Grand Canyon Railway

For thousands of years, the Grand Canyon has always been an important landmark to people. Originally as the homes and religious sites for Native American tribes, and currently one of the most popular tourist attractions in the United States. Ever since it was officially made a National Park in 1919, the Grand Canyon has attracted millions yearly ever since. There have been many ways to get to the canyon, horseback, walking, and more recently, by road. However, there has been one mode of transportation that has been celebrated for over 120 years now, the railroad. When the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe completed a branch line from Williams, AZ to the South Rim of the Canyon in 1901, it was almost exclusively for passenger service for tourists wishing to see the canyon. Nowadays, since 1989, the Grand Canyon Railway has been hauling passengers to and from the canyon year-round, mostly with MLW FPA4s or EMD F40PHs being used as motive power. However, the railroad also operates their steam locomotive on select Saturdays during the peak season. Primarily using former Chicago Burlington & Quincy O1a 2-8-2 Mikado #4960 as motive power for their steam excursions. We visited the railroad in early March of 2024 to document the first run of steam in the 2024 season. It was cold and windy most of the time but nevertheless, we had a fantastic time with our friends and with #4960 putting on a spectacular show of power and steam. We hope you enjoy our coverage of Grand Canyon Railway #4960 working hard in the Arizona desert!
Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:18 - Williams Preparations
2:09 - Williams Depot
3:05 - Departing Williams
4:15 - Red Lake
4:55 - Quivero
5:41 - Coconino Canyon
6:26 - Grand Canyon South Rim
10:36 - Departing South Rim
11:57 - Quivero
13:21 - Red Lake
14:16 - Williams
16:04 - Williams Wye
19:07 - Credits
Check out my friends who joined me on this fantastic journey!
‪@RailFoxMedia‬
‪@YardLimit‬
Copyright 2024, Jack Fellure.
Any sort of reproduction or reuse of this footage without permission will have consequences for those who decide to not abide by this request. I take a lot of time money, and effort into these, and I would appreciate it if you respect what I request.

[@blackterminal]

Thank you.

[@RailFoxMedia]

As always a fantastic job! Appreciate you for coming along once again. That wind was brutal as hell but we got it done lol! Hope to see you again soon…

[@chendersonrailproductions704]

Fantastic video! I gotta get back out there one of these days.

[@lashendawest7509]

Great catches awesome chase and nice video

[@magicworldbyjorg]

[@Nkp757railfan]

Nice video!

[@JosephMusgrove]

Great channel. Just subscribed!

[@ArkansasLocomotiveWorks]

Glad you enjoyed

[@TrainChamber]

Well done sir! Im jealous tbh

[@ArkansasLocomotiveWorks]

Come by sometime 🧐

[@JohnM-zg2hq]

Very good video just a reminder may 4th she will be wearing the SP982 desert 5 chime whistle

[@CommanderCalico]

Ill miss her SP 6 chime though.

[@JohnM-zg2hq]

@@CommanderCalico 4960 has a Santa Fe 6 chime whistle and just for the one time in may she will wear the SP 982 desert 5 chime to help promote the SP 982

[@CommanderCalico]

@@JohnM-zg2hq Oh ok thanks for the correction.

[@ArkansasLocomotiveWorks]

@@JohnM-zg2hqNah Calico is right, it's an SP 6

[@zacharycalgher3978]

Grand Canyon Railway is rebuilding former Amtrak F40PHs 401 and 407 back to operation and repainting them in GCR colors.

[@piyasutra]

5:50 Looks Like Its From A Movie In The 1990s

[@TexasRailfan21-RailfanRyan]

Great video I can’t help but notice that the current bell that is on 4960 it sounded like they swapped bells with engine number 29. Hopefully number 29 will return to Steam in the future

[@jimmyhook4852]

Don't forget: 4960 will be also sporting 982's whistle at some point this year.

[@TexasRailfan21-RailfanRyan]

@@jimmyhook4852 I know I am very excited and I am definitely looking forward to hearing that. It sounded great on Texas state railroad number 30 I’m looking forward to hearing the voice of 982 be blown once again

[@JohnM-zg2hq]

@@jimmyhook4852 may 4th and this will be the last whistle tour until 982 is up and running

[@jimmyhook4852]

@@TexasRailfan21-RailfanRyan Heh. :) I tell ya... no matter what whistle is on 4960, my heart will always belong to the whistle I know the O1-A best: Her 1996 to 1998 whistle. :)

[@jimmyhook4852]

@@JohnM-zg2hq Alrighty

[@rileysanesh5203]

How’s 29 so far

[@mumumaaaah]

Arkansas locomotive works do you love 4960 in its Grand Canyon look or it’s CB&Q look?

[@ishirotanaka]

In my honest opinion as cool as 4960 looks now, I don’t really like how they replaced her original BL type feedwater heater with an SA type. I mean none of her sisters had them, if they wanted to be more historically accurate, they could have at least installed an Elesco bundle type on top of the smokebox forward of the smoke stack. Plus i know her current tender allows for 18,000 gallons of water and is more reminiscent to the Santa fe type tenders and of course her original tender was too old and rusty for use and has likely since been scrapped; but they should really consider building a replica of her original tender so she’ll look a little more historically accurate in appearance.

[@ArkansasLocomotiveWorks]

I mean yeah it's nice to be "accurate" but GCRY figured out their own formula on how their steam engines want to look

[@ThatUtahRailfan]

since when did the gcry repaint 4960's smokebox?

[@kelleec6319]

hey what type of ho scale 4449 you used for the cajon pass race

[@ArkansasLocomotiveWorks]

It's not mine but it's MTH. Good luck finding one, and for a good price.

[@kelleec6319]

so the mth 4449 is'nt yours and the athearn 8444

[@jcs_trains]

at 7:45, what is that device called / what is it doing?

[@ArkansasLocomotiveWorks]

That is the air-pump device. It uses steam pressure to build up air pressure primarily used for the train breaks and individual locomotive breaks. It's also used for other things like the bell.