If you have ever wondered what it would be like to manage a small railroad, this book provides detail enough that you can live with A. P. Rudowsky for fifty-five years as he manages the fortunes and misfortunes that beset the D&R.   Unlike many railroad historians who are content to recount stories told by former employees and relate events giving little or no reason for their occurrence, these authors have done their research and assessed probable causes.   Hull and Pollard have provided you with a first class ticket for accommodations to travel through the history of the area for 111 years on the D&R.   All Aboard!
J. A. Hannold, President Arkansas & Missouri RR, Arkansas Historical Quarterly

This is local history at its best... the story and photographs are reason enough to buy the volume, but this book is more than the simple tale of the activities of a tiny railroad.   The much bigger issue that the authors explore is how the railroad both influenced and responded to the changing conditions of small scale industrial development in rural America.
Bobby Roberts, Arkansas Libraries

This book is a classic example of how a shortline railroad should be documented.   The book's 10 chapters earn a strong A+ for its sense of history, for its reporting on detail, and for giving us a feeling of having been there as the line's story is played out.   The Dardanelle & Russellville Railroad has to be one of the best and most complete histories ever published.
G. M. McDonald, Editor, The Short Line

Everything you ever wanted to know, and then some, on the D&R Railroad is in this book.   The reader gets an in depth look into the operation of a struggling short line railroad and in detail rarely seen as the authors take you through good times and bad.   This book is, literally, an autobiography.   An excellent book, highly recommended.
Doug Cummings, Extra 2200 South

If there were an award for the biggest book about the shortest railroad, this massive 540 page volume (over 100 pages per mile of railroad) might well win.   Numerous appendices detail everything from equipment rosters to the issuance dates of employee timetables.   The no-nonsense layout features plenty of text; illustration consists of good quality black-and-white photos, maps, and various documents.   For a railroad of the age and length of the D&R to survive intact to 1995 is a remarkable feat.   This weighty work is a fine chronicle of and tribute to a plucky little railroad.
Robert S. McGonigal, Trains Magazine