In this file photo from Sept. 13, 2008, riders peek out the window of a Midland Railway train in Baldwin City.

A tourist and event entrepreneur known for a Lawrence holiday pop-up restaurant is in the process of buying Midland Railway with the intention of resuming the once-popular tourist excursion rides on the Baldwin City line.

Ryan Robinson announced Saturday on social media he was purchasing the nearly 12-mile line that connects Baldwin City and Ottawa. In an interview Sunday with the Journal-World, Robinson said the sale was under contract but had not yet closed.

“I’m probably speaking too early, but we need to build community awareness if we’re going be open for Christmas,” he said. “I wanted people to know the tourist train was coming back and that we have neat stuff planned.”

Known in Lawrence for the Snow Globe pop-up holiday bar and restaurant and his earlier Color Run and Ironman competitions, Robinson said a friend first suggested he buy the Baldwin City railroad that is beset with legal troubles.

“It took me a minute to get my head around if it would be a good fit for me,” he said. “I don’t come from the railroad industry, but I do know the event and tourism industries.”

Midland has not offered tourist rides since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. That also was when Midland and its for-profit subsidiary, the Baldwin City & Southern Railroad, was locked out of the old Santa Fe depot in Baldwin City by the Santa Fe Trail Historical Association for not making lease payments. That suit was the first of many that plagued the railroad the last two years under the leadership of former CEO A.J. Stevens. The suit remains active in Douglas County District Court. Other lawsuits of note include Baldwin City’s still-active suit filed in November 2020 in Douglas County District Court, seeking to recover $321,000 loaned to the railroad through a Kansas Department of Commerce program, which the city administrated, and a suit filed by Rail Events Inc. of Durango, Colorado, seeking unpaid shares owed on ticket sales to the Polar Express rides Midland offered during the 2018 and 2019 holiday seasons. In a $404,506 settlement agreement approved in September 2021 in La Plata County District Court in Colorado, Midland agreed to make monthly payments to retire the debt. The agreement also requires Midland to pay Rail Events $54,000 for legal fees.

Robinson said he and Midland were working on an purchase agreement that ensures all Midland legal obligations are retired. It is his goal to close on the sale and get other details completed so that the tourist trains can start running in October in time for Baldwin City’s annual Maple Leaf Festival and the Halloween season.

In a change from the past, Robinson said he plans to use the 50 acres of land Midland owns at Norwood, about five miles south of Baldwin City, to enhance the excursion ride experience.

“We’re thinking about putting a pumpkin patch in that families could visit during Halloween rides,” he said. “I have to say, I own the most Christmas decorations in the state of Kansas. I think I have enough to put up a pretty good display there during the holidays.”

Under Stevens, Midland obtained a federal permit to haul freight. Although it never carried actual freight, the railroad did use the permit to park hundreds of unused coal cars on the tracks from just south of Baldwin City to past Norwood. Robinson said he planned to continue that operation but in a way the tourist trains can run from Baldwin City to Norwood.

“The focus of the coal cars will be in the south toward Ottawa,” he said, “The north end toward Baldwin City will be for the tourism railroad.”

Robinson plans to meet with Bruce Eveland this week to discuss restarting rides on the Kansas Belle Dinner Train. Eveland has offered rides featuring meals and entertainment since 2013 on the Midland line under an arrangement that makes use of Midland’s locomotives. However, the Kansas Belle has been idle since the March 2020 end of tourist rides.

“I’m meeting Bruce for coffee this week,” Robinson said. “If they want to start the dinner train again, I’m open to that. I’m planning to bring back all the old partners, and we’re committed to operating in a very different manner than what was done in the past few years. We’re open to anything that may come up. The response from the community has been overwhelming.”

The sale will mark the end of the Midland Historical Railroad Association’s relationship with the tracks. Midland started offering rides after receiving a 1983 grant to rebuild tracks on the former Santa Fe tracts south of Baldwin City. Midland operated as an all-volunteer organization until Stevens was hired as its first CEO in 2018. He later created the for-profit subsidiary with the intention of expanding the number of employees.

Robinson said old Midland hands Allen Kinsley, who served as a Midland board officer in its all-volunteer days, and Mary Shaver will return to work with the new operation.

Stevens resigned from his position with the for-profit Baldwin City & Southern (also called the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad) in February after the Midland Board of Directors filed suit in Douglas County District Court, seeking his removal.

Baldwin City Mayor Casey Simoneau said he was pleased the pending Midland sale will allow the city to recover the Kansas Department of Commerce loan as well as the city’s legal fees in the litigation. Additionally, he was excited the railroad was sold to a local interest intent on resuming the tourist trains, and not a company that would use the tracks only to park coal cars or other freight operations.

“This is great news for Baldwin City,” he said. “Ryan is very well know for his tourism and event planning. I look forward to partnering with the railroad and to Baldwin City once again welcoming thousands of tourists every year with the return of the excursion trains.”

Robinson said he didn’t think he was the only potential Midland buyer.

“I can’t speak for the Midland board, but I think their decision had to do with I’m local,” he said. “I look at this as the last job I’ll ever have. I’m committed to tourism and making the railroad have a real economic impact on Baldwin City all year around.”