1/23/13

The agent at Hillside, Arizona....

Home

Open Account

Help

318 users online

Search

NOT A MEMBER? Click here to see what you are missing! Member Login Login: Password:

Railroaders' Nostalgia > The agent at Hillside, Arizona....

Date: 08/22/12 00:04 The agent at Hillside, Arizona.... Author: aronco During my two and one-half years at Winslow with Santa Fe, I supervised 27 stations on the division, among other duties. At Hillside, Arizona, about 50 miles from Prescott in the remote Arizona mountains on the Phoenix (Peavine) line, we had an station with an agent on duty in the daytime to handle the busy team track operation there. Bagdad Copper Company had a large copper mine at Bagdad, about 20 miles from Hillside, and they unloaded all their supplies and material at Hillside and trucked them to the mine. They also loaded copper concentrate from the mine into railcars and shippped it to refineries all over the West. Bagdad also got a boxcar of LCL freight every day from Phoenix. This was the only way less than carload shipments could get to the mine, as no trucking company in their right mind would haul the freight that far over dirt roads. The freight was delivered to the Santa Fe freight house in Phoenix and loaded in a boxcar for Hillside. Twice a week, the LCL freight included 50 cases of dynamite! You can well imagine that being the agent/operator at Bagdad required a real hardy soul. There were no other folks living at Hillside except the agent Tommy Reynolds, and his menagerie of dogs, cats, goats, chickens, a horse, two mules (Maude and Jackson), and a couple hogs. Tommy lived in the company house next to the depot. Water for Hillside was brought in by tank car from the company well at Puro near Prescott. Tommy had been raised in Western Oklahoma, and he was a independent sort who didn't really want a lot of folks around him, so he bid the job in at Hillside and stayed there many years. Once every two weeks Tommy would tell the train dispatcher he was going to town to get some vittles, as he would say. He had to check out with the dispatcher because Tommy would get overtime calls at night to copy train orders. During my tenure at Winslow, I was directed to look at the Santa Fe's water operations in Arizona and New Mexico. Santa Fe had wells, dams, pipelines, and supplied water by tank car to many communities. The water system was really a holdover from the steam days, but it had morphed into a costly monster that needed resolution. I will devote another diatribe to the water study, but back to Tommy the station agent. During the water study, I noticed that we were sending about two tank cars of water a week to Hillside, but suddenly in the spring of 1970,
1/5

Remember this info Login

Discussion
Recent Western Railroads Eastern Railroads Passenger Trains Steam Railroading Nostalgia & History Railroaders' Nostalgia Canadian Railroads European Railroads International Model Railroading Railfan Technology Guidelines

Video Cameras
Dunsmuir Sand Patch

Media Sharing
Video & Audio Static Photography

Hosting
Member Directory More Information

Library
Fanfinder Newsletters News Contest Winners Virtual Reality Classified Ads

Site Info
About us Contact us Give Gift Membership Privacy Policy

www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?18,2851873

1/23/13

The agent at Hillside, Arizona....

Tommy was ordering five or six cars a week. I tried to call Tommy to inquire of this but the phone was not working to Hillside, so I paid a visit to Hillside. "Tommy, what are you using 90,000 gallons of water a week for?", I asked. Tommy kicked one of the dogs from beneath his train order desk, and looked up at me. "Why boss, that lake leaks bad. The mine guys didn't compact it enough when they dug it in February!. "Lake - what lake, Tommy?" Tommy led me over behind the freight house and there it was! A lake, maybe just a pond, about 100 feet across, maybe 10 feet deep, scratched out of the rocky desert hills by front end loaders from the mine, shimmering in the warm spring sun, and filled with hundreds of geese and ducks and lord knows what those other birds were, all resting, on their annual migration home, courtesy of half a million gallons of water unknowingly donated by the Santa Fe Railway. What the hell could I say?? I helped Tommy feed the birds before I left. TIOGA PASS [ Reply To This Message ] [ Quote ] Date: 08/22/12 06:30 Re: The agent at Hillside, Arizona.... Author: Copy19 Great story, Norm. On UP we had a few of those watering spots that were "difficult" to resolve. JEB

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/12 06:31 by Copy19. [ Reply To This Message ] [ Quote ] Date: 08/23/12 13:20 Re: The agent at Hillside, Arizona.... Author: StrandedTexan aronco Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > During my tenure at Winslow, I was directed to > look at the Santa Fe's water operations in Arizona > and New Mexico. Santa Fe had wells, dams, > pipelines, and supplied water by tank car to many > communities. The water system was really a > holdover from the steam days, but it had morphed > into a costly monster that needed resolution.
www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?18,2851873 2/5

1/23/13

The agent at Hillside, Arizona....

Great story! There are still signs of the Santa Fe's water service in Williams, AZ. Their main reservoir is held in place by - you guessed it - the Santa Fe dam! Zak Lybrand Williams, AZ [ Reply To This Message ] [ Quote ] Date: 08/23/12 13:56 Re: The agent at Hillside, Arizona.... Author: atsffan I believe it's only been 15 years or so that Seligman's water supply was turned over from Santa Fe to the city. [ Reply To This Message ] [ Quote ] Date: 08/23/12 14:01 Re: The agent at Hillside, Arizona.... Author: CarolVoss Didn't SP/UP supply the water for Keene CA near the Tehachapi Loop? C. Carol Voss Salinas, CA [ Reply To This Message ] [ Quote ] Date: 08/23/12 14:10 Re: The agent at Hillside, Arizona.... Author: Copy19 CarolVoss Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Didn't SP/UP supply the water for Keene CA near > the Tehachapi Loop? > C. I was trying to remember where that was . I think you are right it was Keene. Mike Furtney was responding to press calls on that but I don't recall how it turned out. JEB [ Reply To This Message ] [ Quote ] Date: 08/23/12 15:51
www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?18,2851873 3/5

1/23/13

The agent at Hillside, Arizona....

Re: The agent at Hillside, Arizona.... Author: BNSF6400 atsffan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I believe it's only been 15 years or so that > Seligman's water supply was turned over from Santa > Fe to the city. Yep, the water bill came in the mail from ATSF Topeka and you either mailed your payment back to went to the depot and paid the agent. [ Reply To This Message ] [ Quote ] Date: 08/23/12 16:03 Re: The agent at Hillside, Arizona.... Author: SLOCONDR Copy19 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > CarolVoss Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > Didn't SP/UP supply the water for Keene CA near > > the Tehachapi Loop? > > C. > > > I was trying to remember where that was . I think > you are right it was Keene. Mike Furtney was > responding to press calls on that but I don't > recall how it turned out. JEB Correct,the pipe line came from Tehachapi down to Keene, and the SP had to maintain it. V SLOCONDR [ Reply To This Message ] [ Quote ] Date: 08/23/12 20:08 Re: The agent at Hillside, Arizona.... Author: engine3420 SLOCONDR Wrote: -------------------------------------------------------
www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?18,2851873 4/5

1/23/13

The agent at Hillside, Arizona....

> Copy19 Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > CarolVoss Wrote: > > > -------------------------------------------------- > > > ----- > > > Didn't SP/UP supply the water for Keene CA > near > > > the Tehachapi Loop? > > > C. > > > > > > I was trying to remember where that was . I > think > > you are right it was Keene. Mike Furtney was > > responding to press calls on that but I don't > > recall how it turned out. JEB > > > Correct,the pipe line came from Tehachapi down to > Keene, and the SP had to maintain it. > > > V > > SLOCONDR And that is why the Tehachapi water tank is still standing long after steam disappeared Chris [ Reply To This Message ] [ Quote ] Date: 08/27/12 20:10 Re: The agent at Hillside, Arizona.... Author: ProAmtrak I thought that tank was for just display in Tehachapi! [ Reply To This Message ] [ Quote ] [ Search ] [ Start a New Thread ] [ Back to Thread List ] [ <Newer ] [ Older> ]
Page created in 0.0957 seconds

www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?18,2851873

5/5