I will be spending a week in the Fort Smith Arkansas area. What major train lines serve that location and what AAR channels are used by them? I have all 99 channels in both of my scanners and just need to know which to activate/deactivate.
Thanks in advance
Bob in Minnesota
Union Pacific has a mainline running east-west across the river in Van Buren. This was a Missouri Pacific line and should have about 16 trains per day.
Fort Smith is the south end of the regional Arkansas and Missouri.They use a former St.Louis-San Francisco line.
www.arkansasmissouri-rr.com
Fort Smith Railroad is a shortline using an old Missouri Pacific line since 1991
www.pioneer-railcorp.com
KCS enters on a branchline and has their mainline 20 miles west in Oklahoma
Thanks for the info. Looks like we will be trying to make at least one of those trips listed on the links while we are there.
Bob in Minnesota
The Arkansas & Missouri would definitely be worth a visit. They are, or were, all-Alco. If you get over toward Little Rock, the Little Rock & Western runs southwest of town to serve a paper mill on part of the Rock Island’s Choctaw Route. Haven’t been in the area since 1989, but at that time the rails for the Choctaw Route were still in place at least as far west as the Arkansas-Oklahoma border. It ran south of Fort Smith.
If the family will be along and likes spending time outdoors, both the Ouachita (WASH-i-taw) and Ozark-St. Francis National Forests are nearby (the Arkansas & Missouri runs through or very near the O-SF).
Might add this to your Ft. Smith trip info@fstm.org [Ft. Smith Trolley Museum] They have a Frisco steam loco,some small internal combustion locos,cabeese,and a operating birney car.
Back from the week in Fort Smith. Very little activity on the scanner (160.470). A few trains a day. We took an excursion from Fort Smith north to Winslow, AR. Crossed 3 trestles that were over 100 feet high. Just north of the 3rd one, the Alco pulling our two vintage passenger coaches ground to a halt. The young conductor in our car informed us that the engine would no longer pull us up the grade to Winslow. We sat on the track for about an hour. The engine was running long hood forward. IT was decided that we could go backwards with the engine pushing the cars. Crew member stood in the vestibule with his hand held communicating with the engine. At Chester Ar, we stopped and off loaded an senior group to their waiting bus. A mechanic also met us there and apparently fixed the problem. The engine was uncoupled and moved around to the south end of the passengers cars via a siding. Hooked up and we headed back south to Fort Smith. Beverages and snacks were distributed gratis after this little problem.
We also rode the 1926 trolley car around a 1/4 mile loop in Fort Smith. We had a vintage conductor on that ride that was a wealth of information.