Verde Canyon Railroad

Clarkdale Arizona Central

The Verde canyon Railroad operates over the Clarkdale Arizona
Central from Clarkdale to Perkinsville. The owning railroad continues to the
junction with the BNSF Phoenix Line at Drake. The entire railroad is unsignaled,
single track, operated by general order, and has a maximum speed of 10 mph.
There is a small yard at Clarkdale (MP 38.0), with the depot facilities on the
east side of the line, which starts out headed north-northeast until it reaches
the banks of the river.

The Verde River, which the route follows all
the way, collects water from creeks flowing down from the Colorado Plateau,
including Oak Creek, then flows southeast. Just north of the depot, the
line passes the United Verde Copper Company’s smelter, closed in 1953, whose
tall smoke stacks were demolished in 1962 and 1965. Behind the smelter, one can
see the mining town of Jerome, halfway up the mountainside to the south. The
line them comes alongside cliffs to the southwest, the upper reaches of
which include some Sinagua Indian cliff dwelling ruins dating from 1100-1125,
and abandoned in the early 1400s.

On reaching the west bank of the river, the line starts to
curve along that river, northwest, northeast, east past Tapco across the way,
north, west, curvily north, east-northeast, curvily north, counter-clockwise
around a bluff to west-southwest, and then clockwise to north past Sycamore. Along the river are cottonwood trees, with sycamore and ash
at higher elevations. Off to the
northeast is the Mogollon Rim, marked by cliffs that include the red rocks of
Sedona. The line crosses a trestle, then runs along a ledge above a narrow
inner canyon containing the river, with basalt walls. There is a ledge where eagles nest
on one of the walls of the inner canyon, to the northeast of the line.

Later, the line passes Elephant Rock, resembling the profile of an elephant’s head and trunk,
across the river to the right of the train. The line turns just south of due
west, north-northwest, west, north, counter-clockwise around a bluff to
south-southwest, west past a 680 ft. curved tunnel
cutting off a sharp bend of the river, north, west, and northwest, exiting the
canyon and bridging over the river. Perkinsville (MP 18.3), on the wider land
west of the canyon and north of the river, where there is a 1,158 ft, siding
used for run-around purposes, has a number of old railroad
buildings, as well as some purpose-built structures used in filming How the West was Won.

The line continues, mainly northwestward, another 18 miles to
Drake (MP 0.0), where there is a 1,517 ft. siding before the line joins the
BNSF. This segment is freight only.