Globe train excursion fires up the engines

It’s been a long time since passengers waited at Globe’s railroad depot for the whistle of an approaching train. The quaint mining town’s 1916 depot has been used for little more than a laundromat since it shuttered its doors to rail traffic in the 1950s.

But starting this weekend, people will once again be able to board a passenger train in historic downtown. The Copper Spike Train Excursion will depart from the depot at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 13. The round-trip ride takes about an hour and 20 minutes (counting turnaround time), and trains will leave four times per day Thursdays through Sundays.

The train’s diesel-powered locomotive — on schedule to be replaced by a vintage steam engine in early 2009 — pulls four train cars along the same route passengers traveled 100 years ago, when advertising brochures referred to the region east of Globe as “The Land of the Apache.” Today, that area is part of the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, and the train’s turnaround point is the tribe’s Apache Gold Casino and golf resort.

The Copper Spike’s approximately 15-mile trip to the resort takes travelers through high-desert terrain, a landscape with a slightly different look from the lower-elevation desert stretching out from the East Valley.

An onboard audio tour details some of the area’s history, and a 1950s-era dome car affords wide-angle views. There’s also a Calumet Club car, like those built by the famous Pullman Company in the 1950s. Both cars are on loan from the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad in southern Colorado.

The train brings an important piece of Globe’s history back to the forefront. In a rough-and-tumble silver and copper boomtown known for murders, stagecoach robberies, outlaws, Apache raids, and occasional drop-ins by famous Western figures such as Geronimo and the Apache Kid, railroads not only hauled the mining freight that remains the area’s lifeblood, they brought people to the community nestled in the foothills of the Pinal Mountains.

The train is operated by Arizona Eastern Railway. The railway was originally chartered as the Gila Valley, Globe and Northern Railway in 1885, and, for more than 100 years has shuttled copper, building materials, chemicals and other commodities throughout the copper mining regions of southeastern Arizona, the Gila River Valley and eastern portions the Phoenix-metro area.

The Historic Globe Main Street Program contacted Arizona Eastern Railway in July 2005 about the mostly dormant train depot site. The two organizations then worked with Apache Gold Casino Resort to get an excursion-railway test project off the ground, and the Globe citizens’ group began a grass-roots effort to restore the depot’s freight office building.

Copper Spike Train Excursions

What: A new passenger train made up of historic cars is taking Arizona joy riders on a 50-minute swing through a desert full of Old West and mining lore.

Where: The historic train depot at the intersection of Broad and Sycamore streets in Globe. To get there, take U.S. 60 east about 60 miles to Globe. Turn left at the light at Broad Street, and follow to the intersection of Sycamore Street.

When: Trains depart 9:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays until May 2

Cost: $20 adults; $15 seniors; and $10 children. Call ahead for reservations.

Info: (866) 979-7245 or www.copperspike.com