Copper Basin Railway

Copper Basin Railway

CBRY 403, on the way to the Ray Mine, 2011
Reporting mark	CBRY
Locale	Magma-Winkelman, Arizona
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Headquarters	Hayden, Arizona

Copper Basin Railway
Route map 0.0 UPRR at Magma Junction Magma Arizona Railroad to Superior Arizona State Route 79 9.2 Florence 19.2 Price Tunnel 1 Cochran 19.2 Wooley, Arizona 38.0 Ray Junction Tunnel 2 Tunnel 3 49.9 Burns 50.4 Hayden Junction 52.3 Hayden 53.7 Winkelman This diagram:

The Copper Basin Railway (reporting mark CBRY) is an Arizona short-line railroad that operates from a connection with the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) at Magma to Winkelman, in 54 miles (87 km) of length. The railroad also has a 7-mile (11 km) branch line that runs from Ray Junction to Ray, Arizona. There was formerly an interchange with the San Manuel Arizona Railroad (SMA) at Hayden. The CBRY exists primarily to serve a copper mine. L. S. “Jake” Jacobson is the President and Chief Operating Officer. In summer 2006, ASARCO Copper Corporation purchased the entire railroad.

107,000 cars per year (1996 estimate)

The Magma-Winkelman line was constructed by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) subsidiary Phoenix and Eastern Railroad between 1902-1904. The Phoenix and Eastern Railroad built the railroad from Phoenix - Winkelman via Florence. It originally proposed to build to a connection with the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) at Benson but the line was never built past Winkelman.

The railroad was leased to Santa Fe upon completion of construction on December 10, 1904, and was operated by ATSF subsidiary Santa Fe, Prescott and Phoenix Railway. On March 13, 1907, the Phoenix & Eastern became an operating subsidiary of SP. On March 10, 1910, the Phoenix & Eastern was leased and became a non-operating subsidiary of SP and operated by the Arizona Eastern Railroad. The railroad was sold to the Arizona Eastern Railroad on October 31, 1945. The Arizona Eastern Railroad was merged into SP on September 30, 1955.