Arkansas, Oklahoma & Western Railroad
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| Arkansas, Oklahoma & Western Railroad | |
|---|---|
| Locale | Arkansas, Rogers and Siloam Springs |
| Dates of operation | 1908–1911 |
| Successor line | Kansas City & Memphis Railway |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge) |
The Arkansas, Oklahoma & Western Railroad (AO&W) was a small railroad company in Northwest Arkansas.It had begun operations as the Rogers Southwestern that reached Springtown, AR (21 miles southwest of Roger, AR) on August 15, 1906.It then reorganized under the name Arkansas, Oklahoma & Western and reached Siloam Springs, AR on January 1, 1908. The standard-gauge AO&W, also called the "All Off & Walk",was 30 miles in length. It hoped to prosper by serving fruit growers in south-central Benton County, AR and by serving as a Kansas City Southern Railway feeder at Siloam Springs, AR. The "Fruit Belt Line" was not a success and it and the Monte Ne Railway (a five-mile standard gauge line opened in 1902 for tourist traffic between Lowell, AR and the new resort at Monte Ne), neither of whom were ever bankrupt, were merged into the newly formed Kansas City & Memphis Railway Co, headquartered in Rogers, AR in 1911.The new company built a branch to Fayetteville, AR from Cave Springs, AR that was not successful because it largely duplicated the Frisco line between Rogers, AR and Fayetteville, AR. Burdened by over expansion and inadequate traffic volume, the KC&M entered receivership on July 14,1914. Efforts to revive the line were not successful and the 61-mile Kansas City & Memphis system was abandoned in pieces between March and October 1918. The KC&M abandonment was the second largest US railroad abandonment of 1918.
In the summer of 1910, the A O& W constructed a concrete underpass beneath the Frisco track north of Lowell, AR. The purpose was to connect the isolated Monte Ne Railroad (Monte Ne, AR to Lowell, AR) to the AO&W. Although the Monte Ne Railroad was a failure as a passenger carrier, it enjoyed a substantial volume of outgoing freight traffic from the Rogers White Lime Company located at Limedale on the Monte Ne Railroad. Construction of the underpass enabled the Monte Ne to turn over much of its outbound freight business to the AO&W (KC& M) rather than competitor Frisco. The concrete underpass bears a date of 1910 and is still crossed by trains of Frisco Central Division successor Arkansas & Missouri Railroad.
