Arkansas & Missouri Railroad — Attraction in Springdale

I am very grateful to have a railroad 70 miles away from me, in Arkansas, and not owned by a big corporation. I love the new railroad crossings, especially the ones that include a sidewalk/trail gate! Kudos to them for installing these at some crossings!!! I also love the fact that they tell us stuff about the area we are in. I enjoy the normal train rides (kind of), but not the annoying ones. I also enjoy seeing the train go by when I'm in transportation.

Currently, their rides are just okay. They are slowly getting better, but they need to change some things before they can become good.

They have giant, concert-style speakers in the passenger cars that are zip-tied to the carriage racks. Since they are inside these cars, they blast sounds out, no matter what volume they are at, which bounce off the walls. Because of this, they produce ear-splitting sounds, even when not at high volume! These need to be replaced with NORMAL speakers in the ceiling that are made for indoor use or buy railcars that already have speakers built into the ceiling, like everybody else!!!

It would help if they played music on the normal rides, but it can't be country, bluegrass, or christian music unless they play 1 pop song, 1 modern rock song, 1 old rock song, and 1 alternative song along with it. This is called a mix of music. Everyone loves mixes because everyone gets to hear something they love! NO KARAOKE!!! PERIOD!!!

The singing ("caroling") on the Christmas train NEEDS TO STOP!! It is very annoying and it feels like they are slapping every customer in the face!!! Normal Christmas music playing on the speakers is fine too, unless Polar Express is playing!!!

During the Christmas train, they play the Polar Express movie on a TV that nobody can see (22 to 27 inch) and is on MUTE!!! This movie needs to be played on a bigger TV that everyone can see and the sound needs to be on the speakers so everyone can hear it!!!

Even though some crossings have been updated, not all the crossings have been updated. Some sidewalks/ trails still have no safety devices and some roads have no gates! These need to be improved!!!

I saw someone describe this railroad as vintage, yet there is nothing vintage about it. If this was a vintage railroad, they would not have the new, beautiful railroad crossing safety gates at some sidewalks and trails.

The last time I went (2019), they didn't let us choose which car we wanted, where the car will be, choose to ride in a car directly behind the engine, or anything when I bought my tickets!!! The only thing I got to choose was whether I wanted Coach or something else. THAT'S IT!! EVERYTHING is a guessing game and you don't get to choose anything!!! You also don't get to walk from car to car, unlike other railroads!!!

They have done some things better over the years, but not everything. They still have a long way to go before they can even be called good. The ride itself is meh. The normal rides are by far the best and the beautiful, new railroad crossings make the ride better than anything else does. Off-ride is amazing because you don't have to put up with these annoying things that need to be fixed. If you are okay with the bad parts of the ride, then by all...

My Mom bought us tickets for what we thought would be an experience of a lifetime!! We were so excited about the train excursion that we hardly slept the night before...What a let down!!!! We were in train 105. My Mom thought they provided a light breakfast so we did not eat prior to the departure. That was a huge mistake!! Thank GOD we brought petty cash to purchase water, muffin, and a Danish for a $1 each. No coffee!! I guess they just offer that to the premium upstairs. 😡 Also, the description states mountain view...LIES!! All we seen was trees....trees....and MORE trees besides the many construction sites throughout the cities. We couldn't understand anything the train attendant was saying over the speaker, because of the train horn, so any interesting points were totally lost. The little interesting facts they did give which were a total of maybe three. The train was agonizingly slow, moving at a rate of about 25-30 mph if that most of the time. We were nodding off from boredom throughout the ride. Once we reached our destination, Van Buren, we were letdown once again!!!! Hardly any shops. Lots of vacant store fronts.Only 2 restaurants to choose from. You would think that they would more to entertain and entice the visitors. 3 hours is way too long to stay in Van Buren with NOTHING to do!!! They told us to be back to the train by 1:45 but the train did not return from Winslow until after 2:15 and we did not depart until after 2:40. There was no communication from the conductor or staff as to the delay. On the return ride you could smell the commode throughout the train. It was horrible!! 🤮 This was one of the LONGEST days of my life!! I will NEVER recommend this train ride!! Definitely not worth the money spent!!! Buyer beware you DON'T get what...

I don't think the ride itself was bad. The main reason for giving 3 stars comes down to value. We bought two tickets on the silver feather car. After tax it was almost $250 for two people. If we would have paid half that I would have rated it higher. We definitely felt a little let down by the whole experience.

The first disappointment was the ride definitely favors one side of the train, I believe the side facing east. The views were much better. So we had duck down pretty low to see out the windows on the other side of the train and couldn't really take pictures because other people were sitting at the tables. That would have been fine for first part of the ride but when we went upstairs in the dome for the return trip, we were on the same side. They should not only switch top and bottom but also switch the sides so everyone gets a window view of each side.

Then we were slightly disappointed with Van Buren. There really wasn't much to do or see. The 3 hours there was more than enough to see all the shops and have lunch. Nothing against Van Buren, just wasn't very exciting.

The breakfast and lunch was meh but I really wasn't expecting anything spectacular. The staff was fairly nice. And the train was what you would expect for something that is probably over half a century old.

One thing that is out of the railroads control but was really disappointing was the amount of junk and trash we saw along the trip. Not only litter but we saw so many properties that were just overtaken with trash and junk. Was a little sad to see such a lack of respect for nature and to see so many people's properties looking like junk yards and dumps.

Again, it wasn't a horrible experience, just didn't seem worth what we paid. Can't see us every doing any more...