Eureka Springs & North Arkansas Railway 4/8/2009 Part 1

by Chris Guenzler

I drove down through Eureka Springs, Arkansas to the bottom of town, realizing that the railroad had to be there.

The Eureka Springs & North Arkansas Railway History

The Eureka Springs & North Arkansas Railway was started by the late Robert Dortch, Jr., and his wife Mary Jane in 1981. Robert Dortch, Sr., had built the Scott and Bearskin Lake Railroad as part of the Plantation Agriculture Museum near Scott, Arkansas, in the 1960s. After his death, the family closed the railroad and began moving the equipment to Eureka Springs (Eureka, for locals). Eventually, a 2.5 mile railroad was built, requiring several trestles over Leatherwood Creek. The line features the former Fort Smith Frisco turntable at the south end at Eureka, and a wye at the north end at Junction. The railroad leases the former Missouri & North Arkansas stone depot (built 1913) at Eureka, and added a water tower and a small yard. They also built a commissary adjacent to the old ice house and electric plant building to the south to prepare meals for the luncheon and dinner trains. The railroad was used in the 1982 television mini-series "The Blue and the Gray".

The ES&NA was built on the grade of the original Eureka Springs Railway, last operated by the Arkansas & Ozarks. The Eureka Springs Railway was built from Seligman, Missouri, to Eureka Springs by 1883. Due to the rugged nature of the surrounding Ozark Mountains, getting to Eureka Springs was almost impossible. With the railroad, the town boomed. To get people from the railroad station to the various springs and resorts, Eureka Springs was served by an electric trolley line. The Eureka Springs Electric Light and Street Railway Company was chartered on May 1, 1891. It started as a mule drawn streetcar service, and then electrified about 1898. The streetcar service was abandoned in 1923.

In 1899, the Eureka Springs Railway was reorganized as the St. Louis & North Arkansas Railroad. In 1906, the railroad became the Missouri & North Arkansas Railroad to build further east to Helena, Arkansas. The company was again reorganized in 1922 and it became the Missouri & North Arkansas Railway Company. Following another financial crisis, the company became the Missouri & Arkansas Railway. Following another labor strike and bankruptcy, the railroad closed down and most of it was abandoned. The track between Harrison and Seligman became the Arkansas & Ozarks in 1949 - which closed in 1961.

Passengers board at the depot of the Eureka Springs & North Arkansas Railway, originally built in 1912-13 to replace a wooden depot built in the 1880s. The passenger train uses several former Rock Island P-70 coaches. There have actually been as many as seven of these cars on the property at any one time. Two cars were used for the regular passenger service - maroon 2560 and green 2585. Two more are used for the dinner train, currently numbered 1 and 2. Two more are used as buildings - 2515 is used as a snack bar while 2523 has been used as an office. Another coach, 2593, was also once here.

The train is pulled by an EMD SW1 4742 built in 1942 as Chicago & Eastern Illinois 98. It later went to the Missouri Pacific, and then to Granite Mountain Quarries of Sweet Home, Arkansas, before coming to the ES&NA. Two steam locomotives can be found on site: 226, a 2-8-2 built in 1927 by Baldwin for the Dierks Lumber & Coal Company and an un-numbered German 0-4-0T mounted on a pedestal as advertising.

I was greeted by this scene and knew I was in the correct place, having deliberately arrived early at 12:15 PM, even though my train was not until 2:00 PM Train. I went inside the station, met the ticket agent and picked up my ticket for this afternoon's trip then excused myself to photograph the collection of railroad equipment.

Buescher & Sohn 0-4-0T 35 built by Orenstein & Koppel in 1933. It was later sold to L&M Manufacturing Company in Peru, Indiana and sold to Marco Polo Park in Bunnell, Florida. At some point, it came to Eureka Springs.

Steam-powered tractors next to the station.

This signal display caught my eye.

"The Eurekan" supply car which is an unidentified outside-braced box car.

Track Inspection Car, a converted 1951 Chevrolet wagon, is among the exhibits at the Eureka Springs & North Arkansas Railway.

Chicago and Rock Island Pacific coach built by Standard Steel in 1927 now Eureka Springs & North Arkansas 2.

Chicago and Rock Island Pacific coach built by Standard Steel in 1927 now Eureka Springs & North Arkansas 1.

Missouri and North Arkansas Eureka Springs station built in 1912. The M&NA was reorganized as the Missouri & Arkansas Railway Company in 1935 and in 1949 a portion of the M&A, including the branch into Eureka Springs was acquired by the Arkansas & Ozarks. The A&O was abandoned in 1961 after heavy rains damaged a bridge and several miles of track; but since 1978 the depot has been used by Eureka Springs & North Arkansas tourist railroad.

Eureka Springs & North Arkansas office car 2523 built by Standard Steel as Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific 2523 in 1923.

A steam tractor.

The train for today's trip waits near the station.

Isthmian Canal Commission 2-6-0 203 built by Alco Cooke in 1902. In 1922 it was sold to W.T. Carter & Brother 201 at Camden, Texas. In 1929 it was transfered to the Moscow, Camden & St. Augustine Railroad 201 and later donated to Grigsby Foundation at Malvern, Arkansas. It was then leased to Scott & Bearskin Lake Railway 201 and in 1981 moved to Eureka Springs & North Arkansas 201.

Dierks Lumber & Coal Company 2-8-2 226 built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1926. In 1956 it was moved to Mountain Pine, Arkansas and later donated to the City of Benton, Arkansas. Note it is missing its tender.

Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific commuter coach 2585 built by Standard Steel in 1925, now Eureka Springs & North Arkansas 2585.

Eureka Springs and North Arkansas wood-burning 2-6-0 1, ex. lease to Scott & Bearskin Lake Railway 1, Scott, Arkansas, exx. donation to Grigsby Foundation Malvern, exxx. W.T. Carter & Brother 1 1936 Camden, TX, exxxx. Carter-Kelley Lumber 1 1913, exxxxx. Shreveport, Houston and Gulf 1, nee Lufkin Land & Lumber Company 1, built by Baldwin in 1906.