Bonus Mexican Narrow gauge pics.

[elminero67]

Thought Id post a few pics that I couldnt use in the Sonora narrow Gauge book as they were not publication quality. I I tried to save these in photobucket but they only save as tiny JPGs. The originals of several of these were recently lost in the Cananea archives debacle (which I never did have the opportunity to see as it has been closed for years)While they are not publishable, they are still pretty cool and have tons of info on them

This is one of my favorite pics of two brand new Baldwin 2-6-2's at Cananea(40 miles SE of Bisbee, AZ). Obviously, the photographer was a good photographer. Unfortunately he chose to use those talents to photograph his underage assistants sans clothing and went to jail. Im not sure I need to see the rest of his collection..

The CCCCo employed grades in excess of 5.5% and very sharp curves, #1 and #2 could only handle 3-4 cars. This may have been Locomotive #6 (Porter 2-6-2)under full steam

The approx 15 mile 36" CCCCo spanned several canyons between Cananea and Puertecitos.

[elminero67]

More bonus pics:

The CCCCo's twice daily passenger service used these open air cars. I suspect that these were former Arizona and New Mexico flatcars, but dont have good documentation

Another view: I thgink I have enough info to make am ON30 model of the passenger cars should I ever have free time....

The CCCCo had a roster of almost 200 36" cars, including these cool all steel ore cars that were very modern for a narrow gauge. I have drawings of these if anyone wants to model these.

[Brian Norden]

Thanks for sharing!

Any information about the book that you can share?

[elminero67]

I got the proofs back from the publisher last weekend-their layout person did an amazing job on the art, maps and photos. Unfortunately there was a miscommunication(my fault) and it was sent to be printed as a full color, which would have tripled the publication cost and been unnecesary as 80% of the pics are b/w. When I get "free time" this weekend (I work full time and am taking 17 hours of grad school 200 miles from home) Ill sign off on the proofs and send it to the printer on Monday. There turnaround is normally a week or so, but this time of year they are pretty busy.

[elminero67]

A few more pics-this time of the 3' Moctezuma RR that ran until 1949:

I wish I could have found a better quality photograph of this shot, but never did. Moctezuma Copper was wholly owned by Phelps Dodge, a company known for thrift. Im not sure if economy was the reason the clearances on this tunnel were so minimal, but I imagine it would have been quite smoky inside the tunnel...

0-6-4smallfile.jpg (26.59 KiB) Viewed 5699 times

The Moctezuma Copper Co used an incline similar to their inclines at Clifton/Morenci. The locomotive is #2, an 0-6-4 porter that became rather infamous as it is the locomotive Jesus Garcia, one of Mexico's national hereos, died in shortly after this picture was taken

The last picture is of the mill/concentrator at Nacozari. The narrow gauge railroad brought the ore on the trestle were it was dumped into ore bins. The lower track was dual gauge, with the concentrates being shipped in 40' boxcars north to the Phelps Dodge smelter in Douglas, Arizona.

[Curtis Reid]

Jesus Garcia drove off in a train with burning boxcars full of dynamite, so they didn't explode in town - definitely a hero
Nice pictures.
That's an incredibly tight tunnel - would make for a nice model.

Thank you for sharing!
Curtis