SELIGMAN, Mo. — The streets of Seligman, Mo., are usually quiet just after dawn, But last Saturday, cars driven by people from all around flooded the parking lot and nearby fields of the town hall and soon after 6:30 a.m. the train whistle bellowed, announcing its departure.

Over 200 people gathered to ride the historic rail line almost four hours to a craft-fair-lovers’ destination in Van Buren, Ark.

Sighs of relief rang out when conductor Dale Bush told the passengers of car 105 there would be coffee served when the train got moving.

After refreshments, Bush regaled passengers with train trivia and history, songs, riddles and even the harmonica playing while he juggled as the train made its way south.

At a farmers’ market in West Fork, vendors and buyers stopped to wave to the passing cars. In the small town of Chester, Ark., residents stood on front porches with friendly waves as the whistle blew.

Inside the rail cars it became pitch black as the train passed through the one tunnel south of Winslow, then began its descent down one of the steepest railroad grades in the country into the destination depot.

Passengers Delene Abbot of Cassville, Mo., and Bea Raucstadt of Washburn, Mo., have been friends for 20 plus years. This train ride was their first, something they always wanted to do.

“It’s fun, otherwise you wouldn’t do it,” Bush said.

Bush became a conductor on the line four years ago purely by accident. He received a call to a wrong number asking if he wanted to work the train on a Friday. Curiosity made him return the call for more information and he’s been a conductor ever since, working occasionally on the side of his regular job as a computer mechanic out of Bella Vista.

Two other conductors, Russell and Charlene King, met on the railroad and married two years ago - on the railroad. They were allowed the entire train for friends and family, and had the ceremony on the train in Winslow, Ark.

Bush said he sees peopleof all sorts on the trip, a lot of whom have never set foot on a train.

The train that day consisted of one first-class car, three coach cars and the caboose. Car 105, the one Bush was overseeing, was built in 1925 and featured original woodwork and bench-style seating.

The Arkansas and Missouri Railroad was once part of the St. Louis/San Francisco Railroad in the 1880s. It was constructed by a charter from the government to run from St.

Louis, Mo., to San Francisco, Calif., but never made it past east Texas, Bush told the passengers through the microphone. In the 1980s, the line was purchased by an investor and became the Arkansas and Missouri Railroad. Today, it is used primarily to transport freight.

Saturday passengers spent the afternoon hours perusing booths and shops of historic Van Buren during Old Timers Days, an annual arts and crafts festival. They met back at the depot with their goods, boarded the train once again and it made its way back up the line to the north. Some slept, some chatted with their newlymade friends, children played with their new toys and one woman played her recently purchased “panjo,”an early Appalachian-style banjo-like instrument made of a pie plate and a stick.

Cleta Stanley of the Seligman Greater Area Chamber of Commerce works hard to put this event together twice per year, in the spring and fall.

Loretta Burgess and she pass out door prizes from a raffle, sporting sweatshirts that ask “Where in the world is Seligman, Mo.

?”

The Arkansas and Missouri passenger train runs from Springdale to Van Buren Fridays and Saturdays April through December, making Wednesday trips in the fall to observe the changing leaves.

The next train ride from Seligman is set for Saturday, Oct. 9. For more information, call the Seligman Greater Area Chamber of Commerce at 417-662-3611.

Community, Pages 8 on 05/12/2010