CARONA, Kan. — At one time a bustling railroad hub, with as many as five freight and passenger trains coming in and out each day carrying freight, coal and passengers, Carona, Kansas, is now a sleepy little burg with scarce traffic and just a few small houses.
But the town draws thousands of visitors a year. They come because they love trains. And because a group of volunteer railroad enthusiasts are doing all that they can to ensure the history of railroading is preserved.
Formed in 1991, Heart of the Heartlands, comprised of 125 to 150 members scattered from coast to coast, with the assistance of Watco Companies, maintains the Carona museum, historic depots and railroad equipment, a restored steam engine and several times a year provide short passenger train rides and motorcar excursions.
The Depots
Two depots make visitors feel as if they’ve stepped into the past. The Carona Depot, built in the 1940s, was used as a passenger depot until the early 1960s. The depot was then sold and moved a quarter mile for use as a hay barn. The John Thompson family graciously donated the depot to the Heartlands organization for restoration, and it was moved closed to its original location near the track and restored with the help of many area volunteers and Heartlands members.
The Boston Depot, built in 1882 in the then-thriving community of Boston, Missouri, was removed from active service in 1932. The Heartlands group acquired it and moved it to Carona in 2005, working for the next few years to restore it to its former glory.
Similarly, the group restored the former Santa Fe Depot in Cherryvale, Kansas, in 1991. Built in 1910, it’s now the operating headquarters of the SK&O Railroad. The freight room at the north end of the depot is the home of the Cherry Valley Model Railroad Club, which meets every Friday evening.
But saving depots was just the beginning. More and more items of railroad history, from signals to train cars, have been accumulated at the site.
The museum complex now includes a locomotive, rail cars, railroad signaling devices, and an extensive collection of railroad memorabilia inside the Dick Webb Family Railroad Heritage Center — named for Watco’s founder.
The Engine
In 2013, club members relocated to Carona the last known Kansas City Southern steam engine in existence — Engine No. 1023, from Pittsburg, Kan., about 20 miles northeast — to be restored and positioned in a permanent display.
Built in 1906, the engine and tender had once been used as a switcher in the Pittsburg, Kansas, KCS rail yard but had been on display at Schlanger Park since 1956 when it was put out of service. Bud Johnson, father-in-law to Webb, was the superintendent of machinery at KCS at the time, and convinced the city to take it.
It made sense: Pittsburg has a rich history in railroading. But over the decades, it fell into disrepair and vandalism. Saved by Heart of the Heartlands and volunteers like Jim VanBecelaere, a local machinist who once rode the engine into Schlanger Park and agreed to fabricate many of the missing parts, it was moved to Carona and now looks like new.
Heartland oversaw the work of positioning the engine south of the museum on a concrete pad, sandblasting it down to bare metal, priming and painting it with shiny black Enron paint. The club rebuilt the window frames and doors. White lettering now spells out, “1023” and “K.C.S.”
And for the first time in decades, a bell on top can ring out with the pull of a rope from the fireman’s seat in the cab.
Larry Spahn, president of the Heart of the Heartlands Railroad Club, was instrumental in saving and restoring it. Representative of a bygone era, the engine’s restoration was important, he said, because it will stand as a testament to the development of the nation.
“The U.S. is held together with steel rails and wire,” said Spahn, who believes that prior to it coming to Pittsburg, the engine was used on a line from Kansas City to Shreveport, Louisiana.
“We’re trying to preserve the past for the future,” Spahn said.
A plaque nearby honors Bud Johnson and the KCS.
Rides
Heart of the Heartlands also has become known for wildly popular passenger train rides and motorcar excursions across the region in cooperation with Watco, the Dick Webb Family and Southeast Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad.
Jim McKeel, a club member in Wichita, Kansas, noted that within 24 hours of posting a notice on the Heartland Facebook page that the Spring ride schedule had been posted on the group’s website, more than 6,200 followers had viewed the post.
“It looks like quite a few people are very interested in what we do,” Spahn said. “I think Dick would be happy.”
When the group began train rides 24 years ago, he noted, flat cars with bales of hay were used. Today, the rides are in three 1950’s era air-conditioned coaches pulled by a diesel engine.
For details, ticket prices and instructions on making reservations, visit www.heartlandstrainclub.org
Getting to Carona:
The Carona museum complex is located at 6769 NW 20th St. From Hwy 400 and K-7 junction, it is four miles south on K-7 to K-102 junction, two miles west on K-102, and then one-quarter of a mile south. The outdoor displays are open for viewing at any time. The museum is open the first and third weekends June through August, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., or by appointment for large groups. There is no admission fee, but donations are accepted. Tour buses are welcome and the museum is ADA accessible. Public restrooms are available. Less than five miles away is Big Brutus, the giant steamshovel of the strip mining era.
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