Coronado Railroad was a railroad which operated in a

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish ...

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

region of eastern Arizona. The Coronado Railroad was one of the first railroads in

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...

, constructed by Henry Lesinsky in 1879 along Chase Creek, between mines and a

smelter Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a c ...

. Eventually the line connected mines via seven

funicular A funicular (, , ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite e ...

railways and many miles of track. It operated at least 10 locomotives of , , and wheel configuration. The mines and the railway were connected in ownership, and the railroad was not separately incorporated or a common carrier. Cars used were 4-wheel mine cars and

flatcar A flatcar (US) (also flat car, or flatbed) is a piece of rolling stock that consists of an open, flat deck mounted on a pair of trucks (US) or bogies (UK), one at each end containing four or six wheels. Occasionally, flat cars designed to carry ...

s. The railroad operated as an isolated line until 1883 when a gauge line reached Clifton to form an interchange with the Coronado. This connecting line, the Arizona and New Mexico, was

converted Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...

to in 1901. Its former gauge equipment was used to

widen Widen is a municipality in the district of Bremgarten in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. History At the end of the 12th century a manor called "Wyda" is mentioned the first time, there's no exact year. "Widen", in the way like it's writ ...

the line from Clifton to Shannon by 1903. This new gauge line was incorporated as the Coronado Railroad. Steam locomotives of the gauge system continued to operate, even after expansion of electric mine railways which captured a significant portion of the ore movement. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

operations on the was sporadic, with the entire system being shut down in 1932 and mostly removed by the later part of the 1930s. Several gauge locomotives and cars from the Coronado Railroad and associated copper mining companies survived into preservation. The locomotive "Rattlesnake" was purchased by an old engineer and maintained as a display. Three other locomotives were left abandoned on a hilltop until 1990, when they were removed over very steep terrain by dropping down a loaded truck reinforced with a cable attached to a bulldozer. The Coronado Railroad was one of the smallest minimum gauge railroads that operated in North America.

References

* Hilton, George W.: ''American Narrow Gauge Railroads'', p. 311. Stanford University Press, 1990. {{ISBN, 978-0804723695 * Eppinga, Jane: "Meshpoca: The Stories of A Great Pioneer Family of the Frontier: The Lesinsky Family of Southeastern Arizona" ''Southwest Jewish History'', Volume 2, Number 3, Spring 1994.

External links

Surviving Coronado Steam Locomotives
Narrow gauge railroads in Arizona 1879 in rail transport