��Vlog��ý Little Rock digitizes historic railroad maps

Janea Snyder — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 20:24:03 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Center for Arkansas History and Culture has completed the digitization of more than 100 historic railroad maps that are now available online. The maps, created in 1917 and 1918, document the St. Louis, Iron Mountain, and Southern Railroad (SLIMS) and the Missouri Pacific Railroad (MoPac) in Arkansas. They trace the railroad from MoArk, Arkansas, to Texarkana, Arkansas. The maps not only depict train tracks mile by mile but also note land, bridges, and buildings owned by the railroad companies. Researchers can find existing and long-gone structures, including the Malvern Roundhouse, the North Little Rock Iron Mountain Shops, the Little Rock Oil and Compress plant, and the Newport Van Noy Hotel. “These large, unique maps include details that give us insight into Arkansas’s economic and cultural networks,” said Deborah J. Baldwin, associate provost of ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Collections and Archives. “This level of detail provides a rich portrait of where and how Arkansas towns developed in the early 20th century.” The Center for Arkansas History and Culture received the maps as a gift from Union Pacific in 2017. Union Pacific had inherited the drawings from its predecessor, the Missouri Pacific Railroad. The Cairo and Fulton Railroad Company built the original mapped railroad lines in 1871. In 1917, the Cairo and Fulton Railroad Company merged with the Missouri Pacific Railroad and the St. Louis, Iron Mountain, and Southern Railroad. The maps were originally created for the federal government’s Interstate Commerce Commission as a means to determine the value of each railroad company. This value statement was used to determine what companies could charge for passenger and freight rates. The fragile maps were brittle from age, and their sheer size – 4.5 feet by 2 feet – made them easy to tear, so the Center for Arkansas History and Culture made immediate plans to digitize them. With funding from the and the , the CAHC sent the drawings to a vendor equipped with large-format scanners. The digitization project, now complete, gives researchers online access to the maps anytime. Researchers can even zoom-in to view fine details that are not easily seen on the physical maps. The original maps will remain at the Center for Arkansas History and Culture. Photo above right: This North Little Rock map is one of several historic railroad maps available online through University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Center for Arkansas History and Culture.

Doyle Rankins’ graduation day is nearly 50 years in the making

Ajani Oyindamola — Tue, 08 May 2018 15:53:03 +0000

The first time Doyle Rankins was a student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1970, he was a 19-year-old rail service worker for Missouri Pacific Railroad (now Union Pacific) as well as a member of the Arkansas Air National Guard. With a work schedule that often shifted from days to nights, Rankins often had to quit classes in the middle of the semester to make his ever-shifting schedule work. He often muses that if online classes had existed in the 1970s, he could have finished his degree much faster. As an online student the second time around, Rankins completed a Bachelor of Applied Science and will graduate May 12 at the Jack Stephens Center – 48 years after he first started at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. Rankins married Susan Gardner in 1972, and the couple took some classes together at the university. By the time their first daughter, Ellen Edwards, was born in 1974, Rankins’ first round at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock had ended. The family briefly moved to St. Louis, where Rankins took classes for a year at St. Louis Community College-Meremac and the couple’s second daughter, Sherry Rankins-Robertson, associate professor of rhetoric and writing at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, was born. The couple returned to Little Rock in 1977 and welcomed their son, Matthew Rankins. During his 43-year career at Union Pacific, Rankins was a hard worker who once oversaw an area that stretched from Chicago to Yuma, Arizona. He was responsible for overseeing a workforce of more than 300 people and often flew on a helicopter to train derailment sites all over the country. Rankins-Robertson recalls how her parents instilled a strong work ethic and appreciation for higher education in her and her siblings. “My parents preached the importance of a college education to us since we were very little,” she said. “They were really passionate about us going to school. There was no one more passionate than my dad about me finishing my bachelor’s degree because I had a baby at 19. In their generation, having children meant going to work–not finishing school.”

Doyle Rankins stands on the Union Pacific 1960s patio caboose that bears his name. Photo by Ben Krain.

Rankins retired from Union Pacific in 2012 as director of Mechanical Maintenance Transportation-Southern Region. He started his own consulting business, Rankins Railroad Service, in 2013 and still works 12 hour a day, six days a week. While all three of his children and his granddaughter have earned college degrees from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Rankins got his chance at finishing his bachelor’s degree when Rankins-Robertson encouraged him to meet with Kathy Oliverio, director of military student success. The Bachelor of Applied Science degree is geared toward adults with military service. In 2016, he became an online student at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, nearly 40 years after the last time he attended college. His favorite classes included several writing courses, Earth Science, and ethics. His favorite professors included Melvin Beavers, Gerald Driskill, Simon Hawkins, Melissa Johnson, Wendy McCloud, and Kathy Oliverio. Rankins-Robertson will play a special role in her father’s graduation ceremony. As a faculty member, she will get to hand her father his diploma. “I am very excited. I was also able to award my daughter her degree last year, so it feels as if I have come full circle to award the generation below and above me their degrees,” she said. As for his post-graduation plans, Rankins is not giving up on school just yet. He plans to pursue a graduate degree in rhetoric and writing at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock as well as continue to run his consulting business. “I work today because I want to, not because I have to. I will keep working for as long as I am physically able, and I will keep doing education as well. I definitely want to keep doing things,” Rankins said. “People have asked me what am I going to do when I get out of college, and I ask them if they are crazy. What else could I do?”

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock digitizes historic railroad maps

Doyle Rankins’ graduation day is nearly 50 years in the making

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock digitizes historic railroad maps