Arkansas & Ozarks Railroad - 1954 - Ozarka Spring Water Company, Eureka Springs, AR

Thanks for all the great photos.

 

Ozarktraveler

I have traced the M&NA/M&A route from Neosho, MP 19.70, to near Wayne, MP 51.8, many times, but I have always lost track of where the right of way (ROW) is as it approaches the A&M.

There are still a few rails in Neosho, some in pavement, one next to a convenience store parking lot.

Edit 3/9/2024: Added station mile post (MP) numbers.

Information from Missouri & Arkansas Railway Company, Time Table No. 7, Sunday, February 25, 1945. Time Table from The North Arkansas Line, by James R. Fair, Jr.
MKD

 

Scott,

It is cool that you have already found so much.

I will have to look for the rails in the convenience store parking lot. I think I know which store you mean.

It sounds like you have found most of the ROW. If I am not mistaken, Farm Road 1057 uses the former M&A ROW as it leaves Wayne headed North Northwest. Google Earth helps trace it.

A little further on, you can see clues from the tree line as the ROW peels off to the west from Farm Rd 1057 as the ROW heads for the former M&A overpass of Hwy 76, west of Exeter.

I used to love that dip, bridge and curve combo, though not the safest highway design.

LOL, maybe this will flush out more pictures. I love all the pictures coming out of the woodwork these days.

Many I have never seen, some I have only seen in black and white. Never dreamed they were available in color.

Thanks for sharing.

 

The convenience store is on the Southeast side of Neosho, built on the ROW which crossed Highway 86 at an angle.

There is a rail section still embedded in the ground just off the road, by the convenience store parking lot.

You can tell that a cutting torch was used when the Wayne - Neosho track was pulled up sometime in 1949.

Across the the road, the ROW is very apparent since it is graveled and used as a long driveway.

There are also other M&A rails from several tracks that crossed the same road on which the KCS office is located, south of where the M&A joined the KCS.

 

Someone mentioned a book on the O&A Railroad.

Is there such an animal?

I would like to learn more about the railroad but have come up empty-handed using the internet.

Any help is appreciated.

James Taylor
email at jltrains@cox.net

 

James Fair makes extensive use of a monograph, The Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad Strike by Orville Thrasher Gooden.

Published in 1926 as part of the Columbia Studies in Social Science #275, it was later reprinted in 1968 by AMS Press, New York, NY 10003.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number, 68-57567.

It is an excellent work. It provides much of the history of the road prior to the strike, and it provides a detailed account of the events of the Great Strike.

The strike saw many depredations against the railroad, and a lynching of one of the strikers.

Several years ago, I managed to find a copy on Amazon.

 

I just now reread my question regarding the A&O Railroad. Not the O&A!

Thanks to all for not bashing me, at least not on this site, for the silly typographic error. A clear case of not paying attention!

To frisco 4301, my friend over in the UK went crazy over your photographs!

He is busy planning a shelf layout based on Beaver simply because of your photographs!

Many thanks for posting them from both of us.

James

 

Mike,

I am looking for information regarding the history of the section of line between Omaha and Yellville.

Below is a photograph of my son on the trestle across Barren Branch about 2 miles southeast of Omaha.

It sits in the middle of a 400 acre farm my grandparents bought or inherited in about 1910 and on which my father was born and raised.

I have some other photographs of the trestle if you are interested.

*edit* Sorry, the trestle is on the Missouri and Northern Arkansas.

As you can see, my knowledge in this area is very limited.

Gary

 

Back in the Fifties, when my family was stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia.

My folks would take me to Birmingham, AL and put me on No 106 to Springfield, MO where an uncle would pick me up and take me down to Granby where I would play "Tom Sawyer" for the summer. One of my uncles in Granby was a heavy equipment operator and he had worked on the M&NA off and on in the Thirties and Forties.

One of the grand times we had was going out and walking the ROW in a variety of places. The whistle stop shed at Monark Springs was still there at the time. The joke in the area was that it was the "May Never Arrive."

The monument in the cemetery in Neosho is interesting for its coverage of the motorcar wreck at Tipton Ford. Every once in a while the Neosho paper will run a feature on it.

When we returned from being stationed in Europe in 1953, Dad took a color slide of a gorgeous fall foliage tree where the M&NA crossed the highway leaving Neosho. The crossbuck was still standing at the time.

As I am entering retirement, I am finally able to begin my model railroad that I have been planning for the past forty years. Obviously, it is my beloved FRISCO!

Keep up all the good work on Frisco and the May Never Arrive.

Jim Dykes

 

Jesse "Jess" Moody, one of the last employees of the M&NA and A&O passed away on September 13, 2008.

http://www.harrisondailytimes.com/articles/2008/09/15/obituaries/doc48ce8bb6722c1553843785.txt

 

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned this yet, but you can actually stay at the Beavertown Inn, which was the old general store mentioned in a previous post.

http://www.beavertowninn.com/

If you look at the pictures in the photograph section, you can spot the original depot which was moved behind the store years ago.

Also, click on the Rogue's Manor Castle link and look at the photographs and one shows the remnants of the old trestle that crossed into Beaver through the narrows.

You can also walk down the roadbed about a quarter of a mile to the west of Poker Bluff which is described in Fair's book.

Also, you can ride the line on the Eureka Springs & North Arkansas Railroad from Eureka Springs to the junction and back.

http://www.esnarailway.com/

Bob Hoover
FriscoFriend

 

Yes, and when you get to the end of that roadbed trail to the west, you are at the remaining trestle supports where A&O engine No. 900 took a dip in Butler Creek.

A Frisco tie-in, a Frisco wreck train was used to help with the recovery, powered by A&O engine 800.


Craig

 

For A&O fans, the web site is back up.

http://www.northarkansasline.org

 

I cannot thank the original poster enough for sharing these wonderful pictures with us. It is so appreciated.

As for it being a bit off topic: In reality, the original Eureka Springs Railway was so closely tied with the Frisco including Frisco investment dollars, that for all practical purposes it actually was an extension of the Frisco.

The May Never Arrive holds a very special place in my historical rail interests. I think it has to do with stumbling upon Dr. James Fair's book back in the mid-1970s. Such a colorful history, interesting motive power, as well as challenging topography.

Using Microsoft's Train Simulator, I recreated a portion of the M&NA from Seligman to Freeman, but admittedly, did use a bit of "modelers license" in regards to adding some industry and "things to do" for the customers. I modeled it as the under-construction St. Louis and North Arkansas circa 1903.

A very good 3D steam modeler by the name of Jon Davis followed up this route with a very detailed and accurate North Arkansas roster appropriate for 1903-1904. So it is possible to operate on a reasonably accurate V-scale version of the St. Louis and North Arkansas, including its roster, circa 1903!

For what it is worth, I intended to take a copy of my earlier StLNA route work, and extend the line on to Harrison. In the process, I was going to undo the modeler's license areas and replicate the prototype. I have unearthed complete track charts for the North Arkansas. As well, I was going to relocate certain portions of mainline to more accurately follow the new data I found after building the original StLNA route.

Alas though, once I began, reality set in. I was going to put forth a ton of work on a line that had little to do. After all, replicating the prototype means your V-scale route inherits the same issues its prototype faced, be it steep grades, slow speed curves, or in the case of the North Arkansas, not enough business to justify its existence.

Just like a model railroad, a V-scale route needs sufficiently varied and interesting "reason for being" to retain longer term interest once completed.

Well all for now.

Andre Ming

 

WOW - WOW - & WOW

Coming from Southwestern Arkansas, growing up with the Reader Railroad running past my house, this is one of the best threads on the forum.

My thanks to all who have contributed.

Sherrel Weems

 

I found this Steroscopic view on Ebay some time ago.

The shot is of "The Narrows" at Beaver, Arkansas with what I believe to be Eureka Springs locomotive No. 1 based on the roof line contour about to stop to pick up some folks on the platform.

Though undated, I would guess this to be summer either 1883 or 1884. Clearly the blast work is very recent and no foliage has re-grown form the construction work that finished in February, 1883.

Note the two handcars on the south side of the track. This is the only shot I have ever seen showing the stairs leading up to the north side of the bluff top. The back of the card reads "Calohan Bros. Stereoscopic Views Eureka Springs, Ark.

Jeff Cooney
Lindsay, TX

 

Thanks so much for the great pictures.

I walked a lot of the right a way 2 months ago from Eureka Springs to the Junction to the west end of the tunnel.

If anyone has a chance to take a hike on on the old railroad right a way, it is worth it.

Thanks,

Keven