Photography by Dave Mayes (Courtsey of Abilene Convention & Visitors Bureau)
The Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad transports passengers to the golden age of rail travel with classic dining experiences
All aboard the Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad for a taste of Kansas history, a sampling of adventure, and a serving of nostalgia. With more than 30 dinner trains scheduled for 2025, the Abilene & Smoky Valley dinner train (A&SV) offers passengers a chance to feast on authentic dishes inspired by the golden age of rail travel. Other themed dinners aboard the A&SV include menus reminiscent of Kansas’ cow-town heyday, international cuisine, and a taste of high society.
According to A&SV historian Kevin Bailey, a desire to serve historically accurate cuisine resulted in the train’s unique Dining Car Heritage Series. The focus was on those trains that once traveled through Kansas, including the Union Pacific, which made stops in Abilene; the Missouri Pacific, which included stops in Council Grove, Herington, and Lindsborg; the Rock Island trains that ran through major cities such as Topeka and Wichita as well as through Belleville, Colby, Herington, and Goodland; the Santa Fe, which stopped in Topeka, Emporia, Newton, Wichita, Arkansas City, Hutchinson, and Dodge City; and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT), affectionately known as “The Katy.” Because today’s train includes a “Chicago” car, menus from the Chicago and North Western Railway have also been included.
Historic menus went from paper to plate as train volunteer Steve Smethers worked with Abilene caterer Lucinda Kohman of Lucinda’s Katering. Their 1940s Rock Island Rocket dining car menu includes chicken fricassee, Kentucky-style potatoes and stewed corn, coleslaw, dinner rolls and butter, with chocolate cake for dessert. Smethers welcomes guests aboard the train with fun facts about their excursion.
Smethers and Kohman try to adhere to original recipes, but sometimes adjustments are necessary. Although the dining cars are still equipped with kitchens, they are no longer serviceable. “We prepare all foods in advance and transport them in hot boxes, so dishes must be able to maintain temperature and quality,” Kohman says. Kohman also notes that tastes and even ingredients can change over time, as indicated in one of A&SV’s popular recipes, “Katy Kornettes.” These pancake-style corn cakes appear on the historical MKT dining car menu, but because they are bland by today’s standards, corn muffins have replaced them.
Besides their Dining Car Heritage Series, Kohman has crafted other A&SV menus featuring melt-in-your-mouth roast beef and chicken with dressing, both served with mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans simmered with onions and ham. Desserts like apple pie, strawberry shortcake and peach cobbler transcend the test of time and are a welcome addition to any of her menus, historical or otherwise. While plating food in a small service area presents some challenges, Kohman and her staff strive to serve attractive meals with table settings that rival the golden-age elegance of bygone days.
Ross Boelling took over as A&SV president and general manager in 2022. Working with experts at the heritage tourism company Heritage Rail Management, A&SV sought to expand the number of excursions, including their dinner trains. After the addition of a second dining car in 2023, seating capacity grew in 2024 from 56 to 104, and the number of dinner train excursions increased from 17 to 31; nearly 2,500 diners climbed aboard for the dining experience. “Essentially A&SV has gone from a small nonprofit organization into a medium-sized nonprofit business,” Boelling explains.
Looking to expand the dinner train’s catering options as well, Boelling reached out to local caterers, including the owners and operators of the Broadway Station in Herington. With an emphasis on Kansas-produced beef, they created a three-course “Date Night” dinner for A&SV that featured a choice of prime rib or smothered chicken.
Brookville Hotel in Abilene, one of the first restaurants that catered train meals when A&SV restored their first dining car in 1996, also provides catering. Under new management, the hotel now known as Legacy Kansas: Munson’s Prime & Brookville Hotel offers passengers their world-famous fried chicken dinners, similar to those the restaurant served when it opened in the 1870s.
Amanda Collins of Amanda’s Bakery & Bistro, Abilene, collaborated with Smethers and Terry Tietjens, owner of the historic Seelye Mansion, to create a memorable Mother’s Day tea that features vintage recipes once served to Abilene’s socialites. “Jennie Seelye’s Tea Party” includes finger sandwiches, a selection of sweets, plus engaging stories about the dinners, receptions and parties hosted by the Seelye family.
Chef Manfred LaGrange-Aulich, a caterer in Riley, offers authentic German cuisine, such as schnitzel (breaded pork chop) or German beef goulash accompanied by homemade spaetzle (noodles) and rotkraut (red cabbage), with Black Forest cake for dessert. He also provides German beer from his restaurant, Schatzi’s Schnitzel Haus, for an extra charge. LaGrange-Aulich’s menus are not only a celebration of carefully prepared food but also a nod to the culture of the German immigrants who helped settle many parts of Kansas.
Keeping with the tradition of the Old West, Chef Scott Sieben of Kite’s Bar & Grill in Manhattan offers a “BBQ Bonanza” menu fit for modern cowpokes—barbeque chicken, brisket and pulled pork, with coleslaw, baked beans, and cornbread with honey. Sieben’s tapestry of tastes also extends to sophisticated fare. Another of his menus featured smoked peppercorn chicken breast and succulent roasted pork loin.
Dinner car dining is a novel foray into food service. Like patrons of the past, today’s diners are treated to a moveable feast that allows them to enjoy a panoramic view of the Dickinson County countryside. Depending on the season, they could view fields of wheat, corn or milo swaying in the breeze, a soybean harvest, and perhaps a few wild Kansas sunflowers blooming along the fencerows. As the train leisurely travels to Enterprise, there’s also time for conversation and a chance to learn how railroads helped build Kansas’ agricultural economy and establish Kansas communities.
About an hour into the two-hour trip, the train pulls into a replica of Enterprise’s 1880s-era Hoffman Grist Mill, where passengers see how Kansas grains are processed. They can purchase flour, mixes, baked goods and an array of other Kansas-inspired items in the adjoining General Store.
With dinner trains operating at 75 to 90% capacity, Boelling believes riders are making memories one train at a time. “We often have return riders for dinner trains, and they often return with friends. Word of mouth helps sell our dinner trains,” he says.
Looking ahead, A&SV is expanding its repertoire of vintage dining experiences. Newly arrived in Abilene are six cars from the former Kansas Belle Dinner Train, which operated in Baldwin City from 2012 to 2020. Although owned by Heritage Rail Management, these cars have found temporary housing at A&SV and will allow even more dinner train excursions. In December 2024, the A&SV also added the “Eveland Creek” car to their regular dining fleet. Excited about this third dinner car, Boelling says, “This new car seats 56 and is divided into two sections of 32 and 24. While boosting our dining capacity to 160 from our current 104 limit, it will also give us the ability to serve two private seatings of up to 32 diners.”
In 2024, 20,000 passengers aboard both dinner and excursion trains rode the rails from Abilene to Enterprise. According to Boelling, “Out of 627 cities in Kansas, people from 434 of those rode the train in that period. We had travelers from all over the United States and passengers from Canada, Great Britain and the Netherlands—from all over the world.”
