Boone is served by the mainline of the Union Pacific, which purchased the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad (C&NW) in 1995. Boone was a division and crew change point on the railroad under the Chicago & Northwestern and some of that business remains today. There is a moderate-sized rail yard to the east of the downtown area. The locomotives no longer sound their horns in the town proper due to modifications to the various points where streets intersect with the rail line.