Nostalgia & History > Fort Smith (AR) Light & Traction

I don't recall anything having been posted, at least not recently, about the Fort Smith (AR) Trolley Museum.  Their line is about a mile long, having recently been extended several blocks.  The only operational car at this time is original Fort Smith Light & Traction 224, though Hot Springs Street Railway double-truck car 50 is in the final stage of restoration as is a former Veracruz open car that is very similar to cars that ran in Fort Smith.  There are two other FSL&T single-truck cars, one a Birney that was rescued many years ago and mounted on a trailer chassis and used to generate interest in an operating museum and another car that had been incorporated into a cabin and was moved, cabin and all, to Fort Smith.  It was stabilized but otherwise left as found to illustrate the fate of many streetcar and passenger car bodies.  If you are in the area it is certainly worth stopping and taking a ride.

Gordon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/16 06:46 by gbmott.

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Looks great - next time I go do A&M, I will have to look for these. Having photographed the cars on that nice system in Little Rock and North Little Rock that were constructed new, looks to me like they used this one as a pattern for those, as the cars in Little Rock look nearly identical, except the roof details on the Little Rock cars look more modern. Thanks! === === = === JLH

I visited Ft. Smith back in 2007 on a Sunday afternoon and waited for the motorman to show up.  The operation was supposed to start at 1 PM, and when he showed up about ten minutes afterward, he apologized, saying "Monseignor was a bit long-winded today."  I said, "That's OK, I've been making friends with the cats that hang around here."  And there was quite clowder of kitties of varying degrees of friendliness.  Once the Birney was out of the barn we rode it for a bit, and I even got to run it (not a new experience, because I had run Pacific Electric Birneys at OERM many times).
 

Wow, thanks for the update; these single truck Birney's frames are surprisingly trickey to restore to operations. What a beauty!