08) Locomotives and rolling stock

The Locomotives

A view of Arizona & South Eastern #1 in Benson, AZ. This was the northern terminus of the railroad and where it connected with the Southern Pacific. This view is to the west and #1 is preparing to bring its train south to Fairbank and the final destination of Bisbee. Approximately 1900.

In the beginning the Arizona & South Eastern Rail Road only needed one locomotive to pull trains between Bisbee and Fairbank and one to switch out the mine and smelter leads in Bisbee. Since the vast majority of the loads originated or terminated elsewhere, there was little need for a large fleet of freight cars.

The A&SE's first locomotive is easily the railroad's most famous one. Built in 1857 by the Breese, Kneeland, & Company of Jersey City, New Jersey which was also known as the New York Locomotive Company. Originally built for the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad Company, it was the manufacturer's 73rd locomotive.

After the financial panic of the late 1850's, the railroad went bankrupt in 1860 and reemerged as the Milwaukee & Prairie du Chien Railway in January, 1861. Our locomotive continued to operate on the M&PdC as their #40 and carried the name of "Spring Green". By 1888 another successor railroad, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul RR no longer needed the locomotive, which was now numbered as either #105 or #111. Eventually it was sold to the Arizona & South Eastern through a Chicago locomotive dealer by the name of Busse & Norton in July, 1888.

When the A&SE acquired the 4-4-0 she was not only a well used locomotive, she was obsolete! Locomotive development, along with most technological development on railroads in those days, was progressing at lightning speed. Its a bit of a surprise the management would pick such an old locomotive as their #1. Obviously they had made a great purchase as #1 served in nearly daily operation throughout the history of the Arizona & Southeastern Railroad and for a short time afterward, well into the 20th century. Locomotive #1 still exists and is on display in El Paso, Texas. She is the oldest example of the 4-4-0 “American” type locomotive to survive and the only Breese, Kneeland, & Company locomotive that has not met the scrapper's torch!

Arizona & South Eastern #1 a short time after it was retired and given a cosmetic restoration

An apparent promotional image of #1 in EP&SW livery and built in 1857, alongside #27, a 2-10-0,

which originally arrived on the EP&SW in early 1903.

A description of #1 from 1922 can be found in a letter published in the Railroad history, Issues 1-10:

"The elaborate name plate located just under the air pump shows that Breese Kneeland & Co of Jersey City NJ built this locomotive in 1873 Among the interesting features of construction will be noted the inclined cylinders and built up saddle the reverse shaft located below the links the extended smoke box and head light bracket the wheel guards name plate and octagonal dome bases which are suggestive of early practice As built this engine probably had only hand brakes on the tender and still has wooden brake beams and hand wheel on tender The drivers have been equipped with the old pull up cam type driver brakes while the air pump is the old 8 size with the steam valve on the side of the steam cylinder The bell stand is also interesting to note ..."

Arizona & South Eastern Number 1 was also featured in a 1938 Hollywood movie titled "Let Freedom Ring" starring Nelson Eddy and Lionel Barrymore.

Number 2 was a new 2-6-0 locomotive constructed for the A&SE by Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The railroad must have liked Baldwin products as the next three locomotives purchased were all Baldwins too.

A&SE #2 pushes 3 boxcars up a spur sometime in the mid 1890s.

Note the engineer is facing backward as he leans out of his window.

The two brakemen on top of the cars seem to be facing towards the rear of the train.

Number 3, was a 2-8-0 while Number 4 was a 4-6-0. Apparently the road was trying different wheel arrangements and with #4, must have been pleased how the design operated and handled the rough roadbed and light rail of the mine leads as the next four locomotives to arrive on the A&SE were all

4-6-0s!

Number 3 had the added distinction of being of the Vauclain Compound design. This arrangement of cylinders reused the steam a second time and was purported to be more efficient in fuel but more importantly in the desert, water. Number three was the first Vauclain compund in the region and was Baldwin's 14,000th locomotive.

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The is more information about locomotive #3 on the page "The Year 1894".

Number 4 was the railroad's first 4-6-0 and another brand new locomotive constructed by Baldwin in May, 1897. Four years later she became the El Paso & Southwestern's #4 and then was renumbered to their #105. On her sale to the Nacozari Railroad (Mexico) on July 23rd, 1907, she once again carried the number 4 for that railroad until she was sold to Mexicano del Pacifico in October, 1921. There is a very real possibility that this locomotive may still exist and is on display in a park in Mexico!

Number 5 was a used, but essentially brand new 4-6-0 which arrived on the property in 1898. Number 5 was originally built by Baldwin in 1873 for the Pennsylvania Railroad as their early "D Class" #1119. In November of 1891 this locomotive was later rebuilt into the new "G-1a" class of 4-6-0s and renumbered as #846. Within just a few years she became the Grand Rapids & Indiana #50 and then through a locomotive dealer who sold it to the A&SE.

Number 5 was probably very much like this locomotive when she came out of the

Baldwin shops and into service on the PRR in 1873.

Dimensional drawings of the Pennsylvania "G-1a Class" of 4-6-0 rebuilds, which is probably the classification of Number 5 when rebuilt, can be found here.

After being renumbered to #106 by the EP&SW, she was sold to an undetermined entity on April 18th, 1907.

Number 6 was the one and only locomotive purchased by A&SE from the Dickson Manufacturing Company of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Besides locomotives, Dickson was a well known producer of mining equipment and steam boilers for industry, so was no doubt well known to the management of the A&SE. Dickson was one of several companies that merged in 1901 to become the American Locomotive Company (ALCO). The building where Dickson operated in Scranton is still in existence. It is familiar to viewers of the US TV program called “The Office” as the red brick building and tower with the “Penn Paper” sign shown during the opening credits.

Number 6 also represented a break with purchasing Baldwin locomotives. After purchasing #6, the railroad purchased its last three locomotives from the Schenectady Locomotive Works, another ALCO predecessor based in Schenectady, New York.

The Encyclopedia of Western Railroad History: Volume IV-California shows #6 as a 0-6-0. However, Locomotives of the Southern Pacific Company reveals that this locomotive was originally built as a 4-6-0 but was rebuilt into an 0-6-0 after its A&SE service. Myrick confirms that she was indeed rebuilt as a 0-6-0 in April, 1916 by the EP&SW and renumbered as #3. When the Southern Pacific purchased the EP&SW in November, 1921, she became that road's #1001. Serving just a month less than 14 more years, the SP scrapped her on October 2nd, 1935.

Numbers 7 & 8 were renumbered #112 & #113 by the EP&SW and then to #2100 & #2101 respectively by the Southern Pacific. Number 8 was scrapped first, on April 28th, 1927 while Number 7 lasted a few more years, meeting the cutter's torch on June 17th, 1930.

Finally, Number 9 became EP&SW #303. After the merger with the SP, Number 9 was sold to the San Antonio & Aransas Pass and became that railroad's #101. In 1925 she was again sold, this time to the Texas and New Orleans and served as their #26 until another cutting torch ended her career on May 8th, 1937.

David Myrick's Railroads of Arizona Volume III contains locomotive rosters for all of the shortlines that operated in Arizona prior to the 1960s. The A&SE roster can be found on page 312. The table below has been produced using the information provided there and notes on each locomotive help to round out the history of the railroad's motive power.

The Locomotives of the Arizona & Southeastern Railroad

Rolling Stock

The vast majority of the Arizona & Southeastern's traffic was coal, coke and lumber arriving from other parts of the country, with a smaller number of loads of copper leaving for El Paso, Texas. There was little need for the railroad to have it's own fleet of freight cars. As such the number of revenue cars owned by A&SE was small. The original Pullman cars were sufficient to handle the railroad's passenger traffic, but in the late 1890's they added a few more flatcars and a couple of boxcars to handle the somewhat expanded local needs.

All of the flat and box cars purchased were 34' long with a capacity of 40,000 lbs. The first order of five flat cars carried the numbers 2 through 6. The road also ordered a single boxcar, almost certainly at the same time and it was number 7.

The Official railway equipment register: Volume 17, Issue 2 - Page 154 (1901) lists the rolling stock for the A&SE and shows 2 additional flat cars, numbers 8 & 12 along with two additional boxcars, numbers 13 & 14. Strangely it shows the road only had 6 flat cars, not the 7 listed. One has to question if this is a typo or if one of the original flats was lost to an accident.

Late in its history the A&SE finally had a need for a caboose and they ordered one from Pullman as announced in the August, 1896 issue of Railroad Car Journal. So far that is all I know of the caboose.

Both of the railroad's passenger coaches were built by the Pullman Palace Car Company in late 1888 and were in daily service through the life of the road and beyond. They were numbers 10 and 11. Below is a builder's photo of #10. #11 also had a baggage door like #10, but #11's door was at one end of the car, not in the middle like #10.

This is a photocopy of the original Pullman Palace Car construction photograph from 1888. The design, with the baggage door in the center of the car, is not common and there is some speculation as to why the car was built in the manner. Some suggest it was for segregation, either along racial lines or gender. This will require more research to determine the exact reason for the design. Note the elaborate pin-stripping on the sides, and even on the trucks. This was the way even the most basic car was detailed. The car is on what is known as a transfer table. This allowed cars to be moved between construction bays while using a minimum of space.

This image courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

Next Chapter - The new Copper Queen smelter and the new town of Douglas