I haven't seen this reported yet, but maybe I missed it. Midland Railway Historical Association ran a tourist line out of Baldwin City, Kansas. Apparently, they are in the process of a Fremont & Elkhorn Valley style flame-out. The Midland is in the middle of a series of lawsuits, and one of their upper managers is being charged with felony fraud. There has been no trains since last year, and the Kansas Belle dinner train (separate entity) says on their website that they have shut down as of last November.

Yesterday, it was reported that the property, rail, and "rolling assets" were sold to the Ottawa Northern, and new railroad controlled by Rock Island Rail. No idea what this means for either the tourist or dinner train. Personally, my concern is their former MKT RS3m, which is the last survivor.

Seems like news worthy of disclosure, so there you go.

It might not be all gloom and doom. The head of the new Rock Island, Robert Riley, has said he has long hoped to be able to provide excursion opportunities and has been acquiring equipment toward that end, and he was just named Chief Operating Officer and Chief Mechanical Officer of the Louisiana Steam Train Association. Railfan & Railroad also said "Riley said he is looking forward not only to working on the 2-8-2, but on finding a new permanent home where it and other LASTA equipment can operate."

There are a post or two about it on Facebook but not many replies. I figured news of this would spread like a wildfire. I hope that the Midland (or a new name) will return this Spring and be very profitable. It's close to Kansas City and was a nice run every time I rode it when I lived in KC before and now that I am back and i'm older and making more money, and have more disposable income, that means more money for train rides.

As far as I'm concerned, no gloom or doom here. I volunteered at Midland at one point, and they were definitely on their way out, even back then. Rock Island Rail is a serious operator, and there is good future potential that did not exist under the Midland.

Sounds like the RS-3m is safe based off of Robet Riley's own Facebook comments.

"It isn’t going anywhere. Ask Andrew Johnson I’ve been chasing that unit for a number of years. I told him one day I’d end up with it as a joke. Guess the joke got really funny today."

"Probably one of the most unique motors in the fleet. Tried to get the one we had at Pioneer but it was stripped. A buddy bought it and scrapped it. The new radiators did however go to repair a museum locomotive in Oklahoma. The Katy motors I believe were built for them by the Penn Central so is just like the Dewitt Geep we had at Pioneer. It and the 5 will stay Katy."

I happened to find out, secondhand, that at least some of their vintage equipment was privately owned. The Arizona State RR Museum Foundation undertook to acquire ATSF Ce-1 waycar/caboose 999060 from its owner at the Midland Railway about two years ago; the ASRRM chairman sought out that car specifically because it was still in original railroad condition, save for the RR's own plating over of some windows, and because it had just been given a high-quality, long-lasting exterior paint job. (As it was described to me, "For the cost of either moving one of the other cabooses from Tempe up to Williams or less than the paint job would cost, we got an already-restored, operable museum piece!") BUT it took over a year for the railroad to get the caboose to an interchange for pickup, because it was blocked by hundreds of stored hopper cars, which I was later told were scrapped on site, one by one!

Given what was at the Midland Railway and the seemingly "railfan" history-minded inclination of Rock Island Rail, given that the fall-out was already well under way, I probably couldn't ask for a better future prospect for the operation.

First, can someone kindly point me to the source of this information? I'd like to read the relevant posts and/or articles.

I worked on the Midland as a brakeman for a brief time after I moved to KC. The ride was slow and meandering but pleasant enough. I decided against long term volunteering because I was (at the time) splitting time with IRM and it was a bit of a drive from my home.

Things went rapidly downhill after that decision and AJ Steven took over. Most incredulously, the railway was evicted from their depot after he stopped making lease payments in a bizarre attempt to gain possession of the property.

The website is basically nothing now, but Christmas trains were run on the line this past year.

Facebook post from the announcement.

https://www.facebook.com/1919A4gunner/p ... ZbUtvLy7il

https://www2.ljworld.com/news/general-n ... th-felony/

https://www2.ljworld.com/news/general-n ... ll-resume/

Pay site. I got the gist off Train Orders, plus I managed to read part of the articles before they slapped up the "You Must Pay Loser" page (helps to be a speed reader sometimes).

Otherwise this one happened in a media vacuum.......