All, I have a picture of my Great Grandfather standing outside the Moro, Arkansas train station/depot circa 1910-1920 (and my grandfather as a 10 year old selling popcorn in the same picture). Grandfather later worked for Monon, but Monon never appears to have been that far south. I cannot identify from the picture which train line the station was for. Internet searches get me names of lines all around the area, but none list lines that appear to be right to go through that part of Lee County. Aerials only show evidence of a single line through town. I'm hoping to model the station, and get appropiate rolling sotck....but the question is which RR. Any ideas which line operated through Moro in Northeastern Arkansas? - Thanks in advance. -DLB
Did MNA go south and east of Newport in the past? Today they do not and I haven't found any history saying they did.
My 1958 Official Guide to the Railrways with around 200 pages of fine print of station names, does not list a Moro, Arkansas. Has a Moro, Madison County, Illinois, New York Central, and Moro, Oregon, Union Pacific. Could there have been another name for that point in 1958, or could a railroad have gone through and had no "station" (Named operational point) at that location? Looking at my "Roads of Arkansas" atlas, copyright 1990, I find a north-south Missouri Pacific line shown running through Marianna, about ten milkes due east of Moro. Wonder if you couldn find some historical maps at the Library of Congress online, Library of Congress Home
I just remembered-- I have been taking a few days off after the end of the semester and doing train stuff. But in my "day job" I am a historian. I have a 1911 Cram's Exhaustive Atlas- Texas and the Great Southwest. Marianna is shown with a north-south line of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern, roughly paralleling the Mississippi River not quite half a county away. At Marianna, there is a connection to a St.L.I.M.&S. branch to Memphis. No railroad to Moro. Library of Congress Cartographic Division has railroad maps up to 1900. An 1898 maps shows just the north-south line through Marianna, no branch to Memphis. And nothing at Moro. Could there have been a line at Moro built after 1910 and gone by 1958? Is Moro identified by a sign IN the photograph, such as on a building? Could it be other than a rr station-- a city hall or ??? Could the photo have been taken somewhere other than Moro and had Moro written on it because they was where they lived? Or???
Working on an update Very intersting...Thanks for the info I'm going to work on getting the picture scanned. Current Google Aerial shows signs of a gash through town like a rail line might have made. Google Maps
Moro, Arkansas, was on the Missouri & North Arkansas. The track went from Wheatley to Weatherby to Moro to Aubrey and eventually down to West Helena. Moro was on the Third District and was station number 327. It was 326.88 miles from Joplin, Missouri. Moro's telegraph call was MO. It had a passing siding of 45 carlengths. Information from Time Table No. 7, February 25, 1945, (Missouri & Arkansas Railway Company) as reproduced in the end sheets of James R. Fair, Jr.'s book "The North Arkansas Line".
I just HAD to check this out- how did this M&NA railroad exist in 1910 when it did not show up in 1911 atlas or 1958 Official Guide. I found that the line that got through Moro was being built between 1903 and 1909-- and the Cram’s Atlas I own was out of date when it was printed. (Cram came out with at Atlas featuring each state every year or so through the first decade of the 1900s. Each Atlas had a large indexed map of its featured state and special business, industrial and civic information for its state, but half of each volume was a reprint of Cram’s maps of the US, states the World, possibly not always updated. The railroad changed names several times. Originally ran to Eureka Springs in 1882 (of which 4 miles has been rebuilt and is run as a tourist railroad. I rode it in 1992.) DO NOT CONFUSE with Missouri and Northern Arkansas, a name for line which became part of MoPac and now UP. Good rundown at Wikipedia under Arkansas and North Arkansas See also- The North Arkansas Line 1943 map shows Moro on line http://www.r2parks.net/M&NA.html ‘The Awful M&NA Strike’ by HALLIE C. ORMOND contains photo of 4-4-0 #16 http://www.argenweb.net/white/wchs/MandNA_Strike_files/Railroad_Strike.html Shiloh Museum of Ozark History/ Scenes of Boone County Photo of St. Louis & North Arkansas Train on bridge Shiloh Museum of Ozark History - Scenes of Boone County: The Railroad Boone County Historical and Railroad Society Inc. Harrisonville photo of M&NA caboose and story of “:ghost train” BCHRS.org - 'Ghost train' colored lore of local railroad - History Q & A by Marilyn Smith 1975 book from Eureka Springs Public Library Association, Eureka Springs: A Pictorial History has a full page photo of a Eureka Springs and North Arkansas passenger train on a bridge. Hope this helps... here are pix of loco, passenger train, caboose. Sorry no freight yet.
On page 286 of Fair's book are photos of an MNA caboose and two different boxcars; on page 287 is a North Arkansas combine. As for the photo of Moro station, nothing specifically appears to indicate MNA, though the diamond-shaped sign on the upper window pane of the bay may/may read "North Arkansas Line" - can't see it clearly, even with magnification; don't think it's a Railway Express Agency sign. The station sign itself is black on white and is typical of other MNA station signs, but that of itself is no guarantee. The photo is similar to one posted on the North Arkansas site as linked by Kenneth Anthony above. As far as I can determine, no other rail line went through Moro, so I believe it's safe to say that station is on the MNA and its successors. You should be able to get Fair's book through inter-library loan. Good luck with your research!
The diamond shape in question is very possibly a "Wells Fargo & Co. Express" wall sign. If not, it's from a very similar operation of express or telegraph company. Boxcab E50
Sorry to join this thread a year late, but I personally can verify that yes, it was the M&NA. I grew up in Moro immediately after WWII and even hopped the train a few times in the late 1950s before it ceased operations completely. To Mr. Barker, who first asked the question, can you do me the favor of identifying the people by name in the Moro depot photo? I am in the process of writing down some of the history of the place and would like their names and your permission to include the photo in an article. Thanks -- W. R. Smith, Austin, Texas
