The Little Rock, Mississippi River and Texas Railway (L. R., M. R. & T.), commonly known as the Arkansas Valley Route, was an American railway company that operated in southeastern

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

from 1875 to 1887. The railway's mainline was long and ran between

Little Rock Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...

(near the center of the state) and Arkansas City (near the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

), passing through Pine Bluff. It had about of track, including sidings,

rail yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of Track (rail transport), tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for k ...

s and

branch line A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Branch lines may serve one or more industries, or a city or town not located ...

s, including the Ouachita Division to Collins (with

stage Stage, stages, or staging may refer to: Arts and media Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly Brit ...

for points in southeastern Arkansas and northern Louisiana) and

Monticello Monticello ( ) was the primary residence and plantation of Thomas Jefferson, a Founding Father, author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States. Jefferson began designing Monticello after inheriting l ...

History

The mainline to Pine Bluff was completed by the Little Rock, Pine Bluff and New Orleans Railroad in 1873, and then to Little Rock by the Little Rock, Mississippi River and Texas Railway on February 25, 1881. Sold under

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has Default (finance), stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the Collateral (finance), coll ...

to the

St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway The St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway (St. L., I. M. & S.), commonly known as the Iron Mountain, was an American railway company that operated from 1856 until 1917 when it was merged into the Missouri Pacific Railroad. History The Ir ...

on January 28, 1887, it was subsequently merged into the

Missouri Pacific Railroad The Missouri Pacific Railroad , commonly abbreviated as MoPac, was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. MoPac was a Class I railroad growing from dozens of predecessors and mergers. In 1967, the railroad o ...

. Today, most of the line is owned and operated by

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, ...

History

See also

References

Further reading