Story and photographs by Richard Elgenson

RailNewsNetwork writer

Below right is the old Ash Fork Santa Fe station.

   

   

Here at milepost 402, the line used to head towards Seligman.  It too had a number of realignments until they were totally bypassed by the early 1960's cutoff.  Trains to and from California do not traverse through Ash Fork.  At this point, it appears that a different milepost system is in use counting miles from Ash Fork towards Phoenix?

   

   

Further evidence of old abandoned railroad right-of-way is hard to see at times.  Below left is an easy to see leg of an abandoned wye.  Below right, the eleveated trapazoidal fill slope is easy to spot with the old bridge abutments and piers.  If you inspect modern maps, the old railroad is absorbed into dirt roads.  From this point, the old r-o-w angles towards Interstate 40, parallels the highway and then angles away from the highway at Crockton Road exit, i.e. old Route 66.  The old railroad alignment is marked, then becomes Pineveta Road and then diverges at Northland Road, which was an older(?) curving alignment.  Both old lines hook into the present bypass a bit over a mile east of the Route 66 overcrossing.  Check it out!  Really!

   

   

Though I have few photos showing the east side of the railroad, we are at the western edge of the Tonto National Forest (google maps) though google street view shows Prescott National Forest.  In any case, for a while, the east side of the railroad is a National Forest Boundary.

   

   

   

   


Grand Canyon Limited Page 5