Abilene and Smoky Valley Railroad
ABILENE - The Abilene and Smoky Valley Railroad will soon have a full time employed staff member in charge of maintaining the railroad’s fleet of antique engines and passenger cars.
A labor services agreement between the A&SV and its consulting partner, Heritage Rail Management of Durango, Colorado, was signed Monday, which creates a staff position in charge of balancing the maintenance needs of the A&SV and Heritage Rail, the management arm of American Heritage Railways (AHR) and the owner of vehicles currently stored on A&SV sidetracks in Abilene and Enterprise.
According to A&SV General Manager Ross Boelling, AHR owns passenger cars that once belonged to the Utah Transit Authority that were moved to the railyards in Abilene and Enterprise two years ago. Additionally, AHR owns six cars of the Kansas Belle dinner train that were moved from Baldwin City to Abilene in 2024.
AHR currently pays the Abilene and Smoky Valley for car storage and intends to make cars from both sets of vehicles operational. Once restored, the vehicles would be dispatched to the company’s other owned and operated tourist railroads.
Boelling said that the shared employee would live in the Abilene area and be able to devote time to ongoing projects of both firms.
“Our goals for the upcoming months include such projects as upgrading our passenger coaches with restroom facilities and repainting our train. And steam engine restoration is an ongoing project. We need someone on the premises to lead volunteer workers in these tasks,” he said.
Boelling added that the task of maintaining the railroad’s diesel engines is almost a fulltime job in itself.
“The A&SV has grown to the point where engine failure that could cause cancellation of dinner, excursion or charter trains can cost the railroad thousands of dollars. Trains need to be able to run as scheduled. Simply put, failure is not an option for us,” he said.
Boelling was quick to point out that adding a paid maintenance supervisor does not mean that the railroad is decreasing its reliance on volunteers, a labor source that has always played a role in the railroad’s operations.
“We’ve essentially grown into a fulltime business that is still supported by volunteer interest and that will not change,” he explained.
“But while the backbone of the Abilene and Smoky Valley Railroad is our volunteer staff, such variables as health issues, and family and job demands, greatly affect staff availability at a time when our maintenance demands exceed what volunteer labor by itself can perform. We need a full time presence to supervise the workflow and keep it going.”
Abilene and Smoky Valley Railroad will provide the application of the position on their website sometime next week.
Here is the link the their website: asvrr.org