New East Tintic Railway

This page was last updated on December 30, 2009.

Additional Sources:

Newspaper research — Information from newspapers about the New East Tintic Railway, including research by George Pitchard.
Corporate information — Basic corporate history of New East Tintic Railway.
UP's Tintic Subdivision — Information about the railroads that served the Tintic Mining District, including the New East Tintic Railway.
UP's Shays — Additional information about Union Pacific's Shay locomotives

Chronology History

May 20, 1896:
The New East Tintic Railway was organized by James Cunningham and his associates to build a rail line from Mammoth Station, on the OSL&UN, east up Mammoth Hollow, past the Mammoth Mill, the Sioux Mill, the Ajax Mine, and the Mammoth Mine to the Sioux Mine at the east end of the Hollow. The corporation was filed on the May 22nd. (Utah corporation number 1439 and 4368)

(SP,LA&SL corporate history says that the company was incorporated on May 23, 1896.)

June 1896:
The company's Shay locomotive (construction number 511, built in June 1895) "will be delivered next week". (Salt Lake Daily Tribune, May 24, 1896)

During 1896 and 1897 the New East Tintic Railway completed their 1.99-mile line from the Mammoth station, near the Mammoth Mill, to the Mammoth Mine, by using a switchback, 6 percent grades, and curves as sharp as 30 and 31 degrees.

James Cunningham had earlier been involved in the East Tintic Railway of January 1894, which was an earlier attempt at organizing, together with Samuel and William McIntyre, a company to build a rail line along the same route. (Utah corporation number 1408) Cunningham and the McIntyre brothers were also involved in the Tintic Railway of January 1891 that was projected to build from Provo to the Tintic mining district. (Utah corporation number 820 and 4356) The plans for the Tintic Railway were abandoned because in May 1891 the Rio Grande Western organized its Tintic Range Railway and completed the line between Springville and Silver City in early 1892.

Samuel McIntyre offered to buy J. A. Cunningham's interest in the Mammoth Mine and the New East Tintic Railway. The offer was refused and the Mammoth mine commenced to survey and build a tramway to replace the New East Tintic Railway from the Mammoth Mine to the Mammoth Mill. (Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 2, number 7, July 15, 1900, p.7)

28 November 1900
"Short Line Gets It." "New East Tintic Line Bought and Will be Extended." "J. H. Young, Division Superintendent of the Oregon Short Line, was down today to Robinson and he closed up the deal to buy the New East Tintic Railway from McIntyre." "The price was $30,000, payable in securities of the company." (Pitchard, Salt Lake Daily Tribune, 28 November 1900)

1 December 1900
The New East Tintic road is now being operated by the Oregon Short Line. (Pitchard, Salt Lake Daily Tribune, 1 December 1900)

December 1900:
New East Tintic Railway had finished surveying spurs to serve the Lower Mammoth, Grand Central, and Star Consolidated mines. (Salt Lake Tribune, December 22, 1900)

News item, from the Tintic Miner newspaper, about the sale of the New East Tintic Railway. The New East Tintic Railway was sold to the Oregon Short Line Railroad for $30,000.00 on "Tuesday" (December 11, 1900). RGW held an option under the names of A. E. Hyde and Jesse Fox. The option expired and OSL "snapped it up". J. H. Young, superintendent of the OSL, along with master mechanic Tollerton and roadmaster Dwier went to Robinson on Tuesday to examine the property and close the deal. (Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 2, number 17, December 15, 1900, p.13)

August 1901:
OSL ordered a 65 ton Shay for the New East Tintic Railway. (Salt Lake Daily Tribune, August 2, 1901) (New East Tintic 11 was built in January 1902.)

January 30, 1902:
OSL received its new Shay locomotive. An item in the Deseret News revealed that "The Oregon Short Line has received the largest Shay locomotive ever built. It is now being coupled up at the shops and will be used on the Tintic branch in handling the ore shipments of the Star Consolidated." (Deseret News, January 30, 1902)

January 1918:
Mammoth Mining Company was complaining of the high rates that LA&SL was charging to ship the ore from the Mammoth Mine down to Mammoth, via the former New East Tintic Railway. In 1917 LA&SL had charged $7,500 to move 40,000 tons of ore in 840 cars over the two-mile line. The mining company threatened to build an aerial tramway from their mine down to the D&RG at Mammoth. (Salt Lake Mining Review, January 30, 1918, p. 40)

Biographical note about James A. Cunningham (of New East Tintic Railway). He was born in 1842 in Quincy, Illinois and came to Utah in an ox-cart party in 1848. He had five children, of which James, Jr. was the oldest. Cunningham died in late March 1918 at age 76. (Salt Lake Mining Review, Volume 20, number 1, April 15, 1918, p.33)

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