Broken Down Miniature Train in Ellis, Kansas

June 1, 2023

While in Ellis, Kansas, on Saturday (May 20), I wanted to ride the miniature train. It normally runs on Saturday, so I was hoping we’d get a chance to ride it. It wasn’t running last year when we visited Ellis.

In the morning, we walked over to the train museum to buy tickets to ride the train. The gentleman behind the old fashioned train ticket counter told us the train had broken down on the its test run that morning.

We walked around looking for the train, as Bruce and I had hoped to see it outside. Last year, we had barely been able to see it through the windows in its garage.

We walked around the road next to the tracks and then from the campground, we saw three men working on the train.

We briefly chatted with the gentleman trying to get the train running. It had been running fine until the engineer stopped the train to remove a branch from the tracks.

While we were watching, they decided the train needed more work than a jumpstart. It would have to be moved back into its garage.

They hitched it to a truck and two men held the train onto the track as the truck pulled the train backwards along the track.