Mogollon & Verde Valley Railway
Mogollon & Verde Valley Railway
The Mogollon & Verde Valley Railway is a 1926 proto-freelance extension of the Santa Fe’s Clarkdale branch. The layout is approximately 26 feet by 18 feet and built on two levels with a hidden staging yard as a partial third level. Trackwork is complete on staging and the lower level and nearing completion on the upper level. There is approximately 160 feet of mainline. Operations buildings and industries are in process of being mocked up. Because this is a protofreelance line, actual industries along the line are used or other southwest appropriate industries added to increase the work.
The HO layout will use TT&TO and CC&WB for forwarding. It is designed for an operator and about six crews, including a smelter job, a woods job, a sawmill/coal/coke job, a yard job, a way freight, and a floater to cover passenger and through freights. The operator will be used to help manage train orders and traffic instructions. Staging is provided by a self-resetting main staging yard accessed from Cottonwood or Division representing Clarkdale/AT&SF or Globe-Miami/AE/Southern Pacific respectively. Upper staging beyond Standard represents the Apache. There are two logging lines (Cady-Clark and Standard) both with staging, and a third that may be logging or coal also with staging.
Everyone is invited to visit; I am particularly looking forward to those interested in vetting an operating system to review the overall layout concept and suggest improvements while correction is still relatively easy. The history and operating scheme is described below.
History
In 1914, after Santa Fe completed construction of the Verde Valley Railway to Clarkdale, Senator William A. Clark, Butte copper baron and owner of the mammoth United Verde Copper Co. in Jerome and smelter in Clarkdale, hears rumors of high quality metallurgical coal on the Mogollon Rim south and east of Clarkdale. He commissions the Santa Fe to extend the Verde Valley line to the coal field. The line run south down the Verde River past Cottonwood, home of the United Verde Extension mine and smelter and the Verde Smelting & Refining toll smelter, Camp Verde and the hydroelectric station at Childs before turning east up the East Verde River for the start of a 67 mile helper district to reach the top of the Mogollon Rim, nearly 1200 feet higher than Childs. Once reaching Summit, the line starts slightly downward to the cattle town of Heber, which is the supply point for ranches above the rim and for various small farmers. From Heber, the line proceeds to Cokedale, where the Senator bought out the coal operator and established Verde Coal and Coke to supply his smelter. Rich timber was found in the area, so the Senator established the Clark Lumber Company to begin cutting areas around the Verde Coal & Coke mine.
A few years later, merchants in the Globe-Miami area, tired of Southern Pacific rates, built a connection north from Globe-Miami north along Pinal Creek and over the mountains to the Salt River and Roosevelt Lake, proceeded around the southern and western sides of Roosevelt Lake before turning north to Rye and then connecting with the Mogollon & Verde Valley. In the early 1920s, Clark bought out the Standard Lumber Co. and its mill at Standard, angering the Cady Lumber Co. based in McNary, which had sought to purchase the mill for its own use and ship logs over its subsidiary, the Apache Railway. Clark ordered the Mogollon & Verde Valley extended a few miles to reach the Standard mill. The Santa Fe, which held bonds of the Apache and the M&VV and concerned about the health of its investments, pressed Clark and Cady to resolve their differences. After tense negotiations, Clark and Cady agreed that Clark would keep Standard Lumber; the M&VV and Apache would be extended to meet at Standard; the two parties would incorporate a new company, the Cady-Clark Lumber Co, to begin cutting over timberlands along the Mogollon & Verde Valley with most timber routed to the Cady Company sawmill at McNary but 20% routed to Standard; Cady would kiln dry and return the 20% to Clark; and Cady would route finished goods destined south traveling over the M&VV. The companies and Santa Fe also agreed to provide limited passenger service.
Shortly after this agreement was reached, Senator Clark died and his sons, George and Charles, took over the United Verde empire. They leased the Mogollon & Verde Valley to the Santa Fe but maintained close supervision over the lease to ensure service of their smelter, Verde Coal & Coke and Cady-Clark Lumber interests.
Operating Scheme
The principal freight business is hauling coal and coke from Verde Coal & Coke to the UVCC smelter in Clarkdale, with side traffic to the UVX and VS&R in Cottonwood and some coal going to the smelters in Globe-Miami. A secondary business in ore haulage from the Cracker Jack and House mines around Division to the VS&R in Cottonwood; precious metals from Payson to the mill at Division and then to the VS&R in Cottonwood, and empty returns. The other large volume is cross-haul log traffic from the Cady-Clark Lumber Co. to the Standard Mill and Apache connection at Standard and return haul of empties and finished product, which goes down the hill to Cottonwood, Prescott, Phoenix and Globe-Miami. Seasonally, there is stock movements from the high country to the low country for winter. Merchandise traffic is limited to supplies for the mountain and valley towns and the merchants in Globe-Miami. Passenger traffic consists of a train one way daily except Sunday between Clarkdale and Globe-Miami with a mixed or doodlebug in the reverse direction and daily doodlebug service from Division to a connection with the Apache at Standard.
| Owner | Eric Hiser |
| Location | Central Phoenix |
| Prototype | Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe |
| Scale | HO |
| Era | 1926 |
| Locale | Central Arizona |
| Forwarding | Car Card / Waybill |
| Control System | NCE Wireless DCC |
| Size | 18’ x 26’ |
| Style | Two level walk in with peninsula |
| Communication | Verbal |
| Access | Small step and duck under at entrance |
| Pets in home | No |
| Smoking | No |
| Crew Size | Probably 1 |
| Jobs | 6 |