HLCX 3841 is the last unit of a light engine move southward to Pine Bluff on February 15, 2014. The train is just about to cross the Arkansas River on the Baring Cross Bridge. The Arkansas state capitol is seen in the background. JAMES R. DOUGHTY PHOTO
EXPLORING LITTLE ROCK
BY JAMES R. DOUGHTY AND STEVE JESSUP PHOTOS AS NOTED
of a parallel narrow gauge line under the Texas & St. Louis from Texarkana to Birds Point, Mo. It was completed in 1883, but the railroad went into receiv- ership the following year. The St. Louis, Arkansas, & Texas Railway was birthed shortly thereafter under president Sam- uel Fordyce, and to compete effectively with the SLIM&S, the line was convert- ed to standard gauge in 1886. Fordyce had a plan to operate in unison with Gould’s railroad. Gould eventually took control of this line as well. In 1891, the road was reorganized as the St. Louis Southwestern (“Cotton Belt”), and Jay’s second son, Edwin Gould, succeeded Fordyce as the road’s president. Although both of Gould’s lines pros- pered around the turn of the century, the
interests of the MoPac and the Cotton Belt would weather rocky times through the 20th century. The Cotton Belt lived on as a subsidiary of Southern Pacific, and MoPac blossomed following its reor- ganization of 1956. MoPac’s success from that point until
its merger with Union Pacific is credit- ed to William G. Marbury, chairman, and Downing B. Jenks, who became the road’s president in 1961. Marbury, an attorney in St. Louis and chairman of the Mississippi River Fuel Corpo- ration (MoPac’s parent company), had the financial resources and expertise to improve the infrastructure. Jenks, who had a long railroad career by then and was coming off a stint as president of the Rock Island, took control of operations
and made monumental improvements in train handling, supervision, and car management. His ability to guide a large railroad with insight on the industry’s future earned him significant recogni- tion in the ranks of railway executives. In the years following the 1982 merger
with Union Pacific, the look of Arkansas Class I railroading would change forev- er. No longer would MP “Jenks Blue” locomotives be seen criss-crossing the state. Instead, UP Armour Yellow would sweep through the rolling hills and flat- lands like a tsunami. Fourteen years later UP would swallow up competitor Southern Pacific, creating a second- ary Chicago-Gulf Coast main for North America’s largest railway. But with the SP-UP merger came trackage rights
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