Southwestern Railroad (New Mexico)
Overview | |
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Headquarters | standard gauge) |
Length | 182 miles (293 km) |
Other | |
Website | Southwestern Railroad |
The Southwestern Railroad (
Southwestern is one of several short-line railroads which were operated by The Western Group of Ogden, Utah. On November 1, 2020, Southwestern was sold by Western to Jaguar Transport Holdings of Joplin, Missouri.[1]
Whitewater Division
In 1990 Southwestern acquired
Southwestern's primary traffic on this division is
History
By late 1880, the Rio Grande, Mexico and Pacific Railroad (an AT&SF subsidiary) was building a line down the Rio Grande valley toward El Paso. At Rincon the line was split, with a branch going southwest toward Deming, with the goal of joining to the Southern Pacific, which was under construction from the west. The two railroads connected at Deming on March 8, 1881, with the driving of a silver spike to mark the creation of the United States’ second transcontinental railroad.
The railroad line northwest from Deming, and its branches above Whitewater, was developed in several stages to serve mines in the vicinity of Silver City:
A 47-mile
In 1891 the Silver City and Northern Railroad was built north from Whitewater through Hurley to San Jose (now Hanover Junction), a total of 14 miles. The Santa Fe acquired this line in 1898 and extended it another 4 miles to Santa Rita. The line struggled until 1910 when the Chino Copper Company acquired the copper resources, with sufficient financial backing to develop the open pit Chino mine, and also build the smelter at Hurley.
The 13-mile Burro Mountain Railroad was constructed in 1913, westward from Burro Mountain Junction to the new mining town of Tyrone. Copper prices plummeted after the First World War, making the low-grade ore at this location uneconomical to process, but the railroad struggled on until 1934 when it finally closed and the tracks were removed. Phelps Dodge restarted mining in the late sixties, but this time as an open pit and with new metallurgical techniques for refining. PD rebuilt the old railroad, which opened in 1967, mostly on the old BMRR grade. AT&SF operated this line as an industrial spur.
The Silver City branch north of Burro Mountain Junction was closed in 1983 and the 12.6 miles of track removed.[2]
Carlsbad Division
Established in 2004 from a connection with
On January 17, 2017, SWRR's contract to operate the Carlsbad Sub came to an end, with BNSF Railway resuming direct operation of the line.[4]
History
The Pecos Valley Railway was established in 1890 by
In 1969, a new 25-mile branch line was extended southwest from Loving to the Duval Corporation sulfur mine at Rustler Springs, Texas. For several years this supported up to four unit trains daily of molten sulfur, routed to Galveston, Texas for export.[2]
The Rustler Springs branch was unused after 1998, following the closure of the sulfur mine. In 2002, BNSF applied to abandon this branch as well as the 21 miles connecting Loving and Pecos, noting that the last revenue train had run on July 23, 1999. Permission was granted and the track removed by 2003.[5]
Shattuck Division
This now-defunct 74-mile-long line in the Texas panhandle and western Oklahoma, AT&SF’s former Shattuck Subdivision, was acquired by Southwestern in 1990. It ran from Shattuck, Oklahoma through Perryton, Texas (where its headquarters were located) to its western terminus at Spearman, Texas. Principal traffic on this division was agricultural. The line closed in 2006 and the tracks removed thereafter.
This railroad was originally constructed in 1919 as the North Texas and Santa Fe Railway, a subsidiary of the AT&SF, and was later absorbed into the parent company.
References
- ^ "Jaguar Transport Holdings Acquires 5 Shortline Railroads and a Railroad Construction Company from The Western Group". Cision PR Newswire. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
- ^ ISBN 0-8263-1185-7
- ^ The Western Group. "Southwestern Railroad, Carlsbad Division". Retrieved 12 September 2012.
- ^ Hayden, Maddy (13 January 2017). "BNSF will assume area service from Southwestern". Carlsbad Current-Argus. Gannett. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
BNSF spokesman Joe Sloan said a contract had been in place allowing Southwestern Railroad to operate on tracks from Carlsbad to Clovis, which are owned by BNSF.
- ^ Surface Transportation Board, Case Docket No. AB 6 390 X, Full Text of Decision 32386, service date January 4, 2002