Gotta Catch That Train

KUAR | By J. Bradley Minnick

Published March 21, 2018 at 5:16 PM CDT

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Employees crowd onto a Rock Island locomotive in North Little Rock in 1904, shortly after the takeover of the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf was completed.

North Little Rock History Commission

The inbound and outbound train crews pose for a photograph as the Rock Island's last westbound passenger train stops at the Little Rock station.

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The inbound and outbound train crews pose for a photograph just after midnight on November 10, 1967 as the Rock Island's last westbound passenger train stops at the Little Rock station.

Bill Pollard

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The Rock Island's last westbound passenger train at the Little Rock station.

Bill Pollard

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An eastbound Rock Island freight train is seen passing the boarded up Little Rock passenger station in 1976.

Bill Pollard

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The caption for this photograph that ran in the Arkansas Gazette called this "a final switch." Here a switchman at Biddle Yard lines up the track for a train on that final day, March 23, 1980.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette file photo

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In March 1986 track that had been part of the mainline through western Arkansas had been taken apart near Waveland as the rails were about to be sold for scrap.

Bill Pollard

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The Rock Island's streamlined Choctaw Rocket is eastbound in 1949, passing under the Third Street overpass in Little Rock.

Photograph by John Mills (courtesy of Bill Pollard)

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The abandoned Rock Island bridge over the Arkansas River at Little Rock in 1994. Today this has been renovated into the pedestrian-cycling Clinton Presidential Park Bridge.

Michael Hibblen

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Cover of Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas

Arcadia Publishing

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An advertisement for the railroad showing communities served by the Rock Island

Gotta Catch That Train: The History of The Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas

gotta_catch_that_train_part_2.mp3

Listen to Part Two

On this episode of Arts & Letters, we talk with reporter, KUAR news director, photographer, and writer Michael Hibblen about his independent project of chronicling the Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas. We also hear from former Rock Island employees, Joe Rook, L.T. Walker, and Guy Winters, he has interviewed over the years and railroad historian, Bill Pollard.

Hibblen's book Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas, published by Arcadia Publishing, recounts, through photographs and prose, the history of the Rock Island Railroad from its hostile takeover of the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad in 1902 to its last ragged trains in 1980.

“When the Rock Island was shut down in 1980, it was an incredible blow for Arkansas. The railroad had a huge footprint in the state and was an institution in the communities it served.” -- Hibblen

Hibblen has worked in broadcasting and news in Arkansas, Washington DC, Richmond, Virginia, and Miami, Florida. He is currently the news director of NPR member station KUAR in Little Rock. A native Arkansan, Hibblen is a regular panelist for AETN's Arkansas Week. This is his first book.

Thank you to musicians The Damsels In Distress, Jim Mize, The Crumbs, The Mallett Brothers, David Ramirez, Fret and Worry, Willi Carlisle, Guitar Dave Fredieu, Detroit Johnny, Bonnie Montgomery and Amyjo Savannah,

Thank you also to Stickyz Rock & Roll Chicken Shack for keeping music alive and well in Arkansas.

Generous funding for this episode was provided by the Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Listen to the song "The Rock Island Line" by Jim Mize

rock_island_line_jim_mize.mp3

Recorded in KUAR Studios

Listen to the song "Wave " by The Crumbs

the_wave.mp3

Recorded in KUAR Studios

Listen to the song "Aint Gonna Die" by Amyjo Savannah

aint_gonna_die______.mp3

Executive Producer & Host: J. Bradley Minnick Producer: Mary Ellen Kubit Interns: Krista Hancock, Marty Burton, and Kaitlin Strain