At one time A.E. Brown visited the Reader Railroad and he recorded this view of the road’s steam locomotive #11 as she was getting ready to depart from Reader. She’s putting out plenty of smoke, although the white flags are still limp. But she will soon be galloping down the mainline at perhaps 5 mph or so.

The Reader was a 23 mile shortline that ran between Reader, Arkansas (where it interchanged with the Missouri Pacific) to Waterloo, Arkansas where it’s largest customer was located, the Berry asphalt refinery. The number 11 is an oil-burning 2-6-2 Prairie built by Baldwin in 1925. I believe the locomotive still exists, and is displayed in a park in Nicholasville, Kentucky.

This is a scan of one of several 8″x10″ photos from the collection of the late Ron Findley. I was gifted that collection, and plan to scan several more of these photos from the Reader, along with a few other roads in the South. Stay tuned for more!