Very sad news out of Snowflake, AZ today as Catalyst Paper announced the permanent closure of its Snowflake recycle mill and its subsidiary railroad that serves the mill, the Apache Railway Company. The mill will close on Sept 30, 2012, leading to the likely abandonment of this beautiful stretch of railroad that's well-known for stunning high desert vistas, and most notably, its iconic green and white Alco locomotive fleet. Here, in better days, six of these beasts have a unit coal train firmly in hand as they run the last mile or so to the mill just outside of Snowflake.