Trona Railway
The Trona Railway ( TRC ) is an American Short Line Railroad Company in eastern California's Mojave Desert. The company is based Trona.
Most important transport goods are sulfuric acid, sodium carbonate, potassium salt, sodium sulfate, borax, coal and other minerals. There are also transport for the Military Base Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake.
History
The Company was incorporated on March 12, 1913 by the mining company American Trona Corporation to build a railway from Searles, on the Southern Pacific route Mojave Owenyo ( Jawbone Branch), after Trona. Work began on 22 September 1913. The 49.165 km long link was put into operation on September 6, 1914.
The track was intended from the outset to transport the minerals. In order to operate the route economically and in the long term, we put emphasis on a good superstructure. So try the slopes was low and to keep the curves far. The route runs from Searles after Trona in a constant gradient.
The passenger was initially that were attached with a flat car on the seats. Later they took advantage of a passenger car steel. For the transportation of pupils from Borosolvay, Burnham and Westend was exploited from 1935 on a benzene railcars of Skagit Steel & Iron Works. The passenger was set in 1937, the school trip in 1941. The railcar was then sold to the California Western Railroad.
For the efficient use of the Trona Railway agreed with the Southern Pacific Railroad in the 1980s that the trains of the SP to Trona went through and in Searles only the staff was changed.
The Trona Railway since its establishment always owned by the mining company operating in Trona which was called from 1926 American Potash & Chemical Corporation and was renamed in 1969 in Kerr -McGee Chemical Corporation. 1990 acquired the North American Chemical Company operating in Trona and the railway company. In 1998 they acquired by IMC Global Corporation. 2004 establishments in Searles Valley and the railway will be spun off into a separate company Searles Valley Minerals Inc., which was acquired by the Indian industrial group Nirma Limited 2007.
At waypoint magnesia -chain from 1924 to 1926 a monorail to the Epsom Salt mines from.
Rolling stock
The Trona Railway had 2006 EMD SW1200, EMD SD40 two -2R, 3 EMD SD40T -2 and four EMD SD40 -2 in use.
During construction, we used two leased from the Southern Pacific steam locomotives of the type 2'C. With the opening of the line you had two newly built by Baldwin 1'D locomotives, which were similar to the Class C -9 of the Southern Pacific. Due to the increased traffic, the Company acquired a used 1937 1'D1' locomotive that was originally procured by the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad.
Diesel locomotives were used from 1949. To this end, the Company acquired two new Baldwin DT -6-6 -20 ( # 50 and 51 ), 1954 was followed by a Baldwin AS -616 (No. 52) of 1960 and 1986 two more cars of this type (No. 53 and 54) followed. Later they took even a GE 80 - ton switcher as.
No. 50 and 51 were sold in 1973, the remaining Baldwin locomotives were replaced in 1992 by six of the acquired Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway EMD SD45 -2.