Christmas train tops off successful year for ASVRR

Gail Parsons, Abilene Reflector-Chronicle, Kan.
·2 min read

Dec. 26—The Abilene and Smoky Valley Railroad is winding down a successful season. With two more planned rides on Dec. 30 and 31, they counted having close to 13,000 passengers in 2023, well above the 8,500 they had in 2022.

The volunteers also increased the number of Christmas trains from nine last year to 30, the last of which ran Dec. 23. All those rides sold out by Dec. 6, said Ross Boelling, president and general manager of the ASVRR Association.

He attributes the increase to ASVRR's collaboration with Heritage Rail Management, which hooked them up with Rockhouse Partners, a website and marketing company that also runs the e-tix ticketing system.

"We have grown by, I want to say about 5,000 on Facebook," Boelling said. "We've been using Instagram and we've done some targeting advertising in a couple of different areas. It's paid off."

The Cowtown Santa Express brought at least 600 people to Abilene every weekend it ran.

Throughout the year the train had passengers from 13 states and all over Kansas. It wasn't uncommon for groups of 20 to 30 people to buy tickets and get together for the ride.

"It's just amazing," he said. "The nice thing about being centrally located ... is that we had people that would buy the tickets ... and then the families would come in from Kansas City and Wichita or wherever and meet in Abilene. They all came together came together as a family."

In addition to people coming in from long distances, they have also had an increase in guests from Abilene, Junction City, Fort Riley and Salina.

They keep track of where people are coming in from based on the zip codes they give when purchasing tickets. Of the 747 zip codes in Kansas, 25% represent people who have been on the train.

Boelling said the ASVRR board is in the process of working up plans for next season but Christmas trains will be on the schedule. This year, the trains were decorated in and out bringing holiday cheer down the track from Abilene to Enterprise and back.

For each ride, Enterprise Car children visited with Santa Claus; in the Chicago car they sang Christmas carols, had hot chocolate and cookies, and listened to former KMAN morning show host Dave Lewis reads "Yes, Virginia," "There is a Santa Claus" and "The Night Before Christmas." Halfway through the trip, they stop and switch cars.

Seeing the smiles on the children's faces and watching as families bask in the Christmas spirit makes the work that goes into the Cowtown Santa Express all worthwhile, he said.

"My goal is to give everybody an opportunity to kind of get away from the ... world and just enjoy themselves," he said.