HISTORIC RAILROAD MAPS ARKANSAS AND MISSOURI

[GEO]

INTERACTIVE HISTORICAL MAPS OF ARKANSAS.
http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalmaps/arkansas/

MISSOURI RAILROADS.
http://tacnet.missouri.org/~mgood/histo ... cmorr.html

RAILROAD HISTORY DATA BASE.
http://www.rrhistorical.com/rrdata/

THE FRONTIER COAST.
http://www.lib.noaa.gov/edocs/BACHE6.htm

[Geezer_Veazey]

Thanks, Geo, for the links. I could sit and read maps for hours and hours. The community of Olive Hill where I was raised first shows up on the 1878 map. Olive Hill is still there with a church and cemetery. It is on Chicot Road, which was part of the stage coach route to Chicot county in southeast Ar. The stage station was on --- you guessed it --- what is now stage coach road. (That might be a good place for a cache with history.)

I saw in the railroad history link that the St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad was eventually extended to Texarkana. When I was a kid I remember reading the abstract for our property and one of the very first entries was a grant to the St. Louis and Iron Mountain Railroad. It later was part of the Rock Island Line. Where it crossed Chicot Road was called the Guilford crossing. There was a side track there and pulp wood trucks would load their pulp wood into box cars there.

There was a train called the Doodle Bug that ran (I think) 3 times a week. It left Little Rock in the morning headed for El Dorado. On the same day another one left El Dorado and headed back to Little Rock. They were very early model diesels but very small engines. They only pulled 3 or 4 passenger cars. They were like commuter trains. You could stand on the track and flag them down. My mother had a friend that lived in Prattsville. She would walk with her children about a mile to Guilford crossing, flag down the Doodle Bug, ride to Prattsville, have time for a short visit and then ride back on the Little Rock bound Doodle Bug. Aahhh, sweet memories.

Thanks again, Geo. You stirred up some memories that hadn't come to mind in several years.

I'm wondering if anyone else is old enough and remembers the Doodle Bug?

Geezer

[GEO]

Thank Cardinal,
He is the one who got me started on this quest,he asked me a question and I could not answer him.
We are trying to find Benchmark History on the Railroads,ie rivets,chisled squares ect.,but there is none that I can find yet.
I knew there were a few Train(Railroad buffs) here so I thought I would add the links.

I am glad I sparked a Old light ...........I wish I was around when the Doodle Bug was here sounds like some neat adventures.
I will continue on my quest to find the History,it is out there some where.

[Geezer_Veazey]

Well then, Thanks, Cardinal.

With my interest in the Doodlebug revived I've discovered that "Doodlebug" was a commonly used term for a self-propelled railway car. It normally was powered by an electric engine with power generated from a gasoline burning generator. So it technically was not a diesel. Most railroads had one or more doodlebugs in operation on the less travelled routes. The doodlebug generally had an engine, mail, baggage and passenger compartments all in one car and sometimes pulled one additional passenger car.

I could not find a picture of the Rock Island doodlebug but for those of you interested, the M&NA (Missouri and North Arkansas) line had one and there is a picture at:

http://www.paradesquare.ca/railway/m&na_doodlebug.htm

Geezer

I rode the Doodlebug when I was 7 years old. I will never forget it. That was in 1952 or 1953.

[GEO]

GUEST,
Well maybe you should join as a real

GEO*DOODLEBUG.

[Geezer_Veazey]

Guest, Which Doodlebug did you ride? From where to where? I would love to hear a little more of the details.

I lived in Amarillo TX but all our family was in El Dorado. We rode the train from Amarillo to Little Rock and the Doodlebug from Little Rock to El Dorado and back. I have always remembered that and had begun to think that no one existed who remembered the doodlebug.