(The following story by Jeremy Peppas appeared on the Arkansas News website on April 25, 2010.)
RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. — In towns from North Little Rock to Russellville, people lined the streets and stood near railroad crossings with cameras flashing as Engine No. 844 rolled through.
The last steam-powered engine operating in the United States was completing its first excursion through Arkansas on Friday since slicing the state en route to the 1984 World’s Fair in New Orleans.
After nearly three days on display in North Little Rock, the train and its crew of 11 were headed back to Cheyenne, Wyo., as part of a nearly month-long tour of the country that began April 2 and is scheduled to end Thursday.
Penny Braunschweig, who helps with concession sales on the train, said this tour is the first of seven scheduled this year. The train came to Arkansas after making its deepest excursion ever into the South.
“We went all the way to Brownsville (Texas),” she said. “That’s on the border of Mexico.”
She said Border Patrol agents boarded the train there, ostensibly to search for illegal immigrants.
“Everybody wants to look at the train, especially the engine,” Braunschweig said with a laugh. “But we’re all Wyomingites though, so having them come aboard was a new one for us.”
The engine, with two passenger cars and eight others in to, made its way to Arkansas on the tour billed as “The Valley Eagle” in honor of the former Missouri Pacific train of the same name that operated between Houston and Brownsville.
Old No. 844, built in 1944, is the last of the steam engines built by the company, now Union Pacific.
The engine arrived in North Little Rock on Wednesday and spent a full day available for tours Thursday. Braunschweig said the plan had been to be open 12 hours, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. But the doors stayed open until 9 p.m. and still some people were turned away.
They got the chance to come back Friday morning before then train headed west with a good crowd onboard.
Among them was Little Rock lawyer Paul B. Benham III, who does legal work for Union Pacific. Benham brought along his grandchildren for a train ride to Russellville.
Benham, a train-riding veteran, appeared as excited as to make the trip as his granddaughters. Apparently, even boys who grow up to be grand dads still love their trains.
A host of elected officials also spread out in the two passenger cars, including state Reps. Richard Carroll, D-North Little Rock, himself a Union Pacific employee, and John Hoyt, D-Morrilton, were onboard. So was state Senate President Pro Tem Bob Johnson, D-Bigelow.
Riding in the engine was North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Hays, the son of a railroad man, Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines and State Rep. Barry Hyde, D-North Little Rock.
The engine-riding politicians hopped off at Conway for a brief whistle stop. Hays, with his hair pushed back from hanging his head out the window, said it wasn’t his first time to ride in the engine, but he could not turn down the opportunity to get another chance.
With the politicians off, others, including some media, made their way to the engine for a ride to Russellville.
Riding in the engine, rocking back and forth, was like being in a boat on a choppy Greers Ferry Lake. One just had to hold a handy railing to keep their balance. It was also Trumanesque, with one hand waving to the people lined up along the tracks.
It was also noisy, but didn’t seem to bother the engineers running the train. Communicating almost entirely in hand signals, they didn’t seem to have any problems.
Schools in Mayflower and Conway St. Joseph let out classes to let students line the tracks and wave as the train sped by, and even some police officers hopped out of their cruisers to watch as the steam engine passed.
Russellville sent a bus full of elementary students to greet the train when it arrived there for a brief maintenance stop. A fire department ladder truck was also there. Braunschweig said the crowd was typical for what they had seen on the tour.
“People want to see the train,” she said. “Hard to blame them.”