Belton Railroad Days festival to embrace history, offer rides on old Frisco tracks

Downtown Belton will embrace the locomotive era from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 19. Festivities are planned for the Belton Missouri Historical Railroad’s inaugural Belton Railroad Days festival. The nonprofit museum and railroad excursion line offers train excursions from Belton’s Main Street depot on Saturdays during its May-October season.

During Belton Railroad Days, the Belton Missouri Historical Railroad will offer discounted tickets for unlimited train rides on its three-mile track. The festival will also feature model train displays, food trucks, local vendors and more family-friendly fun. 

The festival is free, and the nonprofit has made activities as affordable as possible, according to Mark Sharp, a board member and volunteer coordinator. Tickets for one ride are usually $10-$17, but tickets for unlimited rides will be sold for $5 at the festival, Sharp said.

“If you guys love trains and want to come out and [ride] with us, I would love to see you,” Sharp told passengers on an August 29 excursion.

The railroad has operated in various locations and has been known by several names since forming as the Smoky Hill Railway & Historical Society in 1964. It was recently rebranded as the Belton Missouri Historical Railroad.

John and Margaret Galli of Parkville and four-year-old granddaughter Eloise were among the passengers aboard the Belton Missouri Historical Railroad. The Gallis were greeted by a blue-and-yellow locomotive, two passenger cars and a bright red caboose.

The Gallis rode a passenger car pulled by a 1956 Electro-Motive Diesel GP9 locomotive formerly used by the Huron & Eastern Railroad in the Great Lakes region. The car was built in 1920 and used for 64 years on the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and other state transit routes on the east coast.

“It’s amazing how well it appears to be kept,” John Galli commented. The Gallis, who previously lived in Wisconsin and Nevada, moved to the Kansas City area after Eloise was born. They said other towns across Wisconsin and the West embraced their locomotive history, “but nothing like this.”

KC to the Ozarks before highways: The Leaky Roof and Frisco High Lines

After doling out train whistles, Sharp gave passengers a detailed history of the tracks through Belton. Sharp told passengers they were rattling down the same tracks laid by the Kansas City, Clinton & Springfield (KCC&S) Railroad in the late 1800s.

The KCC&S Railroad between Olathe, Kansas, and Springfield, Missouri, was known as the “Leaky Roof Line.” This was due to worn-out passenger cars used by the railroad, which deterred some customers. On the contrary, some freight customers didn’t mind. That included the W.S. Dickey Clay company, whose clay tiles from Deepwater, Missouri, wouldn’t be damaged by water.

There was also a competing, parallel line to Springfield: the Kansas City, Osceola and Southern (KCO&S) Railway, also known as the Blair Line. The local competition ended in 1901, when the Frisco Railroad bought and took over the two parallel routes. From then on, the Blair Line to Springfield became the Frisco High Line, named for the Ozarks’ mountainous terrain. 

The Frisco managed both passenger lines until 1935, when service ended on the Leaky Roof Line. Its traffic, often crossing or running within sight of the High Line tracks, was finally consolidated into the High Line.

The Frisco High Line continued to run from the Kansas City area to the Ozarks until 1979, when the construction of the Harry S Truman Dam and Reservoir made maintenance unsustainable, according to Sharp. By then, both state and federal highway programs were in full swing. The era of the locomotive had passed.

Today, you can still catch glimpses of the former Leaky Roof/High Line tracks poking out of the lake near Clinton and Deepwater. Elsewhere, the tracks between Belton and Springfield have been scrapped or converted to pedestrian trails.

However, the Leaky Roof Line and the Frisco High Line are honored within a renewed interest in the era of locomotive travel. In addition to the nonprofit railroad in Belton, Springfield nonprofit Ozark Greenways maintains a multi-use Frisco Highline Trail along the old northward route.

Belton Railroad Days is scheduled from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. in downtown Belton on Saturday, Sept. 19, offering unlimited, nonstop excursions with a $5 ticket. Excursions will also be offered the night before, according to the nonprofit. The railroad is partnering with more than 25 local organizations offering activities, services and donations, including the City, the Belton Historical Society, the Cass County Library, the Belton Arts Committee, Faded Pages bookstore and more.