Arkansas Midland Railroad

The Midland was formed in 1853 by citizens of Helena, and was intended as a fairly straight ”air-line railroad” running from Helena west to Little Rock, Arkansas, about 115 miles.^[1][2] Helena, on the Mississippi, was a prosperous river port, and Little Rock was the state capitol.^[3][4] Prior to the Civil War, the line was graded from Helena to a point variously described as twelve miles short of Little Rock, or fifteen miles west of the White River; however, no trackage was built.^[1]

Following the chaos of the Civil War and its immediate aftermath, the Arkansas Central Railway was formed in 1871 specifically to obtain the graded right-of-way of the Midland.^[1] The railroad projected adding a branch from Duncan to Clarendon, the latter being a prosperous river port on the White River and a future connection point for the Texas and St. Louis Railway (“T&SL”).^[2][5] The railroad also intended to add a branch from some point on its line to Pine Bluff.^[1] The company actually built from Helena through Marvell, Pine City and Holly Grove to Duncan, as well as the “branch” from Duncan to Clarendon, essentially creating a 48-mile long mainline from Helena to Clarendon starting service in 1872.^[1][2][6][7] Being constructed during the narrow-gauge railway movement in the U.S., the line was originally projected as a 3-foot gauge railroad, and toward that goal a 3-foot gauge locomotive was purchased.^[1] However, management subsequently decided to build a 3 foot, 6 inch gauge line instead, which required different locomotives but still made the Arkansas Central the first narrow-gauge railway in Arkansas.^[2] In 1877, amid financial difficulties, the Arkansas Central Railway was sold through an intermediate buyer back to the Midland, which company was still in existence.^[1][7]

The Midland converted its 3 foot, 6 inch gauge line to 3-foot gauge in 1883 in order to achieve gauge compatibility with the T&SL at Clarendon.^[1] When the T&SL converted to standard-gauge in 1886, the Midland followed in 1887.^[1]

Separately, the Brinkley, Helena and Indian Bay Railway was a 3-foot gauge line built in 1889 from a spur off the Midland trackage at Pine City to the town of Brinkley, Arkansas, which also had a connection to the T&SL as well as to the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad and what became the shortline White and Black River Valley Railway.^{[1][8][9][10]} The line was 24 miles in length, plus a 5-mile spur from Glenwood to Woodsville.^[1] In 1891 the Midland bought that company.^[2] But it did not convert the line to its own standard-gauge until September 1900, and it continued to run the line as a separate railroad until 1909.^[2][8]

In 1901, control of the Midland was acquired by interests associated with railway "robber baron" Jay Gould, but the railway continued to be operated separately.^[1] However, from early 1910, the trackage began being operated simply as two separate branches of the Iron Mountain.^[1]

The portion of the old mainline to Clarendon from Holly Grove was eliminated in 1957.^[1] In 1960, the entire Pine City-to-Brinkley branch was abandoned.^[1] The mainline was shortened further in 1976 when the portion to Holly Grove from Marvell was dropped.^[1] In 1979, the remainder of the original system was abandoned.^[1]

This Arkansas Midland Railroad discussed above should not be confused with the Arkansas Midland Railroad created in 1992 and currently in operation.^[11] The Arkansas Central Railroad discussed above should not be confused with the Arkansas Central Railroad formed about 1897, which ran from a point near Fort Smith to Paris in Arkansas and was owned by the Missouri Pacific Railroad.^[12]