Arizona Eastern Railway "Copper Spike" with "Gila Tomahawk": April 2010

Enjoy these scenes from the AZER around Globe, AZ in April 2010, when the "Copper Spike" excursion train obtained Ex-C&NW 5029B (an E8A) nicknamed "Gila Tomahawk" for service. The train features coaches & employees shared between AZER & San Luis & Rio Grande. Trains would run thru town past the mines then back out to the Apache casino before returning to Globe. The locomotive was refurbished by NRE in Silvis, IL, arriving on AZER in late March 2010. The celebration would turn out to be short-lived. The excursion train season ended the first weekend in May, not to return until that December (a typical schedule based on AZ's legendary heat which begins to rise in May). Not long after the conclusion of the season in 2011, the sale of AZER from Iowa Pacific Holdings to Genessee & Wyoming I was announced, bringing an end to the very-popular train. The locomotive was sent to IPH's Saratoga & North Creek Railway in NY.

Let this be a lesson: get it now if you want it! At the time I was blessed with reliable schedules that were in place, in part, to allow the passenger operations to run in conjunction with freight. This afforded the famous street running shot in spades for all kinds of trains. My last visit? Before the Copper Spike? I got ONE street running shot, by default, simply 'cos some equipment in downtown needed to be moved.

During my visit, not only did speeders have run of the rails for a day, a very noteworthy special train ran. On April 28, a passenger train pulled into the depot at Miami, AZ...the first scheduled train here in 77 years! There was a nice celebration provided by AZER along with the City of Miami, with the hopes of extending future "Copper Spike" excursions into town. Much effort was put into cleaning up the property and clearing the tracks of storage cars & debris. The rails literally end about a wheel length from the motor's pilot. The depot was built in 1914 by the original Arizona Eastern Railroad, an SP subsidary which became SP in 1924. The last train of this kind left here in 1933, with passenger service then no further than Globe. After 1953, there were no passenger trains on this route at all.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• AZER
• Arizona Eastern Railway
• E8A
• passenger train
• Gila Tomahawk
• Saratoga & North Creek Railway
• Iowa Pacific Holdings
• Apache
• casino

[doug33020]

nice shots kevin!