A close look at the road bed, and an industry that I am not sure what it is…. 3


I am currently planning on using HO cork for the main, and N for the primary passing siding/run-around track, and many modelers have been questioning me on this idea. I have been looking at the roadbed in Casa Grande, and it is elevated more here than in many locations that I have seen. I have railfaned Cajon, Tehachapi, British Columbia (yet another fallen Flag I miss…I might build a BC Rail MLW for fun one day) Tennessee Pass…I like trains, but the main line outside of Casa Grande heading towards Maricopa is high. The road bed out near Sacaton heading out of Tempe/Chandler is even taller, and I think that this is due to Arizona’s history of flash floods. I now have photographic proof why I need 2 levels of roadbed before taking the rails into the dirt of the industries.

Also, does anyone know what the name and type of industry this is? I saw the tank cars coming in, and the tall tanks from the north side, but the horizontal tanks on the west end make me wonder what it really is.  I thought that it was a High Fructose Corn Syrup distributor, now, I am not so sure…


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3 thoughts on “A close look at the road bed, and an industry that I am not sure what it is….

  • Tom Fassett

    That is Brown Evans Distributing–a commercial fuel and lubricant distributor. The Casa Grande facility serves Casa Grande, Coolidge, Florence and both the Phoenix and Tucson area. Their facility stretches from just West of the tank farm to Maricopa St. There is an industrial fuel station on the North side (behind Barney’s Restaurant). To the West of that is Casa Grande Plant Foods which used to have a spur that began closer to the bridge.
    The area North of Main Avenue–between Main and the industries, (where you took this shot) was the old Casa Grande yard (running to the depot with a few tracks running all the way to Arizona Grain).

    Tom F

  • Tom Fassett

    The high roadbed is indeed due to increased need for drainage. Desert soil is like concrete and water does not soak in quickly like that in wetter climates. This is what causes flash floods as most excess water has to find its way to a wash to clear out. Even then, washouts did happen. I remember a derailment due to a washout in the late 1980s and another in the late 1990s out near Cowtown (between Maricopa and Casa Grande). There were also a few between Picacho and Red Rock. The problem usually begins when the culverts that channel the washes that cross under the railroad get blocked up with debris. When that happens, a big monsoon storm can create a small lake on the upslope side of the railroad until the pressure finally breaks the blockage and a torrent rushes through the culvert, washing away the roadbed on either side. Here is what happens when a culvert washes out (it ain’t pretty… ;- )

    http://www.tomfassett.com/railroad/cowtown_wreck01.jpg

    That’s from one of the derailments near Cowtown.

    Tom F