 5: Railroads of Arizona.

This great book has major chapters on the building of the Peavine, and some maps.

The maps however are hand drawn and don't show exactly where the roadbed went in relation to highways.

I'm doing some searching on the Internet right now about the Peavine Line, I would love to see some specific maps of the roadbed and surrounding towns/terrain also!

 

[Ray Marinaccio]

I found this topographic map site that shows the old RR grade.
This link should start you just northwest of Prescott.
[http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t=2&s=12&x=450&y=4783&z=12&w=2]


This will start you at Skull Valley
[http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t=2&s=12&x=432&y=4775&z=12&w=2]

 

[Ray Marinaccio]

After you locate the right of way, change the view to Aerial( in the upper left) to get a better look at the landscape.

 

[atsf_arizona]

Thx so much for the Terra Server link

Ray Marinaccio,

*Thx so much* for the Terra Server link, it really helps my research and knowledge of where the Peavine line traversed the Prieta grade.

 

[atsf_arizona]

Research on the Peavine

Hello, all,

I've been doing a bit of research on the Peavine Line over the past few days.

Here are some URLs to some great shots of one of the signatures of the Peavine Line: Hell Canyon Bridge near Drake, AZ (about 40 miles north of Prescott

History of Hell Canyon area and the bridge:

http://www.sharlot.org/archives/history/dayspast/text/2001_02_04.shtml

Hell Canyon Bridge by Tom Fassett:

ATSF 4-8-4 3751 on Hells Canyon Bridge on the Peavine:

Modern freight on Hells Canyon Bridge:

The Peavine Hells Canyon Bridge URLs are:

Hell Canyon Bridge by Tom Fassett:

http://tomfassett.railspot.com/photos/structures/BNSF_Hell_Canyon_bridge.JPG


ATSF 4-8-4 3751 on Hells Canyon Bridge on the Peavine:

http://www.trainweb.org/brettrw/weeklypic/sf3751wkpic.html

http://algomacentral.railfan.net/images/DesertRails/ATSF_3751_sb_drake_8_24_02.jpg


History of Hell Canyon area and the bridge:

http://www.sharlot.org/archives/history/dayspast/text/2001_02_04.shtml


Modern freight on Hells Canyon Bridge:

http://www.trainweb.org/8th-notch/arizona/hellcan.JPG

 

[Ray Marinaccio]

John
Glad to help. I am happy to see someone modeling this area.
Those are some beautiful photos of the bridge (love the one with #3751).
Thanks for the links also.

 

[ezdays]

You guys are awsome with your research. Verne Niner aslo models the Santa Fe line in Arizona. If I can get him to stope by this thread, maybe he can add to it.

Keep it up, all I get to see is about a 40 mile streach if the BNSF running through Wickenburg and parallel to Grand Ave. Can't learm much from that, but I can here.

Don

 

[atsf_arizona]

In support of Peavine Line modelers of RRs in Arizona,

You can see some great shots of Arizona desert railroads at Ted Ellis' Algomacentral web site:

http://algomacentral.railfan.net/desert.htm
http://algomacentral.railfan.net/SantaFe.htm

In particular, here's one from his web site showing modern day GE B40-W's on a BNSF Shipper's Special. (taken approx 76 miles northwest of Phoenix on the Peavine Line, in Piedmont, Arizona)

Don't those War-Bonnets look great at the head of streamlined passenger cars? (smile)

So those of us who have Atlas War-Bonnet Dash 8-40-BW's and streamlined ATSF passenger cars, go for it! (smile)


John Sing
San Mateo, CA
singj@us.ibm.com

Modeling the ATSF's
Peavine Line (Flagstaff - Phoenix, Arizona) in the mid 1960's

Community Webshots Home Page: http://community.webshots.com/user/atsf_arizona

 

[Ray Marinaccio]

Great links John.
That is an awesome photo (train and scenery both).

 

[atsf_arizona]

Santa Fe in Phoenix, AZ

A nice URL on Santa Fe in Phoenix, AZ, that fellow interested Santa Fe fan pointed me to with very nice writeup on the Peavine Line route, check it out:

http://www.qstation.org/atsf/phoenix.html



John Sing
singj@us.ibm.com
San Mateo CA

'puppybig' on the Kato Unitrack Forum
'atsf_arizona' on the Atlas N Scale Forum

Modeling the Santa Fe's 'Peavine Line'
from Ash Fork AZ to Phoenix AZ in the 50's/60's
(that's where I grew up)

Visit my Community Webshots home page:
http://community.webshots.com/user/atsf_arizona

'Best of' my photos:
http://www.railimages.com/gallery/johnsing

 

[Ray Marinaccio]

John
I saw the thread on the Atlas forum last night. Lots of great info there. I didn't know so many people were into Arizona railroads. I'm glad to see all this info and disscussion on the subject.
Nice job getting it going.