Atchison train club marks 40 years with family celebration

Families will find more than an anniversary program when the Northeast Kansas Railroaders celebrate 40 years of the Atchison Train Club on Saturday, May 30. The one-day event will run from 2 to 5 p.m. at 200 South 10th Street, behind Taco John’s and near the Santa Fe Depot museum, with Becky Geiger serving as committee chair.

The celebration is built around the club’s biggest draw: its small-scale trains. The Northeast Kansas Railroaders say rides on the Atchison & Western Miniature Railroad will be free, with free-will donations accepted for upkeep. Visitors will also be able to pick up commemorative train tickets online and bring them to the information booth for a special keepsake ticket, adding a hands-on piece to the afternoon.

A coloring contest will give children and adults another way to take part. Coloring pages can be downloaded from the club’s website or Facebook page and must be returned by May 16 so they can be judged before the celebration. Completed pages will be displayed during the event and voted on through a People’s Choice Award, turning the anniversary into a community showcase rather than a look-back for members only.

The club’s milestone reaches back to 1986, when the group began building what has become a familiar part of Atchison’s railroad landscape. “We’ve been in existence since 1986,” the club said. That history matters because the railroaders have become a fixture at the Atchison Santa Fe Depot, where the Atchison & Western Miniature Railroad runs as a 12-inch-gauge railroad on weekends during the late spring through early fall.

The setting adds to the appeal. The Santa Fe Freight Depot at 200 S. Tenth St. was built in 1880 for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Oct. 11, 2001. The depot is operated as a museum by the Atchison County Historical Society and is part of a heritage rail site that includes an outdoor collection of rail cars and a steam locomotive.

A major expansion completed in October 1998 extended the ride to about half a mile, showing how the attraction has grown over time while staying rooted in the same place. For Atchison, the 40th anniversary is not just a club milestone. It is another reminder that the depot, the miniature railroad and the volunteers around them have become a living part of the town’s history.