Belton, Grandview and Kansas City Railroad
Near Kansas City, Missouri
The heritage railroad operating out of Belton runs on an old branch of the Saint Louis-San Francisco Railway, known as the Frisco.
Today the Smoky Hill Railway and Historical Society, formed in nineteen sixty-four to preserve the rail heritage of the Kansas City region, operates an excursion train on this old Frisco corridor using a nineteen fifty-six diesel locomotive. The short ride south through Cass County is modest in distance, but it covers ground that once connected farm communities to the Kansas City market and carried freight that built this corner of Missouri. Heritage railroads like this one exist because someone decided the machines and the right-of-way were worth preserving while there was still time.
