ES&NA, Please bring back Steam!

Frisco Brakeman posted:

Is there any chance, that the owners of the ES&NA will ever bring back there railroad to its glory in the 1980's and 90's or will it just rust in peace. I sure miss it.

Maybe a bit more information is in order, i.e. what is the "ES&NA", and where is/was it located?

Note: ES&NA - Eureka Springs & North Arkansas. Located in the town of Eureka Springs in NW AR.

Unfortunately, it will never be.  There are several issues:

* As a company (ES&NA), the financing isn't there.

* The town of Eureka Springs has evolved to the point that the logistics aren't there. There is nowhere NEAR the tourist traffic into ES now compared to when I worked for the ES&NA in the 1980s.

* The town demographics have changed.  Long time locals/leadership are gone through attrition/etc. Those residents coming to the ES area from other regions of the US/etc are now in places of leadership and they are NOT interested in reviving the ES&NA. See next point.

* The town leadership has changed. They're after a much different market/crowd now, adding many "Diversity Weekends" to the yearly schedule to attract their targeted demographic in the attempt to generate needed tourist funds.

* Due to the above demographic changes, the new culture of ES would NOT be tolerant to what they would perceive to be a noisy, pollution ridden, steam operation in ES.

Back in the "glory years", there were two MAJOR attractions in ES: The ES&NA and The Passion Play. ALL the other attractions fed off the influx of tourists those two attractions generated.  The Passion Play and ES&NA are both now shells of their former self, never to return to their former status. (See points above.)

I was fortunate to be involved with the ES&NA when it was at the top of its game (throughout the 1980s), seeing expansion and betterment's, some 60,000 - 70,000+ riders per season, manicured grounds, excellent maintenance on the steam engines, first class dining car experiences, ALL OF IT. I thought it would never change... but change is inevitable.

Some of my most treasured railroading memories have ES&NA written on them.

Andre

I guess not everybody can be Strasburg. A steam engine railroad shut down in Florida, and they have very little steam to begin with. I heard that engine was moved to Arkansas. Wasn’t the Reader RR in Arkansas? Any other steam operations in Arkansas? I guess the 1980’s was a better time for our country overall, even though we had a recession 1982-1983, not everybody liked Reagan, and there was the fear of getting nuked like now. In the 80’s we had more mainline steam excursions in the US than the 90’s and 2000’s. About this tourist railroad, was it a case that times were better in the 80’s, or that the owners let it deteriorate?

In the case of the ES&NA:

Times were definitely better for Eureka Springs in the 1980s as mentioned above.

As the 1980s drew to a close, the first financial "hit" for ES was the expanding Branson, MO area. Branson soon eclipsed ES to become "the" destination point for Ozark-bound tourists.

The second hit was legalized gambling that began to siphon away tourists from non-gambling (at the time) states. Gambling is BIG business. VERY big.

The final straw for the ES&NA was the passing of the original owner/financier: Bob Dortch. Bob was a visionary and sunk his plantation-derived fortune into the ES&NA. During Bob's ES&NA ownership/leadership, as long as the ES tourist trade was strong, the returns were enough to justify the ES&NA.  When the expenses began to eclipse earnings, the inescapable cut backs begin. Bob's death escalated the situation.

Throw in the previously mentioned cultural changes into the above factors, and one gets a better picture of why "it will never be".

Andre

Andre, I appreciate your posts and insights into the ES&NA.  I was fortunate to visit it a several times in the early years and golden age of operation.  In those days, the depot and yard area were uncluttered, and the railroad had an excellent atmosphere that I thought was a great representation of the steam era.  On a couple of occasions, Bob Dortch invited the antique engine club that my father belonged to down for to display some hit-n-miss engines.  He was a very gracious host, insisting that I take cab rides in both the Panama Mogul and the diesel.  I still have a book he gave me, "Railroads of Northwest Arkansas" during one of those trips.  Needless to say, I have great memories of Bob and the ES&NA.

Unfortunately, the operation has declined.  It is sad that steam hasn't been in use for many, many years.  Although I still visit it every few years, I prefer to remember it as it was in the 1980's.

I have a small tourist line near me that has gone diesel, the WK&S at Kempton, PA. The 65 needs repairs and the 2 lost it’s tender and is not really suitable anymore to pull the trains and the 2-6-2 they acquired several years ago wasn’t restored yet. I think they just got too comfortable using diesel, easier to operate and maintain than steam.

Gentlemen,

   Unfortunately this is what is happening to what is left of the little steam RR's.  Our Wellsville Addison & Galeton (WAG) railroad when I was a young boy was very active. Then it went into Diesel and finally all that is left is the Part of the route that runs up into Corning NY, now under a different name.  My Great Grandfather was the engineer on the WAG RR,  he passed away along that Route long ago. Time and money finally catches up to most all of the small RR's.  Our WAG RR here in the Pa mountains was one of them.  

PCRR/Dave

My GreatGrandfather driving the Lead Shay Engine down the B&O Switchback in the Pa mountains as a blocker for the last time, just outside of Galeton, Pa.  The logging of the mountains was completed.  One of Clark's most famous RR pictures in the 1800's

Atlas & Crown both honored the old WAG RR by producing a couple great looking WAG Box Cars, I have them all on my WAG O Gauge Logging Train.