Reader Railroad

The five mile Reader Railroad was a tourist only railroad operating in Arkansas from 1971. As a 32-mile common carrier prior to 1971, it was the last all steam locomotive-powered, mixed train railroad operating in North America. It operated trackage in Ouachita County and Nevada County, Arkansas. The five mile tourist railroad operated until 1991, when it could not meet the new federal safety regulations.

The locomotive and renovated station were used in the television mini series "North and South". The locomotive was featured in the remake of "3:10 to Yuma" as well as the movies "There Will Be Blood" and "Appaloosa".

The original Reader Railroad, which ran through Nevada and Ouachita counties, was one of the last remaining railroads operated completely by steam locomotives. Though no longer in operation, either as a common carrier or as a tourist attraction, it has drawn many to the area and was a featured set piece in the television miniseries, North & South as well as a number of national magazines.

The Sayre Narrow Gauge, the railroad’s original name, was constructed in 1889 to move the virgin timber that was being harvested south of Reader, which is on the Nevada-Ouachita County border, for a sawmill at the St. Louis Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad located in Gurdon (Clark County). In 1910, the line was purchased by the McVay Lumber Company and, in 1913, was taken over by the Valley Lumber Company, which extended it to tracts of timber in lower Nevada County. A. S. Johnson purchased the sawmill company in 1921 and, in 1925, organized the Reader Railroad, named after the small community and postal stop of Reader, which was held under the parent company of Mansfield Hardwood Lumber Company, as a common carrier to transport freight to and from newly discovered oil fields near Waterloo (Nevada County).

Reader Railroad continued to work the river bottoms and creek valleys, hauling timber and freight until the mid-1950s, when the parent company was dissolved. Shreveport business man Tom M. Long purchased the railroad and renovated the line. He promoted the railroad for passenger and freight traffic until the energy crisis of the early 1970s closed the Berry refinery in Waterloo, and the remaining freight and tourist traffic could not sustain the little railroad. Long abandoned the 32 mile railroad in 1971 and sold five miles to a group of businessmen in the area who worked to preserve it. They, in turn, sold it again in 1980 to the present owner, R. A Grigsby, who focused on emphasizing the history of Reader Railroad and the role it played in the development of south Arkansas.

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