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The Arizona Railway Museum

The Arizona Railway Museum, located in Chandler, Arizona like most state railroad museums primarily focuses on railroading history in and around the State of Arizona although they also cover much of Southwest region itself. Since their beginnings in the early 1980s the museum has acquired quite a collection of artifacts over that time ranging from rare historic diesel locomotives to a 2-8-0 steam locomotive of Southern Pacific heritage. Along with their steam and diesel locomotives the museum also has a large collection of passenger and freight cars from Pullmans to several cabooses.

Arizona railroading is known for flat deserts, high mountains, and trains that range from speeding loads of intermodal to slow drags of coal, copper, agriculture, and wood products. Today, the state may be home to less than 2,000 route miles of railroad but it offers a little of everything from main line railroading to railroad museums and tourist lines.

Arizona has been one of the few states to never lose its original number of Class I railroads, two (although the names have changed). Prior to the mid 1990s Arizona railroading was home to its original Class I carriers, Southern Pacific and the venerable Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe both of whom had their main lines running east-west across the state.

After 1995 that all changed when the Santa Fe merged with Burlington Northern becoming the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (today simply known as the BNSF Railway) and Southern Pacific was purchased by Union Pacific in 1996. Today, Arizona is still home to both original owners’ main lines with Union Pacific’s former SP Sunset Route a major corridor between California and Texas and BNSF Railway’s Transcon between California and Chicago (this route is also the state’s busiest).

In terms of overall mileage, currently Arizona ranks somewhat low at less the 2,000 route miles; however, as has happened with most states, at one time it was home to much, much more.

The Arizona Railway Museum current roster of locomotives includes:

* Chicago & North Western Railway EMD E8A #5022B

* Homestake Mining Porter 0-4-0 #5

* Magma Arizona Railroad Baldwin DRS 6-6-1500 #10

* Southern Pacific Baldwin 2-8-0 #2562

* US Army Plymouth ML-8 #1

Along with its roster of locomotives the Arizona Railway Museum also owns a large collection of rolling stock (both freight and passenger). Aside from their railroad equipment and artifact collection the museum also has several restoration projects planned on numerous pieces of its rolling stock so if you are interested in volunteering please contact them.

For more reading about one of Arizona's most famous railroads, the Santa Fe, you might want to consider the book Santa Fe Railway from Steve Glischinski, which will give you a general overview and history of the Santa Fe (filled with many, excellent, historical and colorful photographs) at which point you can decide if you are interested in further books of study on the railroad. Even if you are a historian of the ATSF and have not seen this book I'm sure you will enjoy it!

Also, for more information and reading about excursion trains and railroad museums you might want to consider picking up Tourist Trains Guidebook from the editors of Kalmbach Publishing's Trains magazine. The book lists and reviews over 400 excursions and museums found throughout the country and is an excellent resource, which has received superb reviews by readers, if you're looking for one to visit. In any event, if you're interested in perhaps purchasing either (or both) of these books please visit the links below which will take you to ordering information through Amazon.com, the trusted online shopping network.

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