Today's Train of thought takes us to the Grand Canyon state and the 60-mile Copper Basin Railway. Since the late 19th century, copper mining has been pivotal to Arizona's economy with the completion of the Southern Pacific railway across the southern portion of the state making it economical to ship copper to market.
The extraction and refining of copper continues to be an important part of Arizona's economy, with the largest copper mine in the USA being located at Morenci in rural Greenlee county. Not surprisingly, Copper has also been big business for Arizona's railroads with some of them having been constructed for no other reason but to haul copper ore, copper concentrates and acid for leeching.
Central Arizona's Copper Basin started up in 1986 when they purchased a former Southern Pacific branchline from Magma Jct, AZ to Winkleman as well as the 7-mile former Kennecott Copper line from Ray to Ray Jct.
Since the beginning of the Copper Basin, the eastern end of the line has acted as a conveyor belt for the ASARCO's Ray mine and the smelter in Hayden, AZ. The Copper Basin also recieves ore from BHP Billiton's [NYSE- BHP] 30-mile San Manuel Arizona Railroad. In addition to shuttling ore, the Copper Basin also hauls gypsum and acid to and from the Union Pacific interchange and Magma Jct. Formerly held by Rail Management and Consulting Corp, the Copper Basin was purchased by Grupo Mexico [BMV- GMEXICOB] subsidiary ASARCO in 2006.
For more than 20 years, Copper Basin has operated primarily with a fleet of hand-me-down second generation EMDs. Here, railpictures.net contributor John Ireland caught Copper Basin railway GP39-2 #401 emerging from a short tunnel at Riverside, AZ near Ray Jct in the setting sun on September 8, 2009. From a photographger's perspective, Ireland speaks very highly of the Copper Basin due to the desert terrain the railway runs through and their very precise schedule, particularly in running the ore train.
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