Former Train Maintenance Shops in Malvern AR

Hot Springs Railroad Roundhouse, Malvern Arkansas

Date added: April 06, 2025

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The Hot Springs Railroad Roundhouse is the last remaining railroad roundhouse in Arkansas. The roundhouse was used by the Hot Springs Railroad for servicing the railroad's locomotives from its construction in 1887 until 1904.

Construction of the Hot Springs Railroad began in Malvern in April 1875 as the brainchild of Diamond Jo Reynolds, and trains began operating into Hot Springs one year later. Diamond Jo Reynolds, besides being the developer of the Hot Springs Railroad, was also the founder of the famed Diamond Jo Steamboat Line, and one of the most colorful rivermen on the Mississippi River. He was born in New York in 1819, but moved to Chicago by the 1850s. Characterized by his contemporaries as a "born trader," Jo Reynolds entered the steamboat trade with one boat, the Lansing, in 1862. Recognizing the potential for the bulk shipment of grain, Reynolds became the leading grain shipper on the Upper Mississippi, and by 1873, his fleet consisted of five boats and twenty barges.

In the 1870s, one of the Diamond Jo steamers was named Arkansas, an unlikely name for an upper Mississippi River company, but a name which hinted at Reynolds' other interest, the Hot Springs Railroad. Reynolds had endured stagecoach rides to Hot Springs, to treat his rheumatism and arthritis with the "healing waters." The stagecoach rides were less than satisfactory, and in 1875, Reynolds began building the Hot Springs Railroad, extending north from Malvern Junction, a station on the Cairo & Fulton, to Hot Springs. The arrival of the railroad in Hot Springs dramatically increased the business of the growing spa, thanks to the much-improved access.

In order to provide repair and service facilities for the Hot Springs Railroad, a wooden roundhouse was constructed at Malvern (Malvern Junction), and smaller engine servicing facilities were built in Hot Springs. Between May and August 1876, the Hot Springs Railroad constructed large passenger stations at both Malvern and Hot Springs. The wooden roundhouse at Malvern was replaced by a new five-stall brick roundhouse in 1887. Construction on the new structure started in mid-1887, with the laying of a substantial granite foundation. The granite was obtained from the quarries at Cove Creek, located on the Hot Springs Railroad about 10 miles north of Malvern.

On October 16^th, 1889, the Hot Springs Railroad was converted from narrow gauge to standard gauge in the course of about three hours, after several months of advance preparation. The brick roundhouse and turntable were modified for standard gauge operation, and continued in service as the principal locomotive shop for the Hot Springs Railroad.

The opening of the Little Rock, Hot Springs & Western Railroad (LR&HSW) in April 1900 provided more direct access to Hot Springs from Little Rock and the north. Both the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf and the Iron Mountain took advantage of this route, effectively cutting the volume of interchange traffic moving over the Hot Springs Railroad. When Gould/Iron Mountain interests were successful in purchasing the LR&HSW in the spring of 1901, the Choctaw was forced to develop another route into Hot Springs. In the meantime, the Hot Springs Railroad had been sold by the heirs of Joseph (Diamond Jo) Reynolds to St. Louis financier Joseph Dickson. After a series of rumors surfaced, Dickson confirmed that the property had been purchased by the Choctaw, and on June 1^st, 1901, Choctaw president Frances I. Gowen succeeded Dickson as president of the Hot Springs Railroad.

Malvern leaders were concerned about the routing of the Choctaw's connecting line from Little Rock to the Hot Springs Railroad, recognizing that if the Choctaw chose the most direct route, the primary Little Rock-Hot Springs service would bypass Malvern. The Little Rock (Hot Springs Junction) to Benton segment of the LR&HSW was redundant for the Iron Mountain, but when its sale price was established far above market value, the Choctaw began surveying their own route from Little Rock to Malvern. This strategy forced a more reasonable price from the Iron Mountain, and the Choctaw acquired that portion of the LR&HSW between Benton and Little Rock. With this trackage, it was necessary to construct 17 miles of new track from Benton to Butterfield, a station on the Hot Springs Railroad. Just as Malvern leaders feared, this arrangement placed Malvern at the end of a branch line instead of being the important junction point of earlier years. Choctaw passenger trains were granted operating rights over the Iron Mountain from Benton to Malvern until the new trackage was completed.

In March 1901, one of the Malvern newspapers had noted that the shops were being repainted. It was not known at the time, but this would prove to be one of the last improvements made to the shops before they were closed. In mid-July, the Choctaw's inspection engine Arapahoe stopped in Malvern while officials inspected the Hot Springs Railroad shops. A newspaper reporter tried unsuccessfully to interview Superintendent Harris about the rumored removal of the shops from Malvern.

Three months later, the Choctaw's Hot Springs schedule was again adjusted to grant trackage rights over the former LR&HSW between Benton and Hot Springs, thus eliminating service through Malvern. With this change, the railroad reassigned all Malvern shop positions to Hot Springs. Malvern's newspaper editor warned that, "If the shop closure is true, it will be a decided setback for Malvern, and constitutes a matter of such vital importance to the business interests of town as to require immediate attention from the board of trade."

Malvern was unsuccessful in retaining the shops, and in October 1902, the Malvern Meteor reported the start of demolition of the shop buildings. "The tearing down of the Hot Springs Railroad car sheds and other buildings here and taking up the switches leading to them looks bad, and has the appearance of almost sacrilege. Since the company has removed their shops to another point and is determined not to make further use of these buildings, they are pursuing the proper course in tearing them down and using the material elsewhere. This is better than allowing them to stand there and rot down, for there is nothing that looks worse or has a more damaging effect on a town than a number of vacant buildings of this character."

The roundhouse might have continued in limited use for a few more months, but its railroad service was also ending. The 1904 Sanborn Fire Insurance map indicated that tracks and turntable were still in place, but that the building was no longer in use. By 1908, tracks had been removed, and the former roundhouse had become a warehouse for the Rockwell Manufacturing Company, a manufacturer of screen doors, window screens and window frames.

Thus began a variety of non-railroad uses for the former roundhouse. By 1913, the Rockwell plant had become the Arkansas Short Leaf Door Company, and the roundhouse, although vacant again, was part of this complex. The adjacent plant area was operated by McCormick Lumber & Supply in 1920, and the roundhouse building was used by Wholesale Feed and Grain. Ten years later, McCormick was still in operation, but the roundhouse had become a grocery warehouse for the American Company of Arkansas. By 1947, Clem Mill and Gin Company had constructed a new structure just west of the roundhouse, but the roundhouse continued as a warehouse for Wholesale Feed and Flour. Later, Clem Wholesale Grocery Company used the roundhouse before it was acquired by Hardy's Insulation.

Even after the closure of the Malvern roundhouse, a servicing facility was maintained at Malvern, with an engine watchman on duty to handle minor servicing details for locomotives that tied up at Malvern. In steam days, the facilities included fuel (coal, then later oil), water (supplied by the Missouri Pacific at a rate of $0.114 per thousand gallons), and sand. A wye track was maintained to turn locomotives, and servicing facilities were grouped around the wye, north and east of the former roundhouse. Steam fueling and servicing facilities were replaced by a 20,000-gallon diesel fuel tank in 1952, as the railroad dieselized outlying points. Locomotive servicing at Malvern ended in 1965, when Tom Foster's position as the last engine watchman was abolished at the close of duty, August 31^st, 1965. In the following month, the diesel fueling and sanding facilities at Malvern were retired.

Building Description

The Hot Springs Railroad Roundhouse in Malvern, Arkansas (the last complete railroad roundhouse in the state of Arkansas) was built by the Hot Springs Railroad in 1887 as a five-stall narrow-gauge railroad roundhouse and has retained much of its original look and condition. It is still in its original location at the intersection of the Arkansas Midland Railroad, which curves around it on the east side, and Union Pacific Railroad close to downtown Malvern. It measures 67 feet by 25 feet per stall.

There have been some modifications, such as windows being partially bricked in, a wooden floor covering the area where the tracks used to be, a large roll-up garage door added on the south side, and the stall entrances being bricked in. The abandoned Clem Wholesale building is attached on the northwest side of the roundhouse (the date of this attachment is unknown), but the integrity of the roundhouse has not been affected by this attachment. Additionally, the associated turntable is no longer in existence, and one unused track remains on the northwest side of the building. The roundhouse is currently used for storing building supplies.

The north elevation consists of the location of the original stall doors that allowed the locomotives to access the turntable. Although the edges of the stalls are still visible, the original stall doors have been removed and the openings have been bricked in. The exterior wall is now covered with stucco. A single door, in the central bay of the facade, opens into the area where the turntable existed. The location of the turntable is fenced off and currently overgrown with weeds.

The east elevation is divided into three bays by brick pilasters. Each bay has a different height given the slope of the roof. Also, each bay has one window with a granite sill and brick segmental arch lintel. The windows in the northern two bays have been partially bricked in, and corrugated fiberglass covers the remaining windows. The southern bay of the facade also contains a bricked in doorway with brick segmental arch lintel and a sign advertising Hardy's Insulation and Trenching. Some faded ghost signs also remain under the sign for Hardy's. The entire facade is surmounted by a corbelled brick cornice.

The outer elevation of the roundhouse is also divided into five bays, one for each stall. Like the side elevations, the bays are divided by brick pilasters, and the entire facade is surmounted by a corbelled brick cornice. Each bay originally consisted of two windows with granite sills and brick segmental arch lintels. All of the remaining windows are currently covered with corrugated fiberglass. Also, each bay has a centrally placed oculus with decorative brick border above the two main windows.

The easternmost bay still retains both full-height windows. The next bay moving west has had the right side window replaced with a metal garage door, and the remaining window has been partially bricked in. Additionally, a concrete ramp and shed-roofed canopy have been built in front of the garage door. In the central bay of the facade both windows have been partially bricked in. The next bay moving west has also had its windows partially bricked in. Additionally, some work has been done to the masonry above the windows. The oculus no longer exists except for a partial outline. The westernmost bay of the facade has had some reconstruction done, and now contains the main entrance into the building. A shed-roofed breezeway has also been built at this bay in order to connect the building to the one next door.

Like the east elevation, the west elevation is divided into three bays by brick pilasters. Each bay has a different height given the slope of the roof. Also, each bay has one window with a granite sill and brick segmental arch lintel. The windows in the outer bays of the facade have had the bottom portions enlarged and replaced with sliding doors. The northern door is labeled "1" and the southern door is labeled "2". This facade abuts the unused railroad track, and the doors were probably used for ease of unloading materials from railcars. The central window has been partially bricked in. Unlike the windows on the other facades, these have not been covered with corrugated fiberglass. A roof has also been built connecting this facade to the building next door. The entire facade is surmounted by a corbelled brick cornice.

The interior of the roundhouse remains a large open space. The walls are exposed brick and the floor is currently wood. The ceiling retains its exposed beams, and evidence of vents is still present in the ceiling structure, although the vents are no longer operational. A raised wood platform exists in the center of the space, and has been built between some of the original wood support columns. Another raised platform exists in the northeast corner of the space.