Colorado Experience - The Ski Train

Colorado Experience, the Rocky Mountain PBS series is now in its 11th season, having run since 2013 on Public Broadcasting System stations in Denver, Colorado Springs / Pueblo, Steamboat Springs, Grand Junction, and Durango. It's 11th season is a promising addition to the series, but what most of the readers of CR would be interested to know about is the episode titled "The Ski Train," which premiered at the Colorado Railroad Museum on October 15th and broadcast throughout the state later the same week. The episode is viewable via YouTube below.

Like all television programs, its difficult for producers and editors to decide what parts are essential and what parts are niche interest or broadly appealing but only tangent to the subject covered. How are you going to convey the subject, and whose narrative are you going to use to tell the story? Sometimes practicality limits the voices involved, and sometimes politics--public or merely human polity--limits what you can say. If you claim to represent the public interest, how far do you run down certain trails before you decide you're going too far from the audience? 

I had to ask myself these questions given my own perceptions and concerns about a very difficult time for Denver, for the Ski Train, and for me. As detailed in the episode, Denver's Ski Train, an institution started by Rio Grand from the the 1940s and earlier died a hard and painful death in 2009, when Ansco decided it could no longer continue the operations. That much is in the episode.

It was a difficult time for Denver because in 2009, it was in the throes of the Great Recession. On what is no doubt a related decision, Ansco determined it could no longer support The Ski Train, which admittedly had become more a labor of love by Denver philanthropist Phillip Anschutz. For me, 2009 had me 4 years into a disability determination case in which I had gone deep into debt trying to keep my family housed, heated, and fed while struggling to do any meaningful work in the face of my gradually increasing physical disability. Those times have thankfully passed for all involved with varying extents of recovery, yet some questions of the past still remain unanswered. 

The disposition of the fleet was for the most part to one operator, the Algoma Central for use in their Agawa Canyon train tour near Sault Ste Marie, Ontario in Canada. The possibility of relaunching the Ski Train as it was had gone forever. There would only be the future attempts to launch a new service. Attempts, plural, which were not covered in the episode and which I won't detail here because indisputable facts are hard to come by. 

Nonetheless, the current incarnation, known as the Amtrak Winter Park Express is not the first effort, but by far the most successful. No doubt much is owed to Amtrak Conductor Brad Swartzwelter, who is in the episode below. I have chatted with personally and I hope you get to meet someday. He is a rare breed and one I hope will continue to ride the rails throughout Colorado.

I am glad the tradition of a ski train, whatever the name, still survives. The goal has always been so people can still avoid the traffic snarls and treacherous roads on their way to ski one of the best large ski areas ever created. And these people get to see the wonders of the Moffat Tunnel Route, one that I personally think among the finest in the world. It remains a part of the Scenic Line of the World.⚒

Eddie Carroll HO & HOn3 San Juan Mountain Model Railroad Layout Tour With Hyce

YouTube vlogger Hyce posted a tour he recently took of Eddie Carroll's layout in Texas. It's a large, mostly-complete HO and HOn3 layout. Large is not the word. Even for Texas, large is not the word. Where to begin, though? 

First, the scenery looks amazing! While nothing any human can do would come close to compare to the beauty of the original, Eddie and his friends have done satisfactory justice to the western San Juan narrow gauge railroads. The Denver & Rio Grande Western's Silverton line is there--including a dual gauge Durango yard, along with much of the Rio Grande Southern and the Silverton Railroad to Red Mountain. All of it is hand-made and dutifully maintained. 

The trackwork, the scenery, the background, the rolling stock, nearly everything is worth studying. Nonetheless, of particular note is the model of the Silverton Railroad's Corkscrew Gulch Turntable. The prototype, which is in the final stages of decomposition across the valley from the Million Dollar Highway between Ouray and Silverton, is the only instance in North America of a turntable installed for use on the main line of a railroad. 

As Hyce said, closing out the 40 minute video,

Eddie was  so kind to take us through and show off his layout, which was incredible. Not only is it gigantic and multi-level, everything about it is so artfully and artistically done. ... It's not just giant for the sake of being giant, it's also so detailed and exquisite in its very own way.

Almost as an afterthought, the lower portion of his layout is standard gauge HO, based on Eddie's favorite Pennsylvania lines. All of it's worth a look, not to envy so much as to certainly admire! Great job, Eddie Carroll and friends! ⚒

Denver History Still Lives ...If You Know Where To Look

Baseball fans, especially Colorado Rockies fans, already know Coors Field is special. Constructed between 1993 and 1995, Coors Field--named in perpetuity for the beer that brought baseball here--became the cornerstone of a downtown Denver revitalization project, and its effects have not stopped for nearly 30 years! This is no booster speech; it is simply acknowledging a proven fact.

Without Coors Field, it's fair to say that businessmen and builders like former-Mayor-and-then-Governor John Hickenlooper would have had much more difficulty attracting investors and generating momentum for businesses and projects that got started or are now based out of lower downtown, LoDo to the locals. Without Coors Field, the renovation and redevelopment of Denver Union Station would probably never have happened. The FasTracks rail and transit project would have been more difficult to sell and Denver's suburbs would have been as isolated as they were in the 70s and 80s, and sprawling ever outward even more than they do today. LoDo is now synonymous with revitalized and reinvigorated urbanized living. The strong popularity of such a lifestyle has produced another re- adjective: regentrification. If you have lived anywhere in Colorado in the past 25 years, you have benefitted in some small way from this LoDo effect. 

All of these "re-s" have effects both bad and good. What's also apparent is that the optimism keeps popping up and spawning new challenges and opportunities. For example, I was more than a little unnerved by the relentless construction and development. Was no one going to remember the railroads of downtown or the Moffat Road depot or the lines that ran through Auraria? The viaducts or the Postal Annex, the yellow-bricked monstrosity that sat south of Union Station is gone, hauled away in 2005. What of the Denver of before?

It may not be possible to preserve everything, but we can still build with an eye to our past as well as the future. The Oxford is still with us. Denver's Union Station has never stopped serving all passenger trains climbing and descending to the Mile High City, save for a renovation. The Union Pacific Freight Office persists (at least outside) as the Denver Chop House. But I shuddered when I saw construction barricades going up right next to it. This was hallowed ground. This was where Gen. William J. Palmer laid the first rails of his beloved Baby Road, the narrow gauge Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. What were they doing to this spot? I didn't have far to look: McGregor Square.

Yes, the west corner of the giant Colorado Rockies-built development is built right off the spot in the street where Palmer spiked his rails. So imagine my surprise when I found that one of the establishments in the complex is called "Milepost Zero!" No! I thought, This can't be! Do they really know? And although it does not mention the Denver & Rio Grande or its later incarnations by name, their site says the following:

In Denver’s early days, the railroad became the center of everything. Across the street from what is now Coors Field was where the tracks began – mile post zero. Today, McGregor Square sits in the center of everything Denver has to offer.

It all starts here. Welcome to Milepost Zero.

Milepost Zero is the simply great, convenient choice in Denver’s Ballpark neighborhood. Your home-base for shopping, dining, entertainment, gameday, exploration and everything in between, Milepost Zero serves up something for everyone in the family.

Explore the concepts in our food hall, grab a drink at the bar or pour yourself a beer from our extensive Beer Wall selections. No matter what you’re in the mood for, you can enjoy your favorites in our expansive indoor space or outdoor plaza at the heart of McGregor Square. Catch the game on our giant outdoor plaza screen or just watch the action in the square while you fuel up or wind down. 

When I next visit Coors Field and hopefully watch a Rockies game, I plan to visit Milepost Zero and hopefully partake and imbibe. It's the least I could do for such a history-minded proprietorship, even if the prices are above and beyond what I would usually pay.⚒

Ask the Editor: Loops Like Tehachapi

It's been a while since we've done an Ask the Editor. Here's one from the e-mail bag, which lately has been overflowing.

Question

Last February, we had a chance to see the Tehachapi Loop in California. I'm told something similar is here in Colorado between I-70 near Wolcott and Steamboat Springs.  How would I find it?  Thanks, Ken Harris

Answer

Interesting! I think you might be referring to the loops near Bond. 

It does not loop over itself, but it does use some significant grade and reversing loops to "cut the contours" or gain elevation. This was part of the Moffat Road beyond the Dotsero Cutoff, which was built by the Rio Grande after they bought up the Denver & Salt Lake Railroad as a means of shortening their Denver to Salt Lake City mileage.

If you hadn't prefaced it with the Wolcott to Steamboat location, I might have just assumed you were being pointed at the Georgetown Loop!⚒

Commemorating the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad's 150th Anniversary

Over 150 years ago, on October 27, 1870, civil war General William Jackson Palmer and his associates filed papers incorporating his baby railroad in the territories of Colorado and New Mexico. Thus, on paper at least, the Rio Grande, a narrow-gauge startup of a railroad had been born. Any outward symbol of its birth, however, would have to wait while Palmer and his associates like William Bell raised investor funds to begin building.

Gen. William J. Palmer statue outside his namesake high school, August 1980

With General Palmer astride his iron steed in statue above Colorado Springs' main thoroughfare, it's easy to forget that this man wasn't yet 35 years old when he was working the difficult task of convincing investors to part with their funds to raise capital. General Palmer was a former spy, adept at making others believe he was in their confidence. Often the difference between this man and a shifty crook like Soapy Smith is simply the ultimate intentions of the man's heart, to deprive for selfish improvement or for benevolent investment.

Thankfully, Palmer was a man worthy of his Queen, a nickname Mary Lincoln Mellen had already earned by the time she met her future husband. Palmer began to share his vision for the Denver & Rio Grande with his beloved in their correspondence. On January 17, 1870, Palmer wrote to her,

I had a dream last evening while sitting in the gloaming at the car window. I mean a wide-awake dream. Shall I tell it to you? 

I thought how fine it would be to have a little railroad a few hundred miles in length, all under one's own control with one's friends, to have no jealousies and contests and differing policies, but to be able to carry out unimpeded and harmoniously one's views in regard to what ought and ought not to be done. In this ideal railroad all my friends should be interested, the most fitting men should be chosen for different positions, and all would work heartedly and unitedly towards the common end.

From there, he went on to detail an ambitious business plan with specific men to fill out all the critical functions of a railroad, informed by his work experience laying the route of the Kansas Pacific to Denver. Whatever idealism he held from that nearly rapturous dream, it obviously fueled his efforts for the next 18 months until driving the first spike for the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad on July 28, 1871 between 19th and 20th Streets in Denver, much in line with Wynkoop. This places it right next to the Chop House Brewery (the former Union Pacific freight offices) near Coors Field in LoDo. 

Dreams, like buildings, take a long time to build to make them last. Foundations are critical, and yet none but a few will ever see what the entire building and the day's occupants completely rely upon. Be thankful for the diligent yet incredible work of Palmer and those like him, founding the Rio Grande and the city of Colorado Springs, while these two entities, changing and growing and enduring all the while, still sustain Colorado and the west today.⚒

Denver & Rio Grande Engine 168 Fired and Steaming Up For a Big 2020 Celebration

For the first time since most of us were born, narrow gauge Denver & Rio Grande steam engine 168 turned her wheels under steam. Trains Magazine reports,

On Friday night, 3-foot gauge Denver & Rio Grande 4-6-0 No. 168 ran for the first time in 70 years, following an extensive restoration at the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. Friday’s test run consisted of a brief trip around the Antonito yard. C&TS Assistant General Manager Stathi Pappas says the 136-year-old Baldwin locomotive was being fired up again on Monday for another test. 

“The test went great,” Pappas says of the locomotive’s first run since 1938.

Engine 168 in Black Canyon
 of the Gunnison in 1904

The engine will be matched with purpose-built replica passenger cars to roll behind her in what will likely be a very memorable 50 year-anniversary celebration of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. In 1970, the states of Colorado and New Mexico teamed together to purchase the narrow gauge segment of the San Juan Extension that runs between Antonito Colorado and Chama New Mexico when it appeared certain that the Denver & Rio Grande Western railroad was abandoning the line. Since then, a six-member commission led by both states has supervised the investment in the C&TS, with an emphasis in history and preservation, something with which the restoration of engine 168 falls right in line. Having an active volunteer organization dedicated to assisting that mission with hands and feet, hearts and minds doesn't hurt, either.

Engine 168 is an important historic artifact to Colorado and to railroading. While it's a steam engine, something that last roamed the rails en masse 70 years ago, it's also narrow gauge, designed to run on rails 3 feet apart, rather than the standard 4 feet 8½ inches apart. There are dozens of these narrow gauge engines in the state of Colorado already, and they're all worthy of preservation. What makes 168 so unique is that it is one of two surviving class T-12 locomotives built in 1883 for General William Palmer's original vision of the D&RG connecting Denver with El Paso and Mexico City.

168 Awaiting President Taft in Montrose, 1909

The Rio Grande never reached further south than Santa Fe, but the engine would go on to haul passengers throughout the state and beyond. One of its more important roles was to carry then-President William Taft to the opening of the Gunnison Tunnel, a record-length water supply tunnel that turned the land around Montrose into a veritable garden beginning in 1909.

As railroads around the state prepare to rest or at least scale back activities for the winter, it's worth contemplating how many engines are now in steam that were dry and static several years ago. Certainly, such a recounting is worth its own post! ⚒

POTD - A Crossover Before Crossing Over Palmer Divide

It's been quite a while since we've had a Photo of the Day, so it should be a good one! A new photographer has been making quite an impact over at RailPictures.net. His name is Timothy Tonge and his photos, while not all from Colorado, hold nothing back in the way of beauty and sight lines! A prime example of this is his photo of a BNSF grain train heading south at Spruce, Colorado on the Joint Line between Colorado Springs and Denver late on a summer evening, July 11, 2019.

Photo of the Day by Timothy Tonge

As Mr. Tonge also points out, Spruce was one of the locations where the main lines of the Rio Grande (lower, left) and Santa Fe (right) crossed over each other. By the middle of the frame, the former Rio Grande main is the curving grade on the right! All of this was a fight to gain the elevation needed to crest the Palmer Divide just a couple miles distant.

Those familiar with the line will notice something a little strange about this shot. Although there are 4 locomotives, they are all trailing as pushers. The train is following the right-hand rule that is almost always in place on the Joint Line, allowing both UP and BNSF to use the former Rio Grande and former Santa Fe main lines as a double-tracked expressway for most of its distance between Denver and Walsenburg. It is remarkable that despite mergers, this has remained a two-railroad district for over a century!

PS: There is a theme to the Photos of the Day over the next week. While they all feature the same photographer, railroad, and section of the Joint Line, there is also a hidden theme that will be revealed on the 15th.⚒

Of Lines Loved and Lost

For Christmas, I received Narrow Gauge in the Rockies by Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg, sixth printing, first published in 1958. It is illustrated with photos from W.H. Jackson, Otto Perry, and Richard Kindig, and paintings by Howard Fogg. Its pages are flowing with history and elaborate, almost florid accounts of life surrounding the narrow gauge in Colorado. Its foreword speaks of the narrow gauge railfan as if they were the Hebrews of old, saying,

To perpetuate the memory of the narrow gauges a generation that would gladly exchange the com­forts of here and now for yesterday in Boreas Pass has taken steps that stand as a testament of de­votion without parallel among other antiquar­ians no matter how dedicated. The Rocky Mount­ain Railroad Club tells their story in volumes that only a toler­ably strong man may heft; there is a Narrow Gauge Museum and Motel at Alamosa toward which dedi­cated railroad buffs every­where as Moslems [sic] toward Mec­ca; there is a periodical devoted solely to narrow gauge tidings which is the de­votion­al reading of The Faith­ful, and there are narrow gauge books, pamph­lets, post cards, ex­cursions, engine models, book ends, beer mugs, paperweights and pictured likenesses of the cars beyond all counting. To have ridden the San Juan or the Silverton Train is a greater experience than to have seen Shelley plain. The Faithful sigh for the snowsheds of Lizard Head and by the waters of Gunnison they sat them down and wept.

Even though it's a bit ostentatious and maybe pretentious in its prose, I can't help but see myself in this paragraph. I have indeed turned myself toward Golden (now where the said Museum and former-motel owner moved from Alamosa), bought countless mementos, ridden the Silverton Train and the surviving portion of the San Juan each many times over. I mourned the loss of the Rio Grande Southern while walking Lizard Head Pass and sat in the depths of the Gunnison and--I kid you not--wept bitter tears silently by its banks that the Denver & Rio Grande narrow gauge is no more.

Am I embarrassed to admit to those tears? No. Those who don't understand the loss and share in the grief have my pity. Furthermore, for all the faults, both real and perceived, the days of yesterday contained, they also had gems, real and perceived, that today's progressed people have never experienced. It is truly a loss that our forebears did not retain them.

Nonetheless, I cannot stand in judgment of those who failed to keep those lost treasures, for one by one, other, non-narrow gauge lines are similarly dying in front of our eyes with only a little interest shown in preserving them. I am thinking chiefly of the Tennessee Pass line from Pueblo all the way to Dotsero. It is more than 21 years after seeing its last through revenue train, and the line is suffering from profound neglect.

This may be just my own opinion, but it seems Union Pacific cares little for jobs or industry in Salida, Leadville or Minturn. With the closure of Burnham and other points and routes, it's easy to think that the suits sitting in UP headquarters wonder why all jobs can't be based in Omaha, Seattle and San Diego. It's highly doubtful we would fare better with CSX or NS, were they to merge with the UP.

I believe the citizens of Colorado and her government need to be able and willing to use their powers to preserve the thoroughfares built and maintained by generations before so that the means of moving people and goods through Colorado does not waste away. Even the Moffat Route is not impervious to the forces of consolidation and removal. Am I looking at a future in which Granby and Craig sit isolated like Gunnison and Dolores and the Moffat Tunnel lies in ruins like the Alpine Tunnel? I sincerely hope not.⚒


Beebe, L., & Clegg, C. (1970). Narrow gauge in the Rockies. Berkeley, Calif: Howell-North

Christmas Is Coming, How Are You Fixed For Cards

We might live in an era when Christmas cards are waning in popularity, a bother when so many of us are already over-committed in December. Yet, the tradition is still alive among railfans, some of whom pick cards from Leanin' Tree, a company in Boulder, Colorado for many decades now. Click the image to view the card details.

Painting - Rio Grande SD40T-2 5371 up the Front Range toward Steamboat Springs

Painting - Rio Grande Mikado 486 over Cumbres Pass

Painting - Rio Grande Consolidation 346 near Trout Lake

This post is a non‑compensated endorsement. I simply believe in supporting a long-running Colorado business that has an affinity for trains and railfans. In fact, they are offering a 15% discount to you, the reader. Use the code TG15OFF at checkout.⚒

POTD - Thin Air and Thin Rails On the Monarch Branch

In the twilight of the narrow gauge era of the Denver & Rio Grande Western, the Monarch Branch had the rare distinction of being standard-gauged in 1956 and converted to diesel operation.¹ This was the year after the Marshall Pass line was scrapped. Thus, the conversion would end Salida's long years as a 3-rail terminal and as a cornerstone of the far-famed Narrow Gauge Circle. Still, for another 26 years, the Monarch branch would continue in use until 1982 when a shutdown of the steel furnaces at Pueblo obviated the need for limestone from the quarry near the summit of the pass. The Rio Grande officially abandoned the branch in 1984.²

Photo of the Day: John Dziobko
Click image for full size, original image

Button copy and a high-nosed EMD GP-9 would be the first clues that this isn't a recent photograph. In fact, it's early September 1969 on the Denver & Rio Grande Western's Monarch branch above Salida and its junction with the Tennessee Pass Route. Our Photo of the Day shows just how intense mountain railroading on the Rio Grande could be! Tight curves prevented six-axle diesels from working the branch. Grades of 4.5% and a pair of switchbacks, the only switchbacks on the entire system, were hardly enough to keep the brakes on the limestone gondolas from smoking. The easy access of US 50--the "Backbone of America" as Time magazine called it--and its activity into the 1980s made the branch something of a legend for the Rio Grande, especially among railfans. Those who witnessed the railroad's regular herculean struggle against gravity would seldom soon forget it!⚒

Footnotes:
1 Rio Grande: To the Pacific by Robert LaMassena 2nd Ed p176
2 www.drgw.net Monarch branch by Nathan Holmes

Wildfire Halts Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Operations

The 2018 summer season has got off to a rocky start for the premier heritage railroad in Colorado. The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad based in Durango, Colorado has halted all passenger operations due to the 416 Fire, a wildfire of still-undetermined origin that started at 10:02 AM Friday, exactly one week ago. Roughly 1,500 people have evacuated for the 5,000 acre fire near Hermosa, Colorado, with approximately 600 firefighters combating the flames.



At present, the railroad has temporarily halted all operations with exception of free museum and railyard tours in Durango until at least June 17th. They have furloughed 150 employees as a result, leaving as many as 3 trains worth of passengers without a trip to take to Silverton.

If Durango is hard hit by the suspension of service, Silverton is likely desperate. The noontime crush of tourists is something most restaurants and retailers in the small San Juan county seat absolutely depend on to make or break their season. All but 62 of San Juan County's 699 residents live in Silverton, meaning Colorado's smallest county by population is not a likely candidate for growth this year, thanks to the fire.



When operations do resume, it's more than likely that the narrow gauge steam mikados will not immediately return to service. The sentiment is that with one wildfire already active and consuming resources, stray cinders from the coal-fired locomotives run the risk of igniting a second wildfire, even with the precautions of fire-suppression equipped speeders and a stand-by helicopter. Instead, and a result of the impact of the 2002 Missionary Ridge Fire, the D&SNG is planning to use diesel engines to haul what trains it can. It's not ideal, and the D&SNG knows that the stars are its legacy Denver & Rio Grande Western K-28 and K-36 class engines burning coal as they always have. It just may not be for June 2018. ⚒

Run For Cover - A Grande Western

Run For Cover, a Paramount Pictures western was put into wide release on this day in 1955. It stars Jimmy Cagney as a drifter intent on giving a grown orphan (played by John Derek) a chance as a partner in a western town. In the early part of the story, Cagney's and Derek's characters are mistaken for robbers holding up the train. Enter the starlet of the picture, the highline of the Silverton Train. I say starlet because her time on the screen is all too brief! Nary a foot of extra film is spared for Mikado 473 and the entire holdup sequence is tightly covered. It may be a Grande film, but it's still one on a budget.

Matt Dow (James Cagney, left) and Davey Bishop (John Derek, right) talk over trains and rumors of hold-ups while old Number 7 (Denver & Rio Grande Western 473 center) simmers on the high line near Rockwood, Colorado [under Fair Use]

Silverton, however, gets broad coverage under the more ambiguous name of Madison, and most if not all of the town sequences were filmed there. Even the most recent visitors to Silverton would be able to spot the depot and some of the buildings used, and certainly most of the outdoor shots have Sultan Mountain, Galena or Kendall in the background. Cagney even chases a thief over the yard tracks east of the town. With the exception of the climactic chase, it's Silverton or a small farm, likely in a valley nearby.

Number 7 of the Rio Grande (played ostensibly by K-28, 473) rounds the bend before the erstwhile ambush of two gunmen, Dow and Bishop. Barely on the screen for two passes, it doesn't seem nearly long enough for a railfan. [under Fair Use]

Cagney is a legend in early Hollywood, an established star in the firmament of the Golden Age in his last few years as a leading man. John Derek was a younger heartthrob at the time, but most of us would probably recognize his fourth wife, Bo. If you're into westerns, Run For Cover would certainly pass for the second of a double feature evening, or as main fare if you're planning to ride and hope to spot the holdup location in the next few days. As a railfan, the train itself is not given nearly enough time, but then, when is enough ever enough for such a grande place? Nevertheless, it's worth noting that not only was the Rio Grande among those railroads that built the west, but it took a central role in creating the myth of the Old West in film and story.⚒

Run For Cover on Wikipedia
...on iMDb

The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad where most of the film took place

POTD - A Plow In Aspen Gold

Photo of the Day: James Belmont

With the weather turning colder again, it's only fitting for the mind to turn to the one thing that made Colorado winters famous--or infamous, to the minds of railroad presidents and their accountants: snow. First in the line of defense of the high mountain passes and deep canyons were the plows, of which the Denver & Rio Grande Western railroad's X-67 is one of very few built for them by the Russell Car & Snow Plow Company. Further, she was listed by the Rio Grande as a plow, rather than a plow and spreader. Nevertheless, she looks fantastic sitting in Minturn on a relatively hot spring day in June 1981, awaiting the call to action in a fresh coat of Grande Aspen gold with wide-vision caboose 01509. Since Tennessee Pass has been dormant for 20 years now (grrr!), X-67 has been summering in Glenwood Springs, not a bad way to spend one's time!⚒

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.⚒

Caboose Hobbies To Re-open In Lakewood

Caboose Hobbies, in whatever form the store survives, is set to re-open on Alameda Avenue in Lakewood just south of the Federal Center this month. The Denverite has more.

When the store closed at its original location on 500 S Broadway on September 11, 2016, it was the end of an era. The largest model train store in the world closed on the 20th anniversary of the Union Pacific - Southern Pacific merger on September 11, 1996.

While Denver Billionaire Philip Anschutz had purchased the Rio Grande in 1984, he had Rio Grande Industries purchase the Southern Pacific Transportation Company in 1988 and the two companies functioned as separate divisions of the same railroad. As a result, it was easy for me to imagine nothing had really changed. Unfortunately, the day everything changed was the merger of the Union Pacific. For me, that was the day the Rio Grande, Denver's home railroad finally died.

So it's a little more sad than before. On the other hand, it would feel even worse if Caboose Hobbies had closed forever. Now she has a fighting chance. When they open, drop by 10800 W. Alameda Ave, Lakewood, Colorado if you are in town! They should be are not (yet) open. If you are out of the metro area, visit www.caboosehobbies.com! They should have gift certificates for sale!⚒

New Rio Grande Standard Gauge Steam Video From Greg Scholl

A new video of contemporary steam on the historic Rio Grande Railroad is not that hard to find any year, mostly because of the fine work by so many companies to document the daily operations of the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge and the local preservation societies like the Durango Railroad Historical Society and their work with D&RGW 315.

In comparison, finding a standard gauge Rio Grande steam video is rare enough to pay attention to, even if big steam isn't always your thing. Only one standard gauge locomotive survived the scrapper's torch, and it's sitting in the museum in Golden. In other words, any big steam Rio Grande footage is vintage and something worth preserving.



While I have not yet previewed the actual video from Greg Scholl Video Productions, the trailer above looks promising! HT: DRGW.org's Green Light newsletter ⚒

Rio Grande 491 Struts Her Stuff Around Her New Home

A little bird (not Twitter) whispered in my ear that the restoration of 491 by the Colorado Railroad Museum has got someone's attention down in Durango. Could be that the museum will be doing some work on another K-37 Mikado very, very soon.

I hope so. I hope they run her as well as her sister, too. What day is today? Thursday. Would you believe that contributing photographer found her pulling a load of passengers in a gondola? To my delight and our mutual pleasure, it was too good for John to pass up!

All three photos: John Hill

Get on down there this weekend for Father's Day. Tell them it would make you happy to see your kids in the caboose! Well, it would. Wouldn't it?⚒

Colorado Legislature Shows Support For Reviving the Ski Train

Last month, the Colorado State Legislature, in what could be termed a show of support for the growing interest in resuming the Ski Train, put forward a grant to build a platform for service, aimed at resolving Amtrak's objection for direct service to the slopes of Winter Park.

Amtrak? Not that Amtrak?

Yes, that Amtrak, although there has been nothing to indicate that Amtrak has the initiative to begin its service or when. If and when it does, it could be a partnership between Amtrak and the state as in North Carolina, Maine, or California.

Whatever form a revival will take, it probably won't be like the old Ski Train, because the old Ski Train lost money. The new service, if it comes at all, will likely not run all season, and it will likely be a tighter fit for those riding in coach. Will it be better than running the gauntlet that is I-70 in winter? Oh yeah! But I guarantee it will be different (and likely more expensive) than the old way under Ansco. Amtrak and Winter Park are likely to have differing ideas about rail service to Winter Park, especially in terms of dates and times of service. Hopefully, riders will have more options than under the old system, and service will run frequently and fast.

How many years did the Ski Train run both summer and winter? The glory of summer day trips to Winter Park to escape the heat of the city made the summer runs a special treat for residents of the Mile High City. Artwork: SkiTrain.com

In the video above, Walt Loevy gives us a brief show of a Ski Train in its final 2009 season. There is nothing like the unmistakable sound of an EMD F40 whipping by! Watching it, I can't help but remember another Rio Grande train, the Rio Grande Zephyr, with a similarly painted EMD F9 on the point and single level cars whipping by. I think Ansco did that on purpose. ;)

Here's one last video, click for a look at what the coach service was like in summer 2007.⚒

POTD - Right At Home In the Tunnel District

Would you believe it's been 10 years since Colorado Railroads - www.corailroads.com - began? I wouldn't have realized it but for the fact that the Rio Grande Heritage Unit produced commissioned by Union Pacific is 10 years old next month. What a great job they did on that design! Having met the designers at the unveiling, I was pleased to tell them that they really did a great job capturing the feel of a very diverse railroad with a solid and, I believe, unifying design that, as far as I'm concerned, would look great in a production run! It's the least Union Pacific could do, considering how seldom the locomotive seems to make it through Colorado.

Photo of the Day: Mike Danneman

Mike Danneman captured the vagabond UP 1989 when the notch-nosed, brawny SD-70ACe was leading a comparatively grimey sister ACe. Mr. Danneman said the UP Heritage Unit "looks right at home exiting Tunnel 29 east of Pinecliffe, Colorado," heading east over former D&RGW territory in the Moffat Road's Tunnel District on July 10, 2006.◊