| MP GP38-2 2074 at Cotter, Arkansas on March 1, 1990, Kodachrome by Chuck Zeiler. You'll have to take my word for it that number 2074 is in this photo. It's parked next to the Cotter Depot located a little above the center of this photo. In the center is a small brick building known as the Oil House. In the days of steam it housed the combustible liquids such as kerosene to keep them out of the wood-framed roundhouse. The track to the right of the Oil House was the lead to the roundhouse, which was located in the clearing between the Oil House and the tree line in the center of this photo. To the left can be seen a tank car of propane. The track the tank car is on once continued another ten miles or so, after it crossed under the main line at the far left (the main line climbed out of town at about 1%) and ran upstream along side of the White River. It was used in the 1940's to bring aggregate ( mined locally, Batesville, I believe ) and construction materials up to Bull Shoals to construct the dam. The track to the center-right with freight cars parked on it was known locally as Ten Track ( not Track Ten, I don't know why, local lingo I guess ), suggesting that the Cotter Yard once contained more tracks than shown. The White River is barely visible in the lower right as well as in the upper right of the frame. The railroad pretty much followed the path of the river for the next 40 or so miles south of this point down to Batesville. |