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I only worked vacation relief at some point for Bob Fink who was the master of equipment for the wood train. Someone mentioned it came out of Mountain Pine, but as I recall it originated at Hope, but I am probably wrong. The train picked up wood racks in the 724000 series and wood chip hoppers at various stations and went around the hump at NLRK. I believe it went through Union Station. It did carry Pine Bluff and Bastrop cars, but may have terminated At PBLF and passed the Bastrops to a local, but again not clear, been too long ago.
Every once in awhile the wood cutters would cheat a little too much and one night a wood rack knocked the locomotive mirror off Amtrak #21 heading in the opposite direction on the double track. Much ado about that! Lots of tape measuring for several weeks.
There was a wood chip loader at Corning AR served by a local but they would frequently get to the point where their hopper would get full and begin phoning everyone in the book for an empty immediately. This usually resulted in a through freight out of NLRK being set up with a chip hopper behind the power to set out at Corning. Happened on a semi regular basis.
I am sure someone more knowledgeable can add to or correct.
Warren Wilson
