He's All About "All Aboard"

Even before Kansas became a state, railroads influenced the history and culture of Kansas. Abilene’s Steve Schwarting, a retired physician, is helping keep railroad history alive as a stalwart volunteer with the Abilene Smoky Valley Railroad (ASVRR).

If you decide to get a ticket to board the only steam engine in Kansas, there’s a good chance that that Schwarting will be running the train.

Schwarting, who will be 80 in December, started volunteering with the ASVRR in 2004. He started working to restore the 1919 steam locomotive. Now he commonly serves as the trains’ engineer.

retired physician steve schwarting helps keep kansas railroad history alive with the abiliene smoky valley railroad (photo by ncfhaaa)

The ASVRR trains were built decades before the Americans with Disabilities Act. Schwarting nimbly climbs to the engine cab with ease. Besides being the engineer, he can also serve as conductor, train man, and brake man. He also helped restore the train cars. For a while he worked “hard and heavy” re- building track and replacing ties.

“There's another guy that's doing that right now,” he said with a glint in his hazel eyes.

The ASVRR, is an all-volunteer organization founded in 1993 as a heritage railway. It is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the railroad industry in Kansas—and Abilene has a big part in this history. The town was founded in March 1881 when the Texas and Pacific Railway Company purchased land through a land auction.

With this railroad, drovers followed the Chisholm Trail to get Texas cattle to eastern markets. Abilene evolved to be a key shipping point for grain, and oil. Until 1967, passengers rode the rails as well. Trains still haul raw materials and goods through Abilene today.

Schwarting, who volunteers thirty to thirty-five hours each week, especially enjoys greeting and conversing with passengers boarding on the ASVRR Flint Hills Express, an excursion train, and the Smoky Valley Limited, the group’s popular dinner train. He’s also there for charters for school field trips and special excursions for private parties.

Track initially laid by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad in 1886 links trains to Enterprise, Kansas—a tiny town about five miles east of Abilene’s depot.

Schwarting’s first job at ASVRR in 2004 was helping to restore a steam engine built in 1919. I'm kind of a jack-of-all-trades now,” he said.

As a native Kansan who grew up on a farm near Eskridge, Schwarting was interested in tractors, mechanical equipment—and trains--at an early age. His grandfather, who worked on the Santa Fe Railroad as a section hand, introduced him to trains.

“He lived in Emporia and was close to the main line of the Santa Fe Railroad,” Schwarting said. “When the trains were going to come through, we'd go down to the track and start watching them go. He'd look at his pocket watch and say, ‘Well, the 20 is going to come through here in about seven or eight minutes.’ “

When he was about 12, his family moved to Arizona due to his father’s health. Schwarting met his future wife, Toni, while in high school in Tucson, Arizona. They dated through college at the University of Arizona and married while Steve attended medical school at the University of New Mexico and Toni was finished college.

“When we met in high school my wife said that if we ever got married, we’d live in Kansas,” he said. “I’m really fortunate that she fits into a small town in Kansas just like a glove fits on a hand. She’s part of the community here,” he said.

Before coming to Kansas for his family practice residency at Wichita’s Wesley Hospital. Schwarting served two years in the navy at Charleston Naval Hospital with the Naval Medical Corps.

In 1977 the Schwarting family re-located to Abilene and started a private medical practice with two of his friends. Almost 50 years later their legacy includes four children and 10 grandchildren. He and his friends retired from their medical practice more than 10 years ago.

“We started together, and we retired together in 2013,” he said.

His interest in health care is still a priority. He serves on a hospital board, a publicly elected position and also is active in his church and Rotary, besides volunteering at ASVRR. “I think my top priority as far as time is the hospital board,” he said. “Boy, there are some real challenges in health care right now,” he said.

Many of his favorite memories as a volunteer at the railroad have to do with kids and older people.

“Kids just have so much fun. They smile, and they giggle, and they laugh. So many of our passengers in our trains are grandparents and grandkids. I always enjoy watching how they interact and see how excited they are. Sometimes they don't like the whistle,” he said.

Schwarting recalled one memorable conversation with an older passenger.

“I asked, ‘Well, how'd you like the trip?’ And he said, ‘You know what? I'm from southeastern Kansas, and I'm 83 years old, and I've never ridden a train before in my whole life.’ That made my volunteer time worth it,” he said.

And then there’s the “body across the track” story.

“The train was going to Enterprise, and there are trees along the end of the route. The fireman on the left side of the cab is saying, ‘Oh, I think there's a log in the middle of the track. We go a little bit farther. ‘No, I think that's a body.’ Oh, yeah, that's a body across the track.””

“We stopped, got down from the cab and walked over there.”

They found an older man—a photographer from Wichita--who had a couple of really nice cameras and equipment. “He was walking down the track to take pictures of us. As we came through the trees, he had slipped and fallen, and he’d hit his head on the rail—and he couldn't get up.”

The photographer wasn’t seriously injured; Schwarting used his medical training to help him sit up and eventually to stand.

“We called the ambulance, and they came and got him. He stayed overnight in the hospital, but he was fine” Schwarting said.

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The Santa Fe 3415, a century-old Baldwin “Pacific” locomotive, is the star of the ASVRR line-up. It was built in 1919 by Baldwin Locomotive Works and was part of the Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. It was restored by the group’s volunteer team and in 2024 was designated as Kansas’ official steam locomotive by the state’s legislature. It is a symbol of Kansas’ long dependence on the railroad industry. The dark black locomotive was originally powered by coal; Santa Fe converted it to oil in the early 1940s.

“When we go to Enterprise and back, we use about 200 gallons of oil. And if you compare that to our diesel engine, we use 10 to 15 gallons of diesel. You can see the difference in efficiency,” he said.

Railroad publications and TV programs including the PBS series, “Tracks Ahead” have featured the 267-ton locomotive. In 2022, the Saturday Evening Post’s website named the ASVRR one of America’s best steam train rides.

The group offers different trains and a variety of trips--but all use the same track to Enterprise which is about five-miles east of the Abilene –and all trains return to the Abilene depot. The ASVRR also organizes shorter trips. Excursions for school trips, for example, can cover three miles or less—and then the train returns to Abilene.

The ASVRR trains does not set speed records; their usual speed is 10 mph.

“I think we can legally go 15 mph, but just to keep everything safe, we go 10 mph,” Schwarting said.

“The trip to Enterprise and back, is about a two-or two-and-a-half-hour trip. To me, that's a nice entertainment. It's like going to a movie.”

Schwarting gave one note of caution for some travelers, however.

“We don't have restrooms on the train. That's another thing that makes it easy not to have a long trip,” he said.

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Article by by Colin Kingston, NCFHAAA, and first published in the July 2026 print edition of Keynotes.