The Dardanelle and Russellville Railroad Company (D&R) is a Class III

short-line railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

headquartered in

Russellville, Arkansas Russellville is the county seat and largest city in Pope County, Arkansas, United States, with a 2021 estimated population of 29,338. It is home to Arkansas Tech University. Arkansas Nuclear One, Arkansas' only nuclear power plant is nearby. Rus ...

. D&R operates a line in

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

from Russellville (where it interchanges with

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

) to North Dardanelle, across the

Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United Stat ...

from

Dardanelle, Arkansas Dardanelle is a city in northeast Yell County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 4,745 at the 2010 census. Along with Danville, it serves as a county seat for Yell County. It is located near Lake Dardanelle. Dardanelle is part of the ...

. Current D&R traffic generally consists of pulp board,

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...

s, and forest products. D&R is currently owned by Arkansas Shortline Railroads, Inc., a short-line railroad

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

History

The creation of the D&R railroad was motivated by the desire to develop Dardanelle and for better transportation of agricultural products—primarily cotton—from Dardanelle to the Little Rock and Fort Smith (LR&FS) Railway in Russellville. In an eight-month period in the early 1880s, 15,000 bales of cotton were shipped from Dardanelle. They were ferried across the river to North Dardanelle, hauled by wagon to Russellville, and then loaded on LR&FS freight cars. The road from North Dardanelle to Russellville was poor and frequently nearly impossible to travel. With the heavy wagon traffic over it, the road was cut into almost impassible gullies, freight teams suffered, it was destructive to wagons, fatiguing for teamsters, and expenses were high. On September 30, 1882, a meeting was held at the Yell County Courthouse to develop plans to connect the town to the Russellville depot. A three-man committee was established to raise financial support and to secure cooperation with the LR&FS Railway. The line was initially chartered as the Dardanelle & Russellville Railway, and train operations began on August 15, 1883. After undergoing reorganization in 1900, operations continued as the Dardanelle & Russellville Railroad. When originally constructed, the railroad carried cotton and other agricultural products. The predominant traffic shifted to coal by 1900, thanks to extensive semi-anthracite coal production along the railroad. The D&R line was sold on April 21, 1913, to J. G. Puterbaugh, president of McAlester Fuel Company. Coal production along the D&R ended in the mid-1950s when the last underground mines of McAlester Fuel Company were closed. At one time, the railroad owned the Dardanelle Pontoon Bridge and Turnpike Company, which operated a

pontoon bridge A pontoon bridge (or ponton bridge), also known as a floating bridge, uses float (nautical), floats or shallow-draft (hull), draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. The buoyancy of the supports limits the maxi ...

(for wagons and later automobiles, not trains) across the

at Dardanelle. The D&R was also a leader in the trend for railroads to branch into other transportation modes, owning a highway subsidiary from 1919 to 1960. The highway subsidiary, Dardanelle Transfer Company, operated both bus and truck service over an expanded territory much larger than was served by the railroad itself.

References

External links

Link to Union Pacific Website with DR Details
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dardanelle Russellville Railroad Arkansas railroads Railway companies established in 1900 Russellville, Arkansas 1900 establishments in Arkansas Transportation in Yell County, Arkansas Transportation in Polk County, Arkansas Dardanelle, Arkansas