Current train running in Fierro CanyonThe trains are running again in Fierro Canyon but only for a short time. On a peaceful Saturday morning November 30, 2013, a single Southwestern Railroad Co. locomotive was dispatched to Fierro to pick up eight loaded cars of magnetite. The locomotive engineer, Donald White, 60, and the conductor, Steven Corse, 38, stopped in Bayard on their way up and picked up Steven's girlfriend, Ann Thompson, 50 who had her pet dog with her. About 12:30 p.m., on the way down Fierro Canyon, not far from the Continental No.1 mine, they had brake failure and the locomotive was unable to hold back the weight of the eight cars of magnetite. The train reached speeds of about 65 mph. It was supposed to travel no more than 8 mph. After the brakes failed, it traveled four miles before crashing into a gully between Hanover and Vanadium, killing all three occupants and their dog.
Photo from the New Mexico State Police report of the crashThe line from Highway-152 to Fierro was shut down shortly thereafter and has not run since. An investigation by the Federal Railroad Administration placed the blame on the train crew for not performing an inspection on the train before departing the Cobre Mines. It seems strange that always before two locomotives had been sent to bring down the eight cars and the train crew certainly couldn't defend themselves. That was basically the end of magnetite haulage by rail.
After the accident rails were removed in several areas in and around Hanover and Bayard to prevent use of the line but as of May 1st 2020, Southwest Railroad was given permission to repair the line and start running again but for an express purpose. They repaired and cleaned the line all the way to its end at the town site of Fierro. There they have started removing track to be reused in Deming for a new sidetrack line that will be used for storage. This will be much like the grain type cars they have stored between Hurley and North Hurley. At present, there are about 110 cars on that line and 40 more at the Hurley depot.
Historic Line being removed.The track they are removing is an historic line. With this line, which was first installed around the turn of the century, mining in the central mining district became profitable. Copper ore could be transported to El Paso and east in large quantity by rail rather than by the previous method, wagons and mule trains. If one walks the line and looks carefully, date nails can be found driven into the wood ties. These nails have the last two digits for the year in which the tie was installed. This reporter has found nails in ties still in use with the date 26, so that would be 1926, almost 100 years ago. They used these date nails in order to tell when the ties might need replacing. So, the trains will be running for the last time through Fierro Canyon sometime in the next few months.
Story and Photos by Christopher Saxman
Cub reporter
Hanover Beat,
With assistance from Terry Humble