The still-abuilding Arizona State Railroad Museum in Williams has taken delivery of its latest acquisition, former Magma Arizona RS3 #3. It arrived on a local en route to a cement plant late night near midnight.

Even official rosters are in some slight confusion about exactly which RS3 ended up as which locomotive; ASRM officials hope to find evidence of a builder's number or frame number on the loco later this year.

The Magma Copper Company ordered three diesel locomotives from ALCo in fall 1954 for the San Manuel Copper Corporation. Locomotives: 1,2 and 3 arrived in spring 1955. The 29.4-mile San Manuel Arizona Railroad (SMA) and its 6.5-mile long, adjacent Industrial Railroad (San Manuel smelter to Mammoth shaft) began operations on February 2, 1955.

The #3 RS3 was built in February or March 1955 with its sisters #1 and #2. The serial number for the #3 is 81288 or 81289. #3 served the San Manuel Arizona Railroad for nearly 45 years, from 1955 to 1999.

The locomotive was delivered to San Manuel Arizona for use on the newly opened smelter and mine railroads. It was originally stenciled “SMC Corp” for San Manuel Copper Corporation and applied to a light orange finish. Over the next four decades it would feature at least four unique liveries: SMC Corp orange, MCC orange, Magma yellow-light mint green and finally Magma orange-red/black stripe, which it retains in 2019.

To add to the general confusion, San Manuel Copper Corporation (SMC Corp), San Manuel Arizona Railroad Company (SMARRCO; SMA), San Manuel Industrial Railroad, Magma Copper Company (Magma/MCC), and Magma Arizona Railroads (MARRCO/MAA) featured many interchangeable engines in several paint schemes, for over four decades, on two railroads.

The #3 was eventually sold by Magma parent company BHP-Billiton to Backlands Railroad in Sulphur Springs TX in 1999. #3 was then purchased by Jim Terrell in 2004, who in turn donated the locomotive to Oklahoma Railroad Museum (OKRX) in 2005. The #3 was sold by the Oklahoma Railroad Museum (OKRX) to the Arizona State Railroad Museum Foundation (ARZX) in the fall of 2018, to represent the role of copper mining railroads in the state's rail history.

Photo by Al Richmond, ASRM

I wonder what will become of the Magma Arizona ALCO RS that remains in Superior?

What a great locomotive for this collection. I had honestly kind of forgotten about this new museum starting up. Really exciting as Williams is already a great railfan destination.

So is the Arizona State Railroad Museum actually happening?

As per someone responding through me in an official position to know:

It is my understanding that the hold-up with regards to actual construction at this time is bureaucratic in nature--Federal officials doing environmental impact statements with regards to a "flood plain" at the proposed site, and demanding repeated changes to site plans. As with the RR Museum of Pa. before its opening, the opportunity has been taken to pre-emptively acquire not only rolling stock but also important archives and collections before any formal construction and opening, including those of both railroads and railroad historians. (The RR Museum of Pa. was the "big winner" in the Penn Central "attic treasures" auction in 1975, for example.)

I could point out that various "bureaucratic" hold-ups also affected similar "state railroad museums" in Pennsylvania, California, and North Carolina--although the Arizona project is a "state RR museum" pretty much in name only and is not intended to be a "ward" of the state government.

Which plan is current? The website shows a rectangular plot right beside I-40 and also shows another plan for a more 3 sided plot beside the Y south of it. Does the RR museum own both of those?

As I understand it, the rectangular 21-or-so-acre plot along I-40.

Copper mining IS the history of railroading in Arizona. Santa Fe came through Arizona as they had to go through it to get to California. SP tied into most of the mining railroads, so they got a lot of originating loads. Phelps Dodge built the El Paso and Southwestern because they got tired of paying the shipping rates that the SP was charging them.

What remains at Superior???

Thanks.

Not much. With the recent demolition of the smelter stack, the machine shop building and the engine shed, nothing of the original Magma plant remains. The Baldwin #9 was pulled out of the shop and sits on the ground some distance from where it was stored out of the weather all these years. All of the track around where the plant was has been torn up.

The only remaining Magma Arizona structure is the scale house down where the depot building was located.

Is there another Alco loco at Superior?

If there is, someone's doing an extraordinary job of hiding it--probably along with that alleged NYC Hudson or Erie Pacific.

See this thread for more:

www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=42663

Basically, of the Magma Arizona "family" of lines, there's Baldwin 9 set to be saved in/near Superior, Baldwin S8 #8 in Oregon, Alco 3 at Williams, and Baldwin DRS 6-6-1500 10, originally built for the McCloud River Railroad as #29, at the Arizona Railway Museum in Chandler, along with three scattered MA steamers (Scottsdale, Texas State RR, Galveston).

The RS 3 that is going to Williams, was not on the roster of the Magma Arizona RR in Superior. It worked for the parent Magma Copper Company at their mine and smelter some 50 miles south in San Manuel, AZ.

At the end of the Magma Arizona's days of operation an RS-something was sent down to Superior to pinch hit for an ailing MARR Baldwin. The interchange was made through the San Manuel Arizona Railroad to the SP in Hayden, then to the MARR at Magma Junction.

In the early 1960's Magma Arizona 2-8-2 #7 spent some time down in San Manuel relieving one of their ailing ALCOs.

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