# Railfan day with the Rock Island and Missouri Pacific Railroads



## morland

Had a good/full day of "railfanning" today in Arkansas with my oldest daughter (13). Started at the North Little Rock Union Pacific train yard. Made my way over to the Bill Clinton Presidential Library to look at and walk over the old Rock Island vertical lift bridge that goes over the Arkansas river. While there I also got a picture of the old Rock Island train yard station "The Choctaw Route" that is in use by the Clinton library.

Well, that is a lot to see, but wait there's more!  I then went over to the Little Rock train station that was built by Missouri Pacific. Took some pictures of that then watched a couple of trains go by. One had three engines pulling a long hopper line and the other had two engines pulling double stack containers and some 18 wheeler trailers.

All in all a good day, met the rest of the family for some shopping and dinner to round the day out!

GP38 in the yard.









Caboose at the yard.









Rock Island bridge converted to a pedestrian bridge.









One of the towers while walking on the bridge.









Looking down the pedestrian walkway on the bridge.









Looking up one of the towers, you can see the old cable pulleys. They have locked the bridge into the upright position and have removed the old cables.









From the ground looking at one of the towers.









Shot of the Bill Clinton Presidential library and the beginning of the Rock Island bridge.









A barge going under the bridge.









Far shot of the complete bridge.









Shot of the lift part of the bridge.









The old Rock Island train station "The Choctaw Route" built by the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad in 1901.









The Little Rock "Union Station" train station. It was re-built in 1921 by the Missouri Pacific Railroad.









Back of the station which is mostly original.









Back of the station.









Little Rock sign on the back of the station.









Another shot of the back part of the station.









Pretty cool graffiti on the side of a hopper.









FRED on the back of that last hopper, just not the same as a caboose!









Historical car bridge by the train station.









That's all folks! :smilie_daumenpos:


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## sawgunner

Very nice!! did ya get to see the DDA40X that is sitting at the shops there?


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## cv_acr

That engine in the first photo is a GP60 not a GP38.

Interesting bridge. Kinda neat the way they stuck it in the raised position and ramped the pedestrian walkway over it. The walkway rather looks quite nice.


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## morland

cv_acr said:


> That engine in the first photo is a GP60 not a GP38.


When searching the web for UP 1009 I see references saying it is a rebuilt EMD GP38-3. I'm definitely no expert on identifying engines so I was going by the references. 

-Trever


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## Big Ed

Nice pictures and they are nice and clear. :smilie_daumenpos:

That would be a nice bridge to model, 

in the picture to the left of the superstructure, there are two additional spans, on the right your pictures show one, are there 2 span attachments on each side? Or on the right is there only one?

Nice pictures thanks for taking the time to post. :smokin::thumbsup:


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## morland

sawgunner said:


> Very nice!! did ya get to see the DDA40X that is sitting at the shops there?



I didn't see that, when I was driving around everything was fenced. I didn't know that they would let you on the property, is that where the DDA40X is? I'll have to go back and check it out.

-Trever


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## Big Ed

Wow, your picture looks just like this. 

I answered my question looking at this site,
http://bridgehunter.com/ar/pulaski/rock-island/

You could take pictures for them. :thumbsup:

Which picture is yours?


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## morland

big ed said:


> Nice pictures and they are nice and clear. :smilie_daumenpos:
> 
> That would be a nice bridge to model,
> 
> in the picture to the left of the superstructure, there are two additional spans, on the right your pictures show one, are there 2 span attachments on each side? Or on the right is there only one?
> 
> Nice pictures thanks for taking the time to post. :smokin::thumbsup:


Thanks Big Ed! Yes there is only one span to the right of the lift span. There is another vertical lift bridge less than a mile upstream, I will take and post pictures of it at a later date. It is the Junction Bridge and has also been converted for pedestrian use. Also there is another vertical lift bridge that UP (formerly Mopac use) still uses called the Baring Cross Bridge. I need to get some pictures of it as well. 

-Trever


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## morland

big ed said:


> Wow, your picture looks just like this.
> 
> I answered my question looking at this site,
> http://bridgehunter.com/ar/pulaski/rock-island/
> 
> You could take pictures for them. :thumbsup:
> 
> Which picture is yours?


Wow, I was standing in almost the same spot as the other person!  I have a pretty good camera, you should see the original pictures that I haven't shrunk down to post on the forum.

-Trever


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## sawgunner

morland said:


> I didn't see that, when I was driving around everything was fenced. I didn't know that they would let you on the property, is that where the DDA40X is? I'll have to go back and check it out.
> 
> -Trever


It's in North Little Rock sitting on a grass Island in front of the UP shops as far as I know you can go play on the thing too but the cab is locked up LOL


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## morland

big ed said:


> Nice pictures and they are nice and clear. :smilie_daumenpos:
> 
> That would be a nice bridge to model,


And yes I really do want to model that bridge in a layout! :smilie_daumenpos:

-Trever


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## morland

sawgunner said:


> It's in North Little Rock sitting on a grass Island in front of the UP shops as far as I know you can go play on the thing too but the cab is locked up LOL


Cool, I will have to go back and check it out. I don't live far from Little Rock, we go there all the time. Thanks for the tip.

-Trever


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