Abilene and Smoky Valley Railroad announce major maintenance initiative

Officials of the Abilene and Smoky Valley Railroad have announced a major fundraising campaign to upgrade track between Abilene and Enterprise, the route of the railroad’s excursion trains. According to Ross Boelling, the general manager of the railroad, the project will require two phases, and the organization is working with granting agencies and seeking contributions to fund the project. A&SV needs about $75,000 to complete the ongoing first phase and will need about $1.8 million more to finish phase two.

The railroad operates on the former Herington-Salina subdivision of the Rock Island railroad. When that company went bankrupt in 1980, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad operated trains on the track before being absorbed by the Union Pacific in 1988. The Abilene and Smoky Valley, organized in 1993 as a non-profit organization, purchased the right of way from the Union Pacific, and has been operating excursion trains on the route between Abilene and Enterprise since 1994.

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