West Chandler to Maricopa

Link: http://a-r.us/cld

• Quick Info:
• States: Arizona   
• Railroads: AE, M&P&SRV, M&P, PT&M, SP   

The Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad

Picture

(Forwarded from the Maricopa & Phoenix & Salt River Valley Railway)

	Showing of

This view faces generally north where the right-of-way once ran, near the corner of Maricopa Road and Queen Creek Road, in the Gila River Indian Reservation. Photo by Mike Palmer, February 2009.

In the late 1800s, the townspeople of Phoenix were seeking a connection with the Southern Pacific's Sunset Route, which passed about 25 miles south of them. Once receiving authorization from Congress to build a railroad line through the Gila River Indian Reservation, the Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad commenced construction with mainly Mexican immigrants in 1886, completing the line in 1887. The line connected with the SP at a point called "Phoenix Junction", which is now the current town of Maricopa. The line contributed greatly to the growth of Phoenix in its early years.

This railroad was most likely abandoned in the early 1940s (at least before 1948, as a dated railroad map does not show this line). By the time it was abandoned, it was under control of the Arizona Eastern Railroad (itself a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific), and was known as the Maricopa Branch.

The exact routing of the M&P is not known; however it is believed that most of AZ Route 347 lies atop the former railbed. The unknown routing has also caused some dispute about the northern terminus of the M&P: while "Phoenix" forms part of the name of the railroad, and while most historians agree that the railroad did not reach as far north as Phoenix, there is disagreement on whether or not the railroad reached as far as Tempe, or if it terminated in West Chandler. One suspect in this debate is the Tempe to West Chandler spur of the Union Pacific (former SP). Its routing seems to align with where the M&P would have traveled, and so it is believed that this UP spur was once part of the M&P, meaning the northern terminus of the M&P was at Tempe. More evidence that suggests the northern terminus was in Tempe are some of the names that the railroad company went through during its history, namely the Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa Railway, and the Maricopa and Phoenix and Salt River Valley Railway. Detractors to this argument state that these names only indicate the intention of the railroad to reach those towns/areas, and not the actual destinations themselves.

So where exactly did the M&P lay its tracks? We may never know for sure.

ICC Abandonment Filings

SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD
Docket Number: 10678	Date: 11/16/1934	Section: 1
App. of Arizona Eastern RR. Co. and Southern Pacific Co., its lessee, for certificate to abandon that part of the Maricopa Branch, owned by the former and operated by the latter, extending from a point one mile south of West Chandler to Maricopa, a distance of 16.598 miles, all in Maricopa and Pinal Counties, Arizona.
Length: 16.598 miles	Citation: 202 ICC 701

The one thing that's interesting here is that there were TWO railroad bridges built across the Salt River at Tempe around the turn of the 20th century. To the East was the "Phoenix & Eastern" bridge, which completely washed out during a huge flood - I believe in the early 20s. The P&E was originally an ATSF subsidiary, originally started as a shortcut to El Paso. They gave up on it and it soon became a part of AERR.

The other bridge - in the exact location as the current UP bridge - was the Maricopa & Phoenix bridge. That doesn't definitively prove anything - but SPV's map also shows that the M&P had a railbed paralleling the P&E into Phoenix after the crossing of the Salt River.

Greg R
Tempe, AZ
3/31/2010

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I'm trying to find the exact location of 1) the abandoned West Chandler (formerly "Kyrene"?) depot near Warner and Kyrene Roads in Chandler, AZ, and 2) the Kyrene-Hansen Spur of the Maricopa-Tempe line. I have read in a Clay Thompson AZ Republic article that the depot was once a busy cattle and hay depot and in a Gilbert Comm. Coll. article on Chandler Roads History that it served the K-H Spur, and the spur was torn out in 1905. Anybody?

Patrick Schiffer
Phoenix, AZ
4/17/2010

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Corrected post--My research shows that the Kyrene-Hansen spur of the Maricopa and Salt River Valley Railroad was torn out in approx. 1935, not 1905. I'm looking for a map or other description of the exact location of the K-H spur and the West Candler RR depot (and/or "Kyrene Depot"), near Warner and Kyren roads in Chandler, AZ. Thanks for your patience.

Patrick Schiffer
Phoenix, AZ
4/17/2010

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Hey Patrick - you didn't give your email address, so I have to hope you'll be back here.

The Hansen Spur has its own entry here, and I've found an online resource that has aerial maps showing the spur. I'll send an update to Greg (the moderator) in the next few days, after I finish this one.

Greg R
Tempe, AZ
5/11/2010

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Not only have I confirmed (via aerial photography from 1930 and 1937) that the old Maricopa & Phoenix did indeed follow the route of AZ Hwy 347, I have confirmed (at least in MY mind) that the M&P terminated in Tempe, as there is a smallish-sized yard, turntable, and locomotive facilities on the West side of the ROW at the former Mesa Jct.

This would only be in existence so close to the engine facilities of Phoenix for a railroad that ended at this point.

Greg Rose
Tempe, AZ
5/19/2010

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Patricia Brock book detailing the history of Maricopa, Maricopaville, and Maricopa Wells back in the late 1800's states that the line ran from present day Maricopa all the way to Tempe. I am actually researching or attempting to find out as much as I can on the Diesel Electric one car train that was used on this daily run. Would like to know what happened to it.I know the ownership of that rail line has changed hands several times.

My research shows it was the Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad 1885-1895, the Maricopa and Phoenix and Salt River Valley Railroad 1895-1907, then back to the Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad 1907-1910, then sold to Arizona Eastern Railroad and lastly to Southern Pacific Company.

Any info anybody can share on what they know about this train during all periods of operation please e-mail me at sfrank7773@aol.com and put train in the heading so I know its not spam. Thanks.

Steve
City of Maricopa, AZ
6/27/2011

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This thread is a highly interesting one, all the more so because some of the much desired answers are still being sought (the fun of the mystery). That said, I would like to offer some critical (but friendly) comments and questions as a yet outsider to Arizona railroads. Certain aspects of the descriptions as now written are like a manual provided to put together some item that comes disassembled: you have to know how to assemble the thing already in order to understand the assembly manual (a bit of Catch 22). Which is to say I'm having heavy going with some of these branches built by historic railroads, when neither the railroad nor the branch is any longer in existence. IMO it would be helpful (and necessary) to frame these lines against existing ones, particularly in instances of congruency, i.e., where a current line runs--or is thought to run--in large part over the same route as the historic one. A good example is in the suggestion that the present UP Tempe-West Chandler Spur (now an industrial stub), extending south from Tempe Junction, runs over much of the old Maricopa & Phoenix RR. Okay, makes sense, but missing in this hypothesis are the answers to these questions:

1. WHEN did the Southern Pacific build or acquire this branch line?

2. IF acquired, then from whom? [Just maybe from the successor to the M&P?]

3. Has this line, specifically in SP hands, been CONFIRMED to have gone all the way south to Maricopa?

Marc Pearsall's excellent "Railroads of Arizona (2002)" map, at

http://www.azrymuseum.org/Information/Arizona_Railroad_Map_2002.pdf

shows this line extending from Tempe Junction to some undetermined point south as a UP branch, with the portion continuing to Maricopa indicated as abandoned SP trackage. Is this known for a fact, or has that been extrapolated simply in the belief it was the M&P route? You can see where I'm going here: IF the SP purchased this line from an earlier railroad, and it's confirmed that the Espee's branch did once interchange at Maricopa with its Sunset Route, it would seem a fairly easy task to follow that ownership provenance back, just maybe to the M&P. That has to be some ready way to make this putative M&P-SP connection, IF they both ran to the main line at Maricopa, and thus to make the connection to some sizable portion of the current UP industrial stub.

On the basis of 1930s aerial photographs (good sleuthing!), Greg Rose contends that the M&P ended in a small yard south of the Salt River. But more than one contributor to this website has made reference to the Maricopa & Phoenix bridge spanning said river. I know of some instances where a railroad did not have the wherewithal to build a bridge and thus halted at the river, but if such a bridge WAS built over the Salt River, it stands to reason the M&P ran all the way into Phoenix, yes? This seems to be a clear case where historical reality can't have it both ways, and thus some further resolution of the known but seemingly conflicting facts must be sought.

I've enjoyed Mike Palmer's photos, many shot three years ago. After perusing the map of the UP Tempe-West Chandler Spur in satellite mode, I'm led to agree with him that no traffic appears to be going south of the Route 202 Loop. I was on the ground there yesterday, and I didn't see anything, but my search south of 202 was not exhaustive. I want to comment on Mike's first and northernmost photo, its caption beginning, "This is possibly the last active segment of the M&P as far south as West Chandler." If he means "segment" in the sense of that portion generally NORTH of Route 202, yes, I think that's so. The customer indicated by the pushpin a bit south of West Chandler Boulevard is not quite the final one south, however, as there is another just beyond, for which I'm sending two photos to the webmaster. The large two-toned (beige over white) building just south of the customer Mike shows is about the same distance north of the one I photoed, closer to West Frye Road as it approaches South 56th Street. Once the line runs under Route 202, it goes south, east, and south again, finally petering out south of West Germann Road.

Also yesterday I visited the Arizona Railroad Museum in Chandler, adjacent to the UP (ex-SP) branch line that once ran south then southeast to Coolidge. What is this line's current designation and the name of the junction to the north where it comes off the UP Secondary Main? And if you have it, some brief history of it, s.v.p. Thanks!

Nelson

Nelson Lawry
Rollinsford, NH
4/15/2012

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