The story
Baldwin City & Southern Railroad
In 2019, the Midland Railway created a wholly owned, for-profit subsidiary called the Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston Railroad, but doing business as the Baldwin City & Southern Railroad (BC&SR). The original plan was for the BC&SR to take over all active railroad operations, while Midland would focus on public education and historic preservation. In November 2019 the BC&SR was awarded a $750,000 Kansas Department of Commerce grant to help with operational costs to transition from the all-volunteer model under which Midland operated, to an employee-based model, with a grant requirement to have at least 22 employees. However, the BC&SR service was discontinued in March 2020 following a rent dispute with the operator of Baldwin City's historic train depot.
Kansas Belle Dinner Train
The Kansas Belle Dinner Train was a dinner train which also operated out of the Baldwin City depot. It utilized Midland Railway's track and locomotives but was separately owned. The train suspended services on March 14, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After waiting four years for operations to resume, the train set was sold in autumn of 2024.
Midland Railroad
An entity called Midland Railroad LLC filed notice with the Surface Transportation Board on September 15, 2022 that it was acquiring this rail line, and intended to replace the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad d/b/a the Baldwin City & Southern Railroad as the common carrier service provider over said line. However, this transaction was never completed.
Ottawa Northern Railroad
On March 9, 2023, the Ottawa Northern Railroad, a subsidiary of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, filed notice with the Surface Transportation Board that it was acquiring the line, and replacing the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad, doing business as the Baldwin City & Southern Railroad Company as the common carrier service provider on it. The notice indicated in part that there were currently no customers on the line, and accordingly, no shippers to notify. As of April 2024, the Ottawa Northern Railroad indicates on its website that it completed the acquisition, and that plans are in the works to bring back the excursion trains.
From Wikipedia’s article on Midland Railway (Kansas), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3