A history of the San Manuel Arizona Railroad ‘SMARRCO’

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Capstone purchased SMARRCO in 2013 and began running the trains through San Manuel and Mammoth after a 14-year closure. James Carnes | Nugget

Pinal Nugget

The San Manuel Arizona Railroad Company (SMARRCO) was constructed by the Utah Construction Company and the Stearns-Roger Manufacturing Company in 1955. The short line railroad was built to haul copper concentrates, finished and unfinished copper and sulfuric acid along a 29.4 mile line connecting to Copper Basin Railway at Hayden. There was also a line between the mine and the smelter. Ore from the mine would be hauled to the mill in San Manuel.

BHP Billiton would acquire SMARRCO along with the mine property through a merger with Magma in 1996. In 1999 the railroad ceased operations. In 2012 work was started to reopen the line. The main line track was upgraded. BHP would then sell the property to Capstone Mining Corporation, a Canadian company, in 2013 along with the Pinto Valley mining operation. Capstone now operates a loading and storage facility in San Manuel.

Copper concentrate is delivered to the facility from the Pinto Valley Mine. It is then loaded on the SMARRCO train and hauled to Hayden Junction where it is interchanged to a third party rail and transported to the port at Guaymas, Sonora Mexico. The current SMARRCO fleet consists of four locomotives and 182 ore cars.

John Hernandez (785 Posts)

John Hernandez lives in Oracle. He is retired and enjoys writing and traveling. He is active in the Oracle Historical Society. He covers numerous public events, researches historical features and writes business/artist profiles.


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