Copper Basin Railway summary
The Copper Basin Railway (CBRY) is a short line railroad that operates in Arizona. It’s owned by American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO), a subsidiary of Grupo Mexico. As the name implies, copper concentrates are the main traffic on the railroad’s 54-mile main line of standard-gauge track from Magma to Winkelman with a 7-mile branch line from Ray Junction to Ray.
History
The line of the now Copper Basin Railway was originally constructed between 1902 and 1904 by the Phoenix and Eastern Railroad. Running from Phoenix through Florence to Winkelman, the initial proposal was to extend to Benson with a connection to the Southern Pacific Railroad that never transpired. Upon completion, it was leased out to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway with the Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railway taking over operations. On October 31, 1945, the line was reverted to full control of the Phoenix and Eastern, now the Arizona Eastern Railroad. After a successful purchase by Rail Management Corporation from the SP, Arizona Eastern’s successor, the Copper Basin Railway was established as a common carrier on June 1, 1986. The railroad has been under ASARCO’s ownership since September 27, 2006.
Operations
The Copper Basin Railway acts as an intra-plant line for ASARCO who also owns the railroad’s primary customers, Ray Mine and Hayden Smelter. Sulphide copper ores are mined at Ray and hauled to a dumper and mill at Hayden. The finished copper concentrate is then loaded into railcars at the complex and travels a short distance to the smelter. Silicate copper ore is also mined at Ray and is processed into cathodes and anodes before being sent to Amarillo, Texas for further refining. A byproduct of the smelting process is sulphuric acid, which the CBRY hauls in tank cars to the Ray mine for heap leaching. Any extra is sold on the open market and shipped to the Union Pacific interchange at Magma. Other products hauled by Copper Basin includes lumber, military equipment, and gypsum.
Copper Basin owns 16 EMD diesel locomotives. Four GP9s are stored near the smelter, while the majority of GP39s, GP39-2s and GP40-2s are in active service on the railroad’s roster.
Interchange traffic operates along the line known as the “local” to and from the Copper Basin’s connection with the UP in Magma. A second interchange is in Hayden with the San Manuel Arizona Railroad.
Read more about the Copper Basin Railway in Trains’ April 2018 issue.
