Streetcar 410 boards passengers at the River Market stop on Clinton Avenue, May 17. I rode it here from a free parking lot in North Little Rock so I wouldn't have to fight for a parking spot in the River Market.
Typical River Rail Streetcar sign, this one on Maple Street in North Little Rock.
Fares and a map.
Fares.
Traffic in the River Market.
Streetcar 410.
Turning left/east on 3nd Street toward the Clinton Library. It will go under Interstate 30 in the background.
Clinton Library from the library stop. The old Rock Island/Choctaw Route passenger station is on the left, now the Clinton School of Public Service. The buildings on the right are the library itself.
Changing poles. The car reverses here. The non-profit Heifer International building is to the left.
Looking north. The former Rock Island tracks would have been o the left.
Looking north toward the Rock Island bridge along the old right-of-way. This bridge has been restored as a pedestrian bridge. I'm standing where he Rock Island Rockets once ran.
Taken a little further south.
Looking south.
Choctaw Depot from the streetcar.
The curved track on the right next to the other streetcar track belongs to Union Pacific. They still deliver a single boxcar to the Democrat-Gazette's newspaper printing facility on 3nd Street as needed.
ATW 3535 boxcar full of paper for the Democrat-Gazette, the statewide daily newspaper. I see a lone UP locomotive with the single car on this line once in a while, but have yet to get a photo of this UP freight with a streetcar passing. I'd probably have to camp out to see that, but it would be a great shot.
Passing the eastbound under I-30.
Turning left/west on 2nd Street. The building on the right is the Public Library.
Downtown Little Rock from the streetcar.
Drivers usually stand, but there's a chair there too.
A Central Arkansas Transit (CAT) bus in the distance as we stop at the Historic Arkansas Museum stop to board passengers.
Streetcars and buses are, of course, accessible.
Playground of the E-Stem charter school to the left. They took over the old Arkansas Gazette building and an old bank for schools.
Passing the courthouse buildings.
1880s courthouse, still used daily.
Old State House, now a free museum.
Peabody Hotel.
Capital Hotel.
Statehouse Convention Center.
Peabody stop.
Looking east along Markham Street, which changes to Clinton Avenue past the stoplights. We are starting a left/north turn to cross the Arkansas River on Main Street.
Little Rock Chamber of Commerce stop. We're turning left.
Starting over the Arkansas River heading to North Little Rock.
Sometimes we can see barges under the bridge.
There's a small Maritime Museum here. The World War II submarine 'Razorback' is open for tours here. This submarine was build during World War II and participated in the Japanese surrender at Tokyo Bay. The pedestrian bridge to the right once was the Missouri Pacific's Junction Bridge.
Arkansas Queen small riverboat as seen from the streetcar. This boat has dinner cruises.
Curving down to North Little Rock.
Main Street North Little Rock. Note the Right Lane trolley line sign.
Verizon stop.
Argenta district in North Little Rock, similar to the River Market in Little Rock. Streetcars run late at night to accommodate people who want to ride between entertainment districts (Mon-Wed 8:20a.m. to 10 p.m., Thu-Sat 8:20 a.m. to midnight. Sundays they run from 10:40 a.m. ti 5:45 p.m.). The system carries a little over 100,000 passengers a year. A lot of the passengers are tourists, here to visit the Clinton Library and other places.
The Argenta Drug Store started in the late 1800s, and is the oldest continuously operated drug store west of the Mississippi. HGTV once was going to help pay to renovate the building and feature it on its programming, but it never happened.
Starving Artist Cafe, great food and lots of unique art.
Capeos Italian Steakhouse, which has some of the best Italian food and steaks I've had in the area.
Streetcar barn. This is where I got off.