Recent Digital Photos
by Mike Condren

50 Years of Railroad Photography
1960-2010

Ride on A&M excursion to Ft. Smith on 9/11/10

Here we see some views inside our coach as we are leaving Springdale, AR on our excursion to Ft. Smith, AR. The last image shows trip organizer Bart Jennings making some announcements.

The first photo stop was at the south entrance to the Winslow Tunnel. I did not feel comfortable in the rough terrain, so I stayed on and explored the train, walking to the rear of the caboose for the image of the tunnel portal.
This view shows the interior of the caboose.
This is a view of the interior of the parlor car.

Here we see the "photo lines" for the photo stop.

From Schaberg, AR to Mountainburg, AR, there was strong evidence of flooding from the rains earlier in the week, There were two washouts of the A&M track, one north and one south of Chester. Here we see the creek which forms from the spillway of Lake Ft. Smith. Someone has obviously built a rock dam across the creek to creat a pool of water for swimming.

I also skipped the second photo stop at trestle #1 because of the limited footing and my limited skill in balancing with 2 artifical knees. I walked to the rear of the caboose at the third photo stop, our only runby of the day. During that walk I discovered that they were getting off on a paved road and walking down a paved road for the photo line so I got off for the shots on the bridge at what they called Lancaster but really was at the entrance to the Steward Cemetery at the north end of Steward (correct spelling, Bart's document misspelled it). The community of Lancaster was around the curve ahead of this first shot.

I shot this through the coach window as we passed through my hometown and passed the station that I climbed the steps on the right, walked past on the platform, and down the right-of-way on my way to junior high school for two years.

We got stopped at the UP, former MP, crossing where I got this shot of a UP DPU sitting at the spot where they are refueled at the Main Street end of the passing track. In the distance is visible the old highway overpass which led to the former Ft. Smith-Van Buren Free Bridge which once carried highway and streetcar traffic across the Arkansas River. Short of the viaduct is a chicken processing plant in a building which once housed the ice house used to ice cars of produce for shipping. In the distance is the Arkola Sand & Gravel sand plant which processes river sand and is a major A&M shipper.

On our southbound trip into Ft. Smith I shot this view of the former Frisco North Yard in Ft. Smith. The brick roundhouse once stood just short of the new warehouse seen in the center of this view.

This view of our excursion train was taken at our stop at the Ft. Smith Trolley Museum. During our stop most of the passengers got to collect additional mileage on former Frisco industrial trackage while riding one of the original Ft. Smith Birney Safety Cars, #224. I visited with Ft. Smith friends in the comfort of the new meeting room and got a tour of their new library. The doors to the car barn are from the Frisco roundhouse. The museum is mainly located on the former Midland Valley terminal in Ft. Smith, with the entrance to the car barn passing over the former location of the Midland Valley turntable.
The A&M locomotive sits on former Frisco track while to the left we see cars sitting in the Ft. Smith Railroad, former Missouri Pacific's Ft. Smith Suburban Railroad yard.

Here we see A&M C420s #58 & 56 sitting in the engine terminal area once used by the Frisco in their North Yard. The roundhouse once sat to the left area of the image.

As usual on our return trip north we got stopped again by the lift span of the Arkansas River bridge which is normally in the up position. On an earlier excursion, my daughter Virginia at an age of 7 became frightened while sitting on this bridge. The daughter of friend J.P. Bell was also riding and told my daughter that "many trains had passed over this bridge before and many would pass over it in the future" calming Virginia.

We then got stopped once again by the UP at their crossing. Once while riding in the cab of the Frisco passenger train, we were delayed 17 minutes at this crossing yet we made Fayetteville on time. Schedules were padded even then.

One station not in Bart's documentation was Grotto, a stop to service the lodge of the Amrito Grotto Masonic organization which once stood on the hill. As a kid I waded and swam in this area of Frog Bayou.

This bridge was once painted silver and was known as Silver Bridge and once was a favorite swimming hole with a bathhouse up on the left shore. As a kid I swam here many a time. It is just south of Mountainburg, AR.

On Thursday night before our trip, the area around Chester, AR, a few miles north of Mountainburg, was reported as receiving 10" of rain. A bridge north of Chester and this set of metal culverts south of the town suffered from washouts. The rails remained but the fill around the culverts and the ballast were washed into the creek. The pasture land in the valley was flooded as evidenced by the vegetation laying flat all through the valley. The maintenance crews of the A&M spent all day on Friday repairing the damage, making it possible for the excursion to happen on Saturday.

This is the bridge which was washed out north of Chester.

This former rock school house of WPA construction has been converted into a very nice home in Schaberg, AR.

These cars have been sitting for several years on a siding at Fayette Jct. just south of Fayetteville where the branch line to St. Paul, AR once left the mainline.

The station area in Fayetteville is now home to a branch of the Bank of Fayetteville in a former New York Central passenger car and a caboose. The station itself has been turned into a food court area.

Back in Springdale, the original two A&M C420s #54 & 52 were sitting in front of the yard office.

The power for the excursion is seen cutting off the train and heading to couple onto the other two C420s in front of the yard office.

This page was designed and is maintained by Mike Condren. If you have materials
that you would like to contribute, contact me at mcondren@cbu.edu