Fall Colors Return to the Rails of Colorado

Kids are back in school. Football is rolling into stadiums. The summer heat is fading into a warm autumn. Pretty soon, we will see the first hints of fall colors in the only state with color in its name: Colorado.

As a photographer, I love and hate driving a car in the mountains. It's s beautiful and challenging and yet, there's no way for me to actually enjoy the beautiful vistas and dramatic, vibrant aspens. Taking a train is the best solution to let everyone enjoy the views while still keeping the parade of Rocky Mountain gold moving. If you haven't booked tickets for a train ride through the fall colors, you still have a chance. Here are a few options.

Georgetown Loop Railroad 

Farthest north in our list and therefore first to turn that glorious gold, the far-famed Loop is a fine addition to anyone's trip up Clear Creek. The aspens around Georgetown and Silver Plume are legendary, especially up the former grade of the Argentine Central. The only downside: the equally legendary traffic on I-70. Better on a weekday, ideally a Tuesday or Wednesday

Leadville Colorado & Southern

If steam is not as big a deal for you, the LC&S has an opportunity for a trip to near-timberline. While aspens are not nearly as numerous, the opportunity for closeups and wildlife are increasing. The trip up the nice side of Fremont Pass is an enjoyable one. Were it able to go all the way to the summit, it would certainly rank among the best.

Rio Grande Scenic Railroad

Steam and diesel both make the trek over La Veta Pass and aspen and buckbrush are available. Most of the climb is isolated from any road, allowing for a sense of true exploration and yet the standard gauge rails allow for full-size accommodations. Although most seats are under or behind glass, an open air car usually allows for great photo opportunities. A recent wildfire damaged the facilities at the summit of the pass, so what is there is brand new!

Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad

Photo: Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad

There is one narrow gauge railroad route that takes riders further and higher than the others: The Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad. Starting in Antonito, Colorado or Chama, New Mexico, the train climbs over Cumbres Pass from both directions daily, passing through stands of aspen on both sides of the state border it hopscotches, scraping every contour for every bit of grade needed to summit the pass. Several sections are rail isolated and the coal fired steam is every bit the railroad experience you hope for and a fall color paradise late in the season! There are plenty of reasons USA Today readers voted it the best scenic ride in the country!

Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

There is only one line that has never stopped hauling passengers over its narrow gauge rails. Since 1882, the Denver & Rio Grande Western and now the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroads have taken passengers up the Rio de las Animas between the former milling town of Durango and the remote mining town of Silverton, Colorado. The deep chasms of the San Juan mountains still turn gold with aspens as if to match the Grande gold of the cars of the splendid little train. Stuffy coaches, open air gondolas or even the Silver Vista glass dome car still ply their trade and regularly rock over the rails as ever they did.

Honorable Mention: California Zephyr 
It may cut through the most amazing scenery on the entire Amtrak system, and aspens may run riot through every canyon, but until you can (legally) pry your Superliner window open for an unfiltered photo or plant a seat in the vestibule, the CalZ is not your ideal way to see the colors.⚒

POTD - Snow Train

It may be just a few hours later and we find ourselves in nearly the exact same location as Tuesday's Photo of the Day. The snow is certainly deeper and this BNSF freight has slowed to a crawl. Even deeper snow has halted operations east of the Moffat Tunnel and the train will tie down at West Portal. The evening California Zephyr isn't due for several hours and track owner Union Pacific will need every one of them to clear out the mess ahead of it. The heavy snow makes such heroics seem unlikely.

Photo of the Day: Steve Brown
Click the photo to view a larger, unmarked version

It could be hours later, yet, except the train itself, everything about the location has changed because of daylight. No passengers wait on the platform this early in the day. The light is frustratingly even, obscuring even the important details, like where it is safe to step! So notes our photographer Steve Brown. Everywhere the light is even except inside the platform, which was the main source of light the night before. Yet the snow continues to fall in confetti-like flakes, freshly punctuating the photo with a festive mood. Let's cancel school and go watch some trains today!⚒

POTD - Winter Travel

The ritual of boarding a train from small town America is almost as old as the nation itself. In Fraser, Colorado, passengers wait in the shelter along the platform on a snowy evening in March 2003 to board the nightly Amtrak number 6, commonly known as the eastbound California Zephyr. Their next stop will be hours deeper into the night and 3,386 feet lower when they pull into Denver's Union Station before the thousand mile journey across the plains to Chicago.

Photo of the Day: Steve Brown
(click the photo to view a larger, unmarked original)

For all the difficulties it can cause photographers, nighttime still has a way of focusing the energy and taking away the distractions available in the daylight. Steve Brown makes excellent use of the ambient light to focus attention on the conductor at the head of the line of anxious passengers. A flash, a requisite for night photography in years past, would catch the thousands of flakes concealed in the darkness and throw the light back, ruining the moment. Instead, Mr. Brown lets the light on the wood interior of the platform carry a flavor of warmth to contrast with the icy cold of the drifted snow hampering even the basic task of boarding a train.⚒

POTD - Amtrak's California Zephyr Descends Ruby Canyon Along the Colorado River

Photo of the Day: Peter Lewis

Ruby Canyon is one of those hidden Colorado jewels that few people get the chance to see, unless you're riding Amtrak's California Zephyr between Grand Junction and Green River, Utah. The 25 mile long canyon is aptly named; even without the "golden hour" the walls fit the description in every season. No wonder the train leaves Denver so early! Nonetheless, the trip is often too long to be reached in daylight on those short winter days.

Peter Lewis makes his second appearance on Photo of the Day with this entry that has already garnered some attention. Gaining RailPictures.net's trifecta of awards (Screeners Choice, Photo of the Week and People's Choice) is no easy task! I especially enjoy the mirage-like effect of the sky blue reflected off the roofs of the Silverliners! But what seals this choice for Photo of the Day, however, is Mr. Lewis' own notes on the photograph. He says:

Amtrak's westbound California Zephyr negotiates the confines of Ruby Canyon as it nears the Utah border on a captivating August afternoon in the breathtaking American west. When I walked up to the edge and took in the scene for the first time, I was simply in awe. This experience and those like it are one of the biggest reasons I enjoy this hobby. The remoteness and natural beauty of this area is simply incredible, especially for an easterner like me. ^{[emphasis added]}

Keep up the great work, Mr. Lewis, and I get the feeling that you'll be making plenty of trips like this one!◊

POTD - Amtrak's California Zephyr Descends From the Divide To Downtown Denver

Photo of the Day: Peter Lewis

Peter Lewis' recent trip along the Moffat line in August yielded several good photos. Each worked well with the light, but I selected this particular shot because it's not the typical shot taken in this specific area. Usually shots are lower with the attempt to bracket the city next to the train. By raising the angle of attack (to borrow an Air Force term), the city and the train are in different quadrants and because one of them is moving, it was likely easier to capture the train at the right moment without forcing the focus or zoom to do the work in a tighter shot. Great work, Mr. Lewis and welcome to the ranks of POTD photographers!◊

Grand Junction To Host Amtrak Train Day This Saturday

Amtrak is going to visit Grand Junction this Saturday, October 10th from 10 AM to 4 PM MDT. Actually, Amtrak visits there every day in the form of Amtrak's California Zephyr, the popular Chicago-to-San Francisco train, making stops at Fort Morgan, Denver, Fraser, Granby, Glenwood Springs, and Grand Junction. But this Saturday will be a bit different.



They call it the Amtrak Exhibit Train Tour and its already made a stop in Denver last weekend. Sharp-eyed photographers might still get a chance to catch it in transit along the former Rio Grande railroad's Moffat Tunnel Route between Denver and Grand Junction sometime this week, assuming they need a couple of days to set up. Keep your eyes peeled and your lens caps in your pockets! Comment with a link to photos of your experience or send them to me, if you'd like.

Looks like a fun day this Saturday October 10, 2015, in Grand Junction!◊

POTD - Portrait of a Silver Lady in Glenwood Canyon

Having ridden the Rio Grande Zephyr only once from Denver to Glenwood Springs, the weekend of its demise, I am no expert on the experience, but I can say that my trip on the last run of the last remnant of the Silver Lady far exceeded the usual type of magic that a train trip always seems to conjure.

Was it riding behind Grande gold F9s that--like the stainless steel cars behind them--were the last of their kind? Was it passing through the amazingly scenic Glenwood Canyon that inspired the creation of the very Vista-Dome I was riding in, condensing all the majesty inside my 9 year-old brain? Was it something else, or all of it together? I do not know.

Photo of the Day: Chris Nuthall

What I do know is that ever since that wild weather'd day in April 1983, I have never been able to find an experience that could rival such a fine ride aboard the Rio Grande Zephyr. Nearly two years prior to that day, photographer Chris Nuthall activated the shutter to capture this near-perfect, linear shot of the Zephyr in the canyon. What could be considered irony is that Mr. Nuthall was attempting to recreate a shot of the original California Zephyr. I think the RGZ looks just fine in her own right, don't you?◊

POTD - A Silver Lady Passes Her Castle Gate

Drew Jacksich makes his debut here with Photo of the Day. Mr. Jacksich gets around if a quick tour of his flickr site is any indication. His photos appear in Wikipedia articles, and with good reason, because not only do they have some historic significance, but the bulk of them have some real beauty.

Photo of the Day: Drew Jacksich

Such is the case with his photograph of the Rio Grande Zephyr at Castle Gate, Utah in June 1975, just 40 years ago this year. The last remnant of the Silver Lady and the last privately controlled inter-city passenger train was 4 years into her proud, tri-weekly service following the demise of the popular California Zephyr, begun in 1949 by the Burlington, Rio Grande and Western Pacific railroads as a Chicago to San Francisco train timed to view Colorado's Rocky Mountains in the daylight.◊

POTD - Classic Film

They say film is dead. Tell that to Chris May. A loaned camera, a roll of Tri-X film (Kodak black and white) and some time at Union Station with Amtrak's California Zephyr produced an opportunity to capture an image that feels timeless. "Union Station: Travel By Train." How many couples have stood on Union Station's platforms, Pullman coaches, engines and fellow passengers buzzing about them?◊

Photo of the Day: Chris May

POTD - Snowy Rails in Middle Park Wash the CZ in Wintry Wonder

Amtrak killed the Ski Train in a blatant fratricide. So why is it still the subject of a Photo of the Day award, especially in a place its victim once called home? Because art and reality can be separated at times and because it can be unprofessional to let a grudge get in the way of artistic triumph.

Photo of the Day: Steve Brown (sjb4photos), Amtrak in the snow - Colorado 

Amtrak Train No. 5, the California Zephyr, makes its way through Middle Park approaching Fraser, Colorado in March 2003. It is presently four hours late due to the recent snow storm and when it leaves Frasier, it will be seven hours late due to freight congestion on the Union Pacific's Moffat Route brought on by the same storm. Not the worst delays ever seen by Amtrak, but it certainly doesn't help Amtrak's sorry reputation for poor timetable performance.^1,2,3 That may have been why a grinchy Amtrak never could abide the Ski Train service from Denver to Winter Park and back that was seldom if ever so late.◊

Front Range Flooding Affects BNSF, UP

There have been widespread road closures due to flooding, including I-25 in both directions from Denver to the Wyoming state line. In my experience, any disruption that affects a road will affect a railroad to some extent, with an emphasis on proximity to the source. This holds true for this week's craziness. Greeley--I've just learned--is inundated.

Colorado's Woes Owed to Historic Rainfall

While Colorado has had occasional and rare stretches of showers and overcast skies, the rainfall this week has shattered records. In some places, over half a year's worth of rain fell in a few short days. No one I know can recall this kind of flooding ever happening here. Ever.

Erosion fascinates me. Water under pressure does amazing things. Canyons thought to form over millennia can happen within days, as witnessed on Mt. Saint Helens, given the right pressure, viscosity and debris. Dams thought secure can overtop and within minutes begin to tear open. And as witnessed this week on network TV, roads can be eaten out from under cars while people sit inside unaware and in grave danger.

Considering the weight of locomotives, cars and cargo, imagine what a pair of rails need to stay solid. Railroads are only as good as the ballast beneath them. Still, there's something else I noticed today.

Colorado's cities (red) and railroads (dashed lines). Quick and ugly map created on nationalatlas.gov
The northern half of the Front Range Urban Corridor is highlighted.

When you look at the state's railroads, perhaps the most densely developed railroad corridor is the northern Front Range, the piedmont between Denver and Wyoming, and ground zero for our disaster. Clearly, the worst place to have a flood in Colorado--as far as rail is concerned--is right there. It's development fueled the 19th and 20th century economies for Colorado and the rest of the mountain states. History runs thick. This area saw the first rail connection for Denver and the then-Territory of Colorado with the rest of the nation on the Pacific railroad. These rails served the introduction for thousands of travelers making their way to Colorado for a holiday or a new life to settle as a pioneer.

Ironically, Amtrak's Pioneer traveled the same rails, but in the opposite direction from Denver northward to Seattle until the early 90s. Since then, only the California Zephyr continues to grace Denver's presence. While Amtrak hasn't issued any information regarding the status of the daily Zephyr, both Class I railroads in Colorado have issued statements.

Class I Railroads Affected

Union Pacific issued a statement yesterday regarding the impact of the storms, indicating a likely delay of 24 hours for the affected areas including Limon, Colorado Springs, Commerce City, Rolla and Greeley.

BNSF issued a more detailed statement today regarding specific locations, saying,

The track at South Colorado Springs, Colorado is out of service due to washout. South Colorado Springs, Colorado is approximately 72 miles south of Denver, Colorado. The main track is expected to return to service later this evening, Friday, September 13, 2013.

The tracks at Boulder, Colorado and Loveland, Colorado are out of service due to multiple washouts. Boulder, Colorado is approximately 30 miles northwest of Denver, Colorado, and Loveland, Colorado is approximately 52 miles north of Denver, Colorado. No estimated return to service has been issued yet. Customers between Broomfield, Colorado, and Dixon, Colorado, will not be serviced until track is restored.

You can bet the MOW gangs are going to have a time making the weak sections solid again.

Stay dry, folks! Hopefully, we've seen the worst of it.◊

POTD: History Running Late

Photo: Mike Danneman

Popping in and out of sunlight, the California Zephyr makes it's way through Rocky in the early evening along the Front Range. Nothing would be amiss if this were train 6, the eastbound heading for Denver. Unfortunately, this is train 5, the westbound heading up to Granby and Glenwood Springs at 6:40 PM on June 25, 2011. Amtrak Phase III heritage unit #145 rides point as it scrounges the rails for spare minutes to make up a schedule that is 10 hours late, according to photographer Mike Danneman, who has taken POTD for both yesterday and today. Amtrak #145 is one of five units painted in a special heritage paint scheme celebrating Amtrak and its history of 40 years from 1971 to 2011. History, at least today, is running late.◊

POTD - Grand Junction Station Stained Glass Window

Sometimes, it just takes an attentive eye to catch the unusual or interesting in a photo. Blogger-photographer Mikoyan captured such a detail at Grand Junction, Colorado, during a scheduled stop aboard Amtrak's California Zephyr. The former owner of the station was plainly evident in the second story window. I wonder if anyone has the name of the artist who crafted the window? The logo it models is my favorite railroad herald of all time. "Rio Grande - Main Line Thru the Rockies" says it all!

The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad was alive and strong enough to be memorialized
in this stained glass window of its Grand Junction station, and still surviving its owner in 2010
Photo: Mikoyan

Video: Yesterday's Magic Rails To ... um, Yesterday

As the mercury slowly climbs out of winter and into our spring (hopefully), cabin fever has again sprung many images and ideas formerly locked in the human heart. Old tools and "new"Christmas gifts that have sat for some months find themselves wanted again by their owners. Whether you find yourself a veteran of the state's grand(e) scenery or a newly minted greenhorn, the Colorado high country is calling!

One reliable aspect of the Rocky Mountains is that they change very little in 50 years. For a prime example, look no further than below. If this featurette was made in our time, the travel to the Rockies would appear much different. Yet Durango and her sister city of Silverton would merely appear with newer automobiles and vivid color scenery, and maybe a few less period actors and staged gunfights.


Entire video link or skip to the good (Rio Grande) part

Films like the one above would appear before a movie--instead of gobs and gobs of previews--to entertain viewers and promote companies, concepts, and opportunities like travel by rail and tourism in remote western towns. The impact of such films on the subject, in conjunction with fictional movies using the local scenery likely can't be overstated, yet likely can't be calculated either beyond the common anecdotal evidence. Or, in plain english: this film contributed in a large way to preserving Colorado's steam tourism, but we'll never know how much.

Only 10 years later however, a trip completely by rail to Silverton would become impossible with both the abandonment of the WP portion of the California Zephyr and the abandonment of the Rio Grande narrow gauge from Antonito to Durango. Don't let those ideas die unless you have to! Next year, something or someone might not be there.

PS: Can't get enough old film? Check out The Royal Gorge.

POTD - East Portal In a Dome

Today's Photo of the Day is awarded to James Griffin of www.actionroad.net. Few images seem to strike me as the many shots passengers have taken from their seats in the Vista Dome as they are about to plunge into the long darkness of Moffat Tunnel. The beauty of the mountains are all around as I approach the bend in the valley where the tunnel plunges into the heart of the Continental Divide, and I can't help myself! I want to catch the tunnel edifice, the grand gateway to the western slope of the state and the nation. My eyes are riveted to the giant letters

MOFFAT

TUNNEL

and the dates 1923 and 1927, signifying the years the tunnel was started and completed. Click goes the shutter and the next moment the world is swallowed up in darkness.

Accomplished author and photographer James Griffin snapped this photo on
November 7, 1981, aboard the Rio Grande Zephyr just before entering the Moffat Tunnel.
Photo: James Griffin

It is a significant expression of the California Zephyr's unique place in history. Without the Moffat Tunnel, there would have been no California Zephyr. Without the Zephyr, Denver and the Rocky Mountain West would never have opened up to so many young eyes.. It's also historic, as the only remaining passenger service on the route has got rid of the domes it inherited before they ever thought of the marketing slogan telling potential riders to view "America at See Level."

POTD: A Red Nosed San Francisco Zephyr

Last Friday marked the 63rd anniversary of the start of the California Zephyr, the fabled stainless steel streamliner operated by the Chicago Burlington & Quincy, Denver & Rio Grande Western, and Western Pacific. The theme for the next few Photos of the Day will reflect on the Silver Lady and her "children."

Veteran photographer Gary Morris captured what turned out to be a bit of history 35 years ago this month on March 10, 1977. Only a few miles east of Denver on Burlington Northern tracks, the westbound Amtrak from Chicago to San Francisco rolls toward the Mile High City under the name "San Francisco Zephyr," Amtrak's woefully inadequate replacement for the California Zephyr (and the City of San Francisco of the Union Pacific). Note the lack of dome equipment as on the old CZ.

Photo: Gary Morris

An Amtrak Newbie Falls In Love With the Rockies on the CZ

A Washington DC writer travels the Capitol Limited and California Zephyr to Nevada and San Francisco. Her trip was, in my own experience, a typical, positive one. The story is captivating and enjoyable reading.
Tip o' the Hat: Robert Brewster

POTD - Winter Snows Roll Freely By Amtrak's California Zephyr

In honor of those who will be travelling this week, I thought I'd see if I could turn up a Photo of the Day or two on the subject of travel.

It was near my birthday that rail photographer Mark Hyams took this terrific shot of Amtrak's California Zephyr rounding the corner at Cliff, Colorado. I know it doesn't look like it, but the train is in the middle of a near 180° turn and,  a few moments after the picture is taken, will pass through tunnel 29, directly beneath the photographer. The remains of Tunnel 28 after it was daylighted are behind the first two sleeper cars at left. All the while, Boulder Creek is swollen with winter snows and it runs freely away from us and down the canyon for the Gulf of Mexico.

Amtrak's California Zephyr pulls through Cliff, Colorado late for it's appointments at
Fraser, Granby and Glenwood Springs at the height of summer, July 11, 2011
Photo: Mark Hyams

POTD - How Does One Fire An F9?

The characteristic curve of the window should be a tip to the railroad-minded about the location of the photographer when they snapped this picture of the Colorado River and the railroad right of way in July 1977. The shot is from the fireman's seat aboard the Rio Grande Zephyr in the cab of EMD F9 5771 heading east out of Glenwood Springs into Glenwood Canyon. In 25 years, the last remnant of the old California Zephyr will be a distant memory and the last of the Rio Grande covered wagons are preserved at the Colorado Railroad Museum..

Photo: Eric Sherrill

Amtrak Resumes Zephyr Service, ...Sorta

Since the accident last week, Amtrak hasn't been running the California Zephyr, owing both to the accident and damage from the floods further east. Today, Amtrak resumes service from Ft. Morgan west to the end of the line in Emeryville, California.