Fifteen years ago, Abilene's railroad right of way was all wrong. The tracks that divide the city's north and south was a dirty zipper marred by rusty soil, dingy gravel and battered brush. But today those same grounds are green and leafy. A growing forest shades gentle slopes and berms.
Flower gardens burst with color.
And oddly eye-catching sculptures dot the elongated landscape. It'll be prettier every month of every year for a hundred years. So much of what volunteers work on is transitory. That project has a nice tangibility. City officials occasionally dust off a set of slides documenting the then and now.