
Arizona And California Railway Information

| Arizona and California Railroad | |
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Duration : 2.83
ARZC 4003 pulls a mixed frieght West towards Parker, AZ. taken on 11-27-12 at 11:38am.
Duration : 9.25
Headed out to the High Desert to catch the elusive ARZC Railroad, I was greeted with temps over 110 degrees! I brought along my mini weather station, hoping ...
Duration : 9.50
Some scenes from the Arizona & California RR in the mid 1990's. First we see the eastbound job interchanging with the Santa Fe at Castle Hot Springs on ATSF'...
Duration : 4.50
As we were approaching Parker, AZ I saw some engines sitting in a siding and to my surprise one of them was an FEC engine! So we pulled of the highway to get...
Duration : 0.93
Caught the Arizona & California Railroad at Cadiz, CA at the BNSF interchange. The consist had SD45s which is something you just don't see anymore. Поймал по...
Duration : 2.55
AZ&CA between Salome and Wenden, AZ on US60 on or about 4/6/05 at about 6:30 am. I count five locomotives and ninety four cars.
Duration : 19.98
The Arizona & California Railroad (ARZC) is a Genesee & Wyoming Inc (GWI) short line property that interchanages with the BNSF. The ARZC began operations bet...
Duration : 5.53
Here's the 3rd and final video of the A and C at Rice, California. Watch the video for the details. Rice is a long abandoned desert town. Only the Arizona an...
Duration : 4.68
Caught this train at Rice, California. I won't say much as this is my first video production that explains the details. Hope you enjoy! Rice is a long abando...
Duration : 3.93
Caught the Arizona & California Railroad's turn from Parker, AZ while it was interchanging with the BNSF at Cadiz, CA on last President's Day weekend. Поймал...
Duration : 1.93
Arizona's Shortline Railroads (DVD) The natural beauty of Arizona's desert landscape creates a dramatic setting for the unique group of shortline railroads, ...
Duration : 5.20
Here's part two. The details are in the video. Rice is a long abandoned desert town. Only the Arizona and California Railroad activities at this location rem...
Duration : 2.80
I hadn't anticipated pacing the 3751 on it's trip across the A&C, but the speeds were low and it had the traffic bunched up, so when I realized that I had a ...
Duration : 1.57
Maybe the sunny side of the train isn't always the best side! Too much glare off the shiny sides of he passenger cars washes out what I hopped would be a gre...
Duration : 2.28
Enjoy the video!
Duration : 2.30
High definition [HD] video footage. BNSF Railway train coming through Kingman AZ hauling mostly Asian / Chinese goods. Peace, Mark Allen Channel (4GUESTS.COM)
Duration : 0.25
the view from a high rail on the arizona eastern railroad near blythe, ca.
Duration : 49.62
All Aboard for the Grand Canyon! In May of 2012, Santa Fe Steam Locomotive 3751 made a special excursion from Los Angeles, California to the Grand Canyon and...
Duration : 0.55
The view from a high rail on the arizona eastern railroad East of Blythe, ca.
Duration : 5.77
Pinnacle Peak Az, Troon Golf Course, Old Town Scottsdale AZ, Hole in the Rock Mountain AZ, Sodona AZ, McCormick Stillman Railroad Park Scottsdale AZ, Carlsba...
| Arizona and California Railroad | |
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| Reporting mark | ARZC |
| Locale | Mojave Desert - Phoenix, Arizona and branch to Blythe, California |
| Dates of operation | May 9, 1991–present |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 â„2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge) |
| Length | 297 miles (478 km) |
| Headquarters | Parker, Arizona |
| Website | [http://gwrr.com/operations/railroads/north_america/arizona_california_railroad.be |
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The Arizona and California Railroad (reporting mark ARZC) is a short line railroad that was a subdivision of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF). The ARZC began operations on May 9, 1991, when David Parkinson of the ParkSierra RailGroup purchased the line from the Santa Fe Railway. ParkSierra Railgroup was purchased in January 2002 by RailAmerica, the former owner of the ARZC. The Genesee & Wyoming railroad holding company became the current owner in early 2013. ARZC's main commodities are petroleum gas, steel and lumber; the railroad hauls around 12,000 carloads per year.
At Cadiz, California, the ARZC begins with the interchange with the BNSF and continues southeast across the Mojave Desert to Rice, then east to cross the Colorado River Arizona/California state line at Parker, Arizona. The railroad continues east to Matthie (near Wickenburg, Arizona). At Matthie the ARZC has trackage rights over the north-south BNSF line that connects Phoenix to BNSF's mainline at Williams. It also has a branch that runs from Rice south through Blythe, terminating at Ripley.
The ARZC is 297 miles (478 km) long consisting of the following segments:
The ARZC was originally constructed between 1903-1907 by the Arizona and California Railway. The line between Matthie, AZ, and Parker opened in June 1907. By 1910 the line reached Cadiz, California.
As late as 1937, there were several daily passenger trains on the line: #170-117 and #118-181 operated daily between Phoenix Union Station and Cadiz, with connections to Los Angeles and San Francisco; mixed trains #210-233 and #234-209 operated daily between Phoenix's Mobest Yard and Parker; and mixed trains #25 and #26 operated daily except Sunday or Monday connecting at Rice for Blythe.
In 1911, the Southern Pacific Railroad was considering a 65 to 70 mile branch from Niland, CA or Glamis to the Palo Verde Valley as the northwest part of the valley hosts gypsum deposits. Completion of the line was planned for completion by 1912. W.F. Holt, from nearby Imperial Valley and others were involved in the planning. The Santa Fe Railway, at that time, was closer to the valley. When Holt resigned from the Palo Verde Land and Water Co., the Southern Pacific decided to not build the branch line.
Other lines were proposed including the Santa Fe, Blythe and Western Railroad, the Southwestern Pacific Railroad, which would connect Grand Junction, CO to Arizona following the Colorado River, then enter California near Blythe to Niland and eventually, Seeley, CA, leading to theSan Diego & Arizona Railway, the Niland-Blythe Railroad Association, which would connect the two namesake towns by an electric railroad, and the Parker & Colorado River Railroad, with a rail line southward to Ehrenberg, AZ, reaching Blythe via bridge. None of the projects commenced due to the onset of World War I.
In 1914, the California Southern Railroad (not to be confused with the earlier railroad linking Barstow and San Diego) was incorporated to build 42.2 miles from a point known as Blythe Junction (Now present-day Rice) to reach Blythe and would go between the Big Maria Mountains and the Little Maria Mountains by a 1.3% grade climb southward. The railroad purchased No. 127, a 4-4-0 in March 1916 as the railroad's first locomotive, originally Atlantic & Pacific Railroad No. 89. Later in 1916, the railroad finished its construction to Blythe. In 1920, the railroad extended the branch to Ripley, concluded by a celebration including spectators on board its first train. In November 1921, the Santa Fe leased the line up to 1942 when it was fully acquired. Seasonal trains carried perishables out of the valley to Chicago via Needles. The Santa Fe railway also provide intermodal service on the line to connect with the railroad's trucking subsidiary on Blythe. In the August 1988, this service was considered unprofitable and the railroad stopped operating the branch, only to come up against the California Public Utilities Commission, which considered the operation as necessary.
In 1991, David Parkinson purchased the line and the Cadiz-Matthie line from Santa Fe and began the ARZC. The new railroad operates intermodal containers carrying Sudan grass bound to Long Beach, where it was shipped to Japan. Many new freight opportunities such as gypsum, agriculture, and machinery shipping had been possible until the embargo of the line. On May 5, 2006, the Blythe station is burned down by a fire started by an electric spark .
On March 12, 2009, citing declining revenues and worn out track structure, the ARZC petitioned the Surface Transportation Board to abandon all but the first four miles of the Ripley branch line. No trains have run over this line since late 2007 and the cost to repair the branch line would be excessive. The Surface Transportation Board ruled on June 30, 2009 to grant the ARZC petition. A Blythe area committee formed to protest the petition found a customer for purchasing the line, namely the BG&CM Railroad.
As of January 14, 2010, the Surface Transportation Board terminated the offer of financial assistance from the railroad. San Pedro Trails, Inc., a trail company, has negotiated ARZC for converting the right-of-way into a rail trail, while saving the rail line for possible reactivation for rail service. The rail line has been scrapped in late May 2011, although a portion of the line and crossing signals are donated to the city by the scrapper, for possible use of a proposed tourist attraction.
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