Arizona Eastern Railway

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Arizona Eastern Railway
Reporting mark	AZER
Locale	Arizona
Dates of operation	1988–
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge)
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Legend 0.0 Miami 1.7 Claypool 10.4 Globe Apache Gold Casino 18.4 Cutter 30.9 San Carlos Gila River 40.9 Dili 47.2 Peridot 55.1 Calva Gila River 68.1 Bylas 67.7 Geronimo 72.6 Fort Thomas 78.9 Cork 85.2 Dublin 86.3 Pima 91.3 Thatcher future branch to Safford Mine 94.4 Safford 99.3 Solomon 106.8 Haeckel 114.1 Tanque 124.5 Escala 133.8 Bowie UPRR junction

The Arizona Eastern Railway (reporting mark AZER) is a Class III railroad in the United States states of Arizona and New Mexico. Originally chartered as the Gila Valley, Globe and Northern Railway on January 5, 1895, the Arizona Eastern Railroad name took over during construction. Completed in 1899, it connected Bowie, Arizona, to Miami, Arizona, for a distance of 135 miles (217 km). The Southern Pacific Railroad took control of it in 1905 and merged it into its system by 1924, calling it the Globe Branch. It later sold the line to StatesRail in 1988 which was purchased by RailAmerica in 2001. Permian Basin Railways then bought the Arizona Eastern Railway in late 2004.

In 2006, Arizona Eastern announced the construction of a new 10-mile (16 km) spur from Safford to the new Safford Mine of Freeport-McMoRan Corporation, north of Safford. The mine opened in 2008. Shuttle trains of copper ore will be transported by the AZER to the smelter at Miami-Claypool.

In 2008, AZER purchased the Clifton Subdivision from Union Pacific Railroad. The Clifton subdivision serves the Morenci Mine near Clifton, Arizona and interchanges with UP at Lordsburg, New Mexico.^[1]

In December 2008, weekend excursion service under the name Copper Spike began operating from Globe to the Apache Gold Hotel Casino near San Carlos. ^[2][3] Trains operate four daily round-trips through the winter and spring, on Thursdays through Sundays.^[4] Service is currently on hiatus through November.

External links

• Official website

References

1. ^ "Arizona Eastern Railway Company AZER #91" (uprr.com)
2. ^ "Globe tourist train will offer round trips to Apache casino", Arizona Daily Star, 2008-12-10, http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/270993 
3. ^ Lockhart, Larry (2008-12-30), "Trip back in time: Excursion train offers look at travel of another era", Tri-Valley Dispatch, http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20231677&BRD=1817&PAG=461&dept_id=222087&rfi=6 
4. ^ "Experience a Journey Back in Time". Copper Spike Railroad. http://www.copperspike.com/. Retrieved 2008-03-27. 

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