After two days of railfanning the Copper Basin we headed down to San Manuel on good authority that the SMARRCO would be running a train up to the interchange. We were there early and the train was on duty and out a bit after 0900 for its two hour northbound journey. Here it is crossing the second of the two big wooden trestles near Mammoth, approx MP 21 on the railroad. This one crosses the dry Tucson Wash.
These are special shots for me as the SMA was a railroad I always wanted to shoot, but then it shut down before I ever came out here. I was drawn to it after seeing photos in one of my very first issues of Trains Magazine when I was a young fan. After shutting down in 1999 with the closing of the giant underground San Manuel Copper mine the future looked bleak when the smelter was demolished and the mine haul railroad was scrapped. I thought I'd never get to see it and my opportunities to admire it would be confined to books like my love of the New Haven and the Milwaukee. But, by a miraculous twist of fate the line was reborn in 2013 to once again hall copper ore. Given the fickle nature of global commodities who knows how long its second life may be, but what a spectacular piece of desert railroading it is. I feel pretty fortunate to have had this opportunity.
Not
just heritage schemes, not just commemorative schemes - this album is devoted to some of the world's most interesting paint schemes, past or present.
