Very old is an oxymoron in the west. And tracks are invariably owned by freiht, the only existing private railroads. They do OK but lesser-used branches can be not so well cared for. Wonder if this is one of those.
When I have ridden on the train in Branson they only go 25 mph on freight train tracks. It’s pretty smooth and helps make the ride last for an hour or so. Maybe an hour and a half. Haven’t actually timed it but it seems that the departures were like 2 hours apart. I’d have to look at their schedule again. When it goes south, it stops over a high point in Arkansas. Well, it looks high from the train. It may only be around 100+ feet.