SG - Arizona and Swansea Railroad

The Arizona and Swansea Railroad was built in 1909 to serve the gold and copper mine at Swansea, Arizona. The line started at Bouse, AZ with a connection to the Arizona and California Railway and headed northeast for about 21 miles to the mining community of Swansea. The line was abandoned in 1937 with various principles operating the mine over the years. Rolling stock consisted of three 65-ton Baldwin locomotives, six flat and gondola cars, three boxcars, twenty 20-ton ore cars and a combine according to a sign at the site.

We visited Swansea on January 17th and were fortunate to miss the annual Baja race the day before that shut down the road. We explored most of the foundations/buildings at the town site and peered into a few of the grated over shafts. It takes over 3 hours to get there from my location so I had limited time to explore but I did get to hike some of the canyon that the grade wanders through.

This link is the interactive map with photos that can be viewed by clicking on the yellow boxes. A Swansea zoom button is provided below the map. I'll be working on more shots from the grade down the canyon and then fill in some of the structures in town so stay tuned...

Arizona and Swansea Map

The scale pit northwest of the depot.


The adobe construction of the depot.


An old shaft visible from the grade.


Dave



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2021 07:20AM by ROW Explorer.