Handfuls of people lined the railroad tracks Tuesday on Emma Avenue. Some wore bright-yellow rain slickers; others hid from the rain under umbrellas. All had cameras hanging around their necks.
A closer look revealed an array of collectible pins and T-shirts from around the country.
These weren't Arkansas' version of paparazzi. They weren't even Walmart stockholders.
The only stars in these folks' eyes are trains. Variously called "railfans," "toots" or even "foamers," because they stand in such awe they practically "foam" at the mouth as a train rolls through, hundred of them visited Springdale this week for the annual convention of the National Railway Historical Society.
Most of them can share their stories of love on what they know is the "right track."
• Liz Patterson of Bluewater, Mich., traces it back to her childhood. Her stepfather was a "troubleshooter" for the Detroit Terminal Railroad.
"I spent many a night in a car, hearing that clang-clang-clang of a crossing." She also remembers playing with the polliwogs in puddles by the railroad tracks. A claim to fame is seeing the last steam locomotive leave the rail yard, just a half mile from her home.
"I was a typical little kid," continued Patterson's husband, Mike Washenko. "I had a train set, and I always lived near the tracks. I guess I was always fascinated."
His family, too, put in their railroad time. His mother worked as a hostess for the Grand Trunk Western Railroad.
• "I grew up a block away from the tracks in New Jersey, and I knew early that on the railroad was where I wanted to work," said Reilly McCarren, owner of the A&M.
• Dave Byers got his start commuting on the Pennsylvania Railroad to New Jersey. His wife, Sarah, claims a father working as a station agent for the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad.
She recalled a trip from her youth: "There was no air conditioning. The windows were open, and soot was blowing into your hair. But, when you're a kid, who cares?"
• For Brenda Rouse, the passenger train superintendent for the A&M, it was the job. "They told me when I started that it would get under my skin. I wasn't here six months before it did. There's a magic in it. It gets in your blood."
• June and James Smith of Houston built their love of trains as they worked for her father building model railroads from pieces of wood -- rather than today's plastic.
They passed their love along to their son, Jason, of San Antonio.
• Jason Smith loves the historic locomotives from the American Locomotive Co. run by the A&M.
"They can pull a mountain," he said. "And they won't ask for anything but a little water and some fuel."
Jason, in turn, passed the bug to his children Skyler and Shay, who was named after Shay locomotives.
• "I'm a gearhead," Skyler Smith, 10, proclaimed proudly. Although his genes no doubt hold the train madness, he fuels it by reading ... and reading ... and reading, his grandmother said.
He prefers steam engines, though.
"Steam engines are so cool because you can really see the smoke on an old train," he said.
Skyler knows his sister Shay, 4, also is a railfan.
"She sneaks in my room and messes with my trains," he said.
Mom, Jennifer -- who married into this obsession -- said Shay has been riding trains since she was born. In fact, she was so comfortable in the train Tuesday, she took a nap on the bench during the return trip.
• British railfans Vic Lines and Jonathan Lee traveled together from Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, for the convention. In fact, they flew to Toronto and rode trains through Windsor, Ontario, Detroit and Chicago to St. Louis and drove the rest of their trip.
"In England, we don't have a car, so any holiday is by train," Lines said.
"Why would you fly?" Lee asked. "It's not a train."
Just like Americans, the men claimed railroad roots. Lee's grandfather was a train driver, and Line's father worked on maintenance way for the railroad. Great Britain claims the oldest railway system in the world.
"Once you get into these things, you go around the world," Lee said of his train habit. "It's like a hobby, and you get to see things you like and go to places you wouldn't otherwise go, meet people you wouldn't otherwise meet."
• For Wes Bailey, a conductor on the A&M, the whistle means more than just a call to work. "I wonder who it is, what my buddies are doing, what team is involved, what they are working on.
"Everyday before I put my shoes on, I pray to God that myself and my friends stay safe."
NW News on 06/12/2014