Abilene and Smoky Valley

Our friend Chuck Amstein took a vacation to the middle of Kansas and sent us some great photos from the trip, as usual.  His main destination was the Abilene and Smokey Valley Railroad, which operates on an old Rock Island branch between Abilene and Enterprise.

 They have restored this beautiful Santa Fe Pacific, and Chuck got a cab ride.

 It's a 1913 Baldwin, modernized in 1940 - converted to oil, new cab, LFM disc drivers, etc.


















Here they are running around the train at Enterprise, the end of the run.

  You can see the old Rock Island signals, no longer used.

 

This (L) looks even flatter than McHenry County.  I guess we're back in Kansas, Toto.

There will be other pictures from the heart of Kansas to post soon.

 

 
 And I will probably regret this, but....
 

Chuck also took pictures of this Hudson on display in Topeka.  It's part of a project to create a high-speed bio-fueled locomotive.  You can look up the threads discussing this project on RyPN and elsewhere; let's leave it at that.