Shortly after Frisco passed away we had a new arrival, a tabby kitten. She was named Belle — the Kansas City Southern Railroad used to have a passenger train called the ‘Southern Belle’, often referred to simply as the ‘Belle’. Unfortunately Belle seems to have been a bit of a wanderer, and after going missing […]
In the spring of 2004, we had noticed a new calico cat coming in and out of the car barn for food. Although she was, a little shy at first, that quickly melted away after she became friends with the museum President at the time, Art Martin, and the other museum volunteers. The calico cat […]
Smoky arrived at the museum in December of 2003 and took up residence in the Frisco steam locomotive #4003. Dr. Martin tried to give her a home inside the car barn, but she would scramble madly for an exit each time she was brought in! Smoky likes to keep lookout from her favorite spot high […]
Frisco, a dark gray tabby, arrived at the car barn a few months before Katy vanished. The two cats took to each other before museum volunteers even noticed he was around, and he was soon part of the trolley “family.” He was the first male cat at the museum. It’s easy to see that Frisco […]
Katy was the first “trolley cat” to make her home at the Fort Smith Trolley Museum. She was a beautiful stray calico who showed up at the car barn in December of 1997 and quickly won the heart of museum founder Art Martin (who already had two cats at home) with her affectionate ways. After much debate, […]
Towards the end of 2015, we started noticing a black cat on the property. It was several weeks before he would let anybody approach him, but has since become a member of the museum as a Trolley Cat. Due to being a solid black cat he was named Midnight after The Midnight Special passenger train formerly operated […]
In mid-2014 yet another feline appeared, probably heard there was a vacancy. The very handsome grey tabby now called Narrow Gauge was at the museum for 3 or 4 weeks before he let anyone get a good look at him. But he’s quite friendly now and ‘gets along with the other cats as well as […]
Daylight is our resident ginger female — which is unusual — and made herself at home, first in the carbarn and then she moved into the library. Unofficially called Sunshine, she was later given the name Daylight, after a Southern Pacific train called the ‘Daylight Special’. Said to be a feisty cat who ‘likes to […]
May 2010 saw another new arrival. The fact that he’s a ‘big boy’ brought to mind the Union Pacific railroad (which ran Big Boy locomotives, the largest articulated ones ever built), so he was named Uncle Pete, which was the UP’s nickname. He was very thin when he first appeared at the museum and his head […]
A calico like Katy, Casey had the good fortune to be brought to the Fort Smith Trolley Museum from elsewhere, by choosing just the right house at which to solicit food. Dr. Martin’s daughter Nancy had been leaving food out for the stray at her home south of Fort Smith, but decided she couldn’t add […]