| Eureka Springs and North Arkansas Railway | |
| Coordinates: | 36.4136°N -93.7339°W |
| Originalopen: | 1882 |
| Owned: | Eureka Springs and North Arkansas Railway Company |
| Stations: | 1 |
| Length: | 2.5miles |
| Com-Years: | 1899 |
| Com-Years1: | 1906 |
| Com-Years2: | 1913 |
| Com-Events2: | Current depot built. |
| Com-Years3: | 1922 |
| Com-Years4: | 1935 |
| Com-Years9: | 1949 |
| Closed: | 1961 |
| Years: | 1978 |
| Events: | Preservation begins. |
| Years1: | 1982 |
| Events1: | Filming of The Blue and the Gray. |
| Years12: | 2007 |
| Events12: | Demolition of engine shed. |
| Headquarters: | Eureka Springs |
| Website: | http://www.esnarailway.com/ |
The Eureka Springs & North Arkansas Railway is a for-profit passenger tourist railway established by the late Robert Dortch, Jr. and his wife Mary Jane in 1981 in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. The railway offers one-hour excursion tours, a catered luncheon train and a catered dinner train - each lasting a little more than one hour, from April through October.[1] It operates along of restored track right-of-way formerly belonging to the defunct Arkansas & Ozarks Railway Co - the last incarnation of the North Arkansas Line.[2] [3]
The original railway chartered at the site in 1882 was the Eureka Springs Railway, extending from Seligman, Missouri, to Eureka Springs. In 1899, it became the St. Louis & North Arkansas Railroad Co.; in 1906, the Missouri & North Arkansas Railroad Co.; in 1922, the Missouri & North Arkansas Railway Co.; in 1935, the Missouri & Arkansas Railway Co.; in 1949, the Arkansas & Ozarks - which closed in 1961. In 2011, the ES&NA became the road name attached to this trackage for the longest period of time in its existence. At the height of the North Arkansas Line's career, it extended from Joplin, Missouri to Helena, Arkansas.
Robert Dortch, Jr. had established the Scott and Bearskin Lake Railroad as part of the Plantation Agriculture Museum near Scott, Arkansas, in the 1960s and after his death in 1978, his son closed it and began moving steam locomotives, rolling stock and trackage to the Victorian tourist destination Eureka Springs.[4] [5] He and his wife, Mary Jane, and sons David, John, and Robert set about restoring the historic stone depot, and re-building several trestles over Leatherwood Creek on the pike. A steel water tank was added, as well as a few outbuildings and a commissary adjacent to the old ice house/electric plant building to prepare meals for the luncheon and dinner trains. A 20-hp turntable from the Frisco railroad was installed near the original location of one used by the North Arkansas Line;[6] a wye at "Junction, Arkansas" enables the turning of a locomotive at the far end of the route.
Former:
Current:
Six arch-roofed former Rock Island P-70 passenger coaches are used on-site. They are long and weigh, originally designed to seat 100 people.[14] Two are static displays (a light-gray one - No. 2515 - used as a snack bar; a Tuscan red one -No. 2523 - used as an office). Two Kelly-green coaches - No.1, The Eurekan; and No. 2 - are dining cars. Two are excursion coaches; one maroon - No. 2560 - and the other Kelly-green - No. 2585 (formerly cream with dark red trim). Another 80 ft Tuscan red clerestory-roofed combine is used for storage.
Three cabooses, one wooden, are displayed. There are two tank cars, a pair of flat cars, a coal hopper, a cage car suitable for transporting and displaying circus or zoo animals, and five box cars - one of which is used as a commissary car on the luncheon/dinner trains.
There are at least three motorized yellow speeder maintenance cars (one still functional) on-site, as well as a 1951 Chevrolet track inspector's car.
The working yard - with many switches, lights, outbuildings, a functional electric-powered 75feet turntable and water tower - is punctuated with dozens of static displays: two steam-powered tractors, early gas-powered tractors, compressors, pumps, wheelsets, and assorted railroad paraphernalia - a two-man handcar, "tricycle"-type one-man handcar, bells, signals, and luggage carts. An engine house was planned and never built; a shed built to shelter the restoration of Engine No. 226 was dismantled in 2007.
The owners have long had hopes to extend the line east to the old Missouri & North Arkansas tunnel and/or west to Beaver, Arkansas through the Narrows, a gap in the rocky ridge short of the old railroad river bridge there.
Built in 1913, the depot is a repository for dozens of railroadiana items, including props which helped disguise the two Moguls as 1860s 4-4-0 American engines for the filming of scenes from the 1982 television mini-series The Blue and the Gray.