With Charlie Conway behind the cameras, discover what makes the Copper Basin Railway shine brightly in the Arizona desert. In part 1 of 2, you’ll make a mine run with the crew in the cab of a Geep, take a hammer to hard iron rails, and then get to know president “Jake” Jacobson, right along with many other dedicated CBRY employees he credits for powering the railway’s success story. Enjoy this video, and then learn more about the Copper Basin in April 2018 issue of Trains magazine.
Taking Care of Business: Copper Basin Railway, Part 1
By Angela Cotey | April 19, 2018
| Last updated on March 8, 2021
Copper Basin is an amazing railroad the can be modeled. Copper consists of two different types of rock which need to be sent to the smelter to be turned into whatever product they will become. Cathodes are made from sulfite ore this or is crushed at the mine and loaded into ore cars these cars are then sent on OT1 to the smelter in Winkleman. And the smelter the sulfite ore is burned and converted into cathodes with the byproduct from the smelting process being sulfuric acid and CSO the acid and CSO are either hauled away as is in tank cars and interchange to you in Union Pacific and Magna Arizona or it is sent back to the Ray mine on the Acid Train and sprayed on the slag piles of silica ore. At the Ray mine silica ore and slag are placed in tailing piles and then the entire pile is sprayed with sulfuric acid and CSO until it becomes a slurry the slurry is then collected in the evaporation ponds and sent to winkelman on the acid train as copper concentrates. This is then refined and it becomes anodes. Both the cathodes and the anodes from winkleman are then loaded into special cars and then covered with hoods and then this is sent to Union Pacific in Magna who takes it to Amarillo Texas where the cathodes and anodes are turned into wire which we use on our layouts. Another train that is on the way out is the Fire Train with is sent out if it is fire season.