This encounter with the Pocahontas Branch was unexpected, I had been chasing #22, the BN's piggyback hotshot since it left Thayer. I managed to keep up with it until Black Rock while it was still up in the hills but once it crossed the Black River it took off like a rocket on the flat lands & keeping up was difficult. Remember this was back when the speed limit was 55MPH, HWY 63 was little more than 2-lane turkey trail & every poo-dunk town had a speed restriction in it, back then Arkansas had the distinction of having the nation's worst roads. I was trying to get ahead of it for one more shot before it hit Jonesboro because once #22 cleared the MOP xing at Nettleton it was long gone. At Hoxie #22 slowed down enough while crossing the MOP that I managed to gain on it a bit, passing thru Sedgwick I noticed the northbound Local was in the siding with a boxcar behind the caboose, humm strange. Finally north of Bono at a place called Paul's, AR. I managed to get far enough ahead of him to get a shot, once he passed I turned around to head back to Thayer. At Hoxie I was going to get gas so when I crossed the Frisco main I noticed the Local was in the siding, the engine had already run around it's train so I thought it was going to do some switching in Hoxie. So I pulled off the road to see what it was going to do when I noticed it was starting up the north leg of the wye, I was finally going to see a train on the Pocahontas Branch. It was getting late and the sky was gray but here was a once in a lifetime chance, forget the gas, dinner was going to have to wait. The 1st shot I got was after it had passed Edgar St. in Hoxie...
At Midway Rd Xing in Hoxie, this is the north end of Hoxie pass. I have no idea what he did with the rest of his train...
At Walnut Ridge the crew took a break at a nearby convenience store leaving the train south of the HWY 412 xing...
While the crew was taking a break I went to get gas, by the time I returned they were gone. I caught up with them at the Lawrence County Rd 438 xing north of Walnut Ridge...
I kinda had a feeling they were going to College City so I parked next to the HWY 67 xing & waited. After a few minutes I was right, I could see them coming around the curve. They did a semi-stop & protect xing (slowed to crawl, blew the whistle & took off) and headed east. Unfortunately that was all the time I could spend chasing the local, maybe if they hadn't stopped at Walnut Ridge I would have got pictures of them in College City but it was getting too dark & too late. This was the only train I ever saw on the branch. Roger
