Hello,

My name is Brian Waller (I am new here). I am sure that all of you are aware that The ES&NA RR is for sale. Well I am here to do something about that, I created this website: http://www.savingesnarailroad.com to see if I can get some help. If you read this website you can find out yourself. The ES&NA RR is For Sale for $1.75 million, to most of you that sound like a lots, but I can get some help from alots of people maybe I can do something about Saving The ES&NA RR.

Please look and read this website and see for yourself, http://www.savingesnarailroad.com.

If any of you guys or you know someone who want to help me, please contact me by my e-mail at brian.waller24@yahoo.com.

Thanks,
Brian Waller

Saving The Eureka Springs & North Arkansas Railroad
Website: http://savingesnarailroad.com

Interesting site and railroad, I hope you manage to save it.
A couple of observations.... you need to re-write the home page and make it grammatically correct, at the moment it sounds too unprofessional to really make anyone want to offer help. The history page has lots of mistakes and error and someone needs to proof read it and advise on making it sound better.

Keep up the good work

Mike Pannell

Ummmmm......... I don't see any figures and supporting documentation in your "plan" that would indicate any reason why the railroad would succeed as a business provided you carried it out. Given no cost of capitalization and equipment all bought and paid for and on site, the current management can't make a go of a smaller, impulse-cost tourist attraction is a sort of odd tourist town catering to Evangelicals and Bikers in about equal numbers, What makes you think you can, and even more improtantly, how will you convince potential donors / investors that you can?

Until you have more than an unsupported, not even half-thought out idea to sell, nobody is buying, even if you could spell and parse........

I get the sense that you are very young and have minimal practical experience in the world of business. Get good qualified advice and see if your idea has legs, then try again if it does.

dave

Brian,

I'd be up for proofreading the website and updating it a bit grammatically if you want help. I've never ridden the ES&NA, but visited it twice and thought it was a rather nice, though somewhat ignored, little railroad. Good luck.

Hello,

Thanks everyone for telling me about the changes I need to do on my website. I know it needed to be updated and etc. I did this website myself and that is with no help from others people. If you want to help me make some change, please feel free to let me know and I will do the changes.

Anyway If you want to help me Save The ES&NA RR from being lost and forgotten, feel free to let me know by contacting me.

Thanks,
Brian Waller

e-mail: brian.waller24@yahoo.com

Website: http://www.savingesnarailroad.com

Robbie -

My wife and I DID ride the ES&NA a number of years ago. The locomotive was 2-6-0 #201, which was a "Panama Mogul" if I recall correctly. That might have been an intresting tidbit for passengers, but I don't recall that is was mentioned, nor the fact that it had been re-gauged from 5' 0" to standard gauge, similar to the regauging of the more well known Russian Decapods. The depot was authentic, and a neat structure. During regular operations over the railroad, the passenger trains used to come in to Eureka Springs from the wye on the main line and then run in reverse back out to the wye before they continued their journey. That was another interesting item not brought out. The run was short (maybe a mile?) from the station out to the wye. Passengers de-trained there, walked down to a spot below the trestle that was in the middle of the wye on the old main line, and then watched as the engine was blown down. That was very interesting. Then after the engine was turned, passengers were allowed to place a coin on the tracks while the engine and cars rolled over them at a very slow speed. Hopefully you were able to recover your coin. Then a lecture was given about the dangers of putting coins on rails. Also very interesting, and I believe that the message got across to the riders. Upon arrival back in Eureka Springs, passengers were allowed to walk over to the turntable and ride it while the engine was turned for its next trip. That too was very nice. All in all, I thought that the operation did as much as they could with the little trackage that they had. I thought that perhaps an extension of maybe a mile one way or the other down the old main line would have made for a better ride for the paying passengers, but perhaps that was not a possible option.

Good luck with continued operation of the railroad.

Les

Unless something has changed in the last ten minutes or so, the Dortch family operating the railroad, and intends to do so until someone buys it, or some unforseen circumstances come about. You should also be aware that the number 1 Mogul has been relocated to Reader RR's shop for rehabilitation. I fear you may be crying a little bit of wolf here. The 201 is also the property of Reader RR, and, like the 1 has been on loan/lease to the ES&NA.

BTW are you the kid that was putting the word out that the Reader RR was being scrapped and you had purchased the locomotives? If you are, your mother told us that you were going to be monitered much more closely.


Another reason to hate the internet.

Actually, no, I don't know that, and it appears the only "proof" we can find online that this may be the case are your various pronouncements on various forums and websites.

I can tell you that when you have a going business concern (such as the ES&NA, a restaurant, a store, etc.), it's considered bad form to actively promote its "for sale" status while the business is still operating--it tends to drive away potential long term business and relationships. If you indeed have an actual working relationship with the current owners of the railroad--and not just some "pie in the sky" dreams--you might do well to remove all the "ES&NA is for sale" talk and simply work behind the scenes quietly to raise the monies needed.

I can all but guarantee you that a proposal to "save" this line will be more dependent upon a few well-heeled donors/investors than nickel-and-dime contributors through a website.

When I rode back in the 80's I asked one of the engineers why they didn't go beyond the wye. He told me that when the main was abandoned the ROW reverted to the adjacent land owners. He said the land owners were unwilling to sell their portion of the ROW for a reasonable amount. This was particularly true of the ROW to the tunnel.

This may still be true. I am only passing on what I was told when I visited.

Bill

Perhaps a better title would be... Buying the Eureka Springs & North Arkansas RR

Its almost a template of a successful steam train ride. The Dortch family had some experience running steam on Sunday afternoons on their plantation operation east of Little Rock. Nice equipment and a fine view of soybean fields, few riders.

Taking worthwhile advice from people in the business, they set out to find;
1. An existing tourist area with reasonable visitor headcount
2. A short ride site, that would
(a)enable 45 minute train rides
(b)therefore able to depart hourly on the hour
(c)run a short train several times a day
(d)put several butts in the same seats in a day
3. Accept the cost of building the railroad on an existing grade
4. Accept the cost of buying the right of way from various landowers
(one case, a half mile meant buying a quarter section (160 acres)
5. Accept that everything would have to be trucked in as there was no rail connection.
Having been involved in the startup, I learned projected headcount is three percent of the people who go by your station, not nearby. This proved to be true. Surveys showed that most people made the decision to ride when they "saw the train". Billboards are effective, survey results supported the expense.
Bottom line- location, location, location How many people have built where the land had to be privately acquired, bridges built, etc? Tweetsie comes to mind. The end result was a profitable operation.
Alex Huff

I believe that Brian's claim that the ES&NA is for sale is based on this article:

http://www.savingesnarailroad.com/about.htm

I wonder if this is still the case, or if the Dortch family has resolved to keep running it?

Brian, did you ask permission to use the ES&NA photos on your website? I noticed several of them are from other sources.

Jeff Terry

Sigh............Just when we thought this thread was dead.

Considering that they are, according to their published 2011 schedule, running 16-20 trains each week, I would think they are making money somewhere, somehow and aren't on their death bed. There are posts available from as recently as July 2011 on Trip Advisor regarding their Dining Car services...again, doesn't sound like a dead operation.

Also, the fact that the OP keeps ignoring questions and just continues asking for help makes you wonder the validity of his intentions.

If the only evidence that the railroad is on the market is a TWELVE-year-old article, then someone had better get his plans or ego in check.

Of course, there's always the "everything's for sale at the right price" mentality, but for starts, that "price" from 1999 would be horribly obsolete in 2011 for at least two reasons: increased value of scrap iron/steel (for all we know, the rails alone are worth $1.5 million, never mind the property), and the probable dramatic increase in the value or assessment of 285 acres of Arkansas real estate (cue all the Arkansas and Billy Bob Clinton jokes now). Just on inflation alone, that price should be $2.25 million.

This is why children should not be allowed on the internet.