Review: Colorado's Mountain Railroads

With winter comes a bit of a slowdown on the railroads of Colorado, and Colorado Railroads blog is no exception. Because there’s not much news besides the Christmas trains, I'm going to do some more product reviews. You’ve already seen the Gunnison DVD offered. Now to the books!

There is no shortage of books on Colorado railroads but if I had to pick books that would be the best to have in any railfan's collection, Colorado's Mountain Railroads by Robert A. LaMassena would be near the top of the list. Covering roughly 100 years of Colorado railroad history, this book is an exhaustive listing of any and all mountain roads laying a rail in the Centennial State.

Having appeared as separate volumes dating from 1963, LaMassena consolidated and revised his work and Sundance Publications Limited printed it in 1984. It is still the most valuable in researching obscure railroads in Colorado. For example, most railfans know the Rio Grande and possibly the Colorado Midland, but not many know about the Midland Terminal or its use of rail buses to help with passenger traffic after World War I. Likewise, not much coverage has been done of the larger, out-of-state roads including the Union Pacific, Missouri Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe. Finally, every short line that laid rail (and even some that never did) get at least some treatment. Here’s a partial listing:

• Colorado Central
• Colorado Yule Marble Co., along with the Crystal River railroads.
• Coors Brewing Co.
• Denver, Boulder & Western
• Denver, Lakewood & Golden
• Denver Pacific
• Denver & Santa Fe
• Denver, Texas & Gulf
• Dolores, Paradox & Grand Junction
• Fairmount (yes, to the cemetery in Denver)
• Gilpin
• Golden Circle
• Grand River Valley
• Great Western (the sugar beet short line)
• Kansas Pacific
• Laramie, Hahn’s Peak & Pacific
• London, South Park & Leadville
• Magic Mountain (now Heritage Square in Golden)
• Montezuma Lumber Co.
• Northwestern Terminal Railway (Denver Union Terminal)
• Pagosa Lumber Co.
• Pueblo & Arkansas Valley
• Rio Grande & Pagosa Springs
• Routt Pinnacle Coal Co.
• Salt Lake & Eastern
• San Cristobal
• San Luis Southern
• Santa Fe Southern
• Silverton Northern
• Southern Colorado Power & Railway Co.
• Stone Mountain Railroad & Quarry Co.
• Texas, Santa Fe & Northern
• Treasury Mountain
• Uintah
• Union Pacific, Denver & Gulf
• Utah Central Railroad
• Wasatch & Jordan Valley

I don’t think I’ve listed more than half the railroads covered. Some of them are simple interurbans and streetcar lines. Yet all of them contributed in a real way to Colorado and her vast network of high iron.

The photo illustrations are very illuminating as well. Rare photos abound including,

• Balwin’s 2-6-6-2 narrow-gauge, single expansion Mallets made for Uintah’s sharp curves
• Close-up shot of the Corkscrew Gulch turntable near the Red Mountain townsite
• A triple stub switch on the Rio Grande Southern outside of Rico
• A full color depiction of the travesty of RGS engine 42 painted like a circus train for the Magic Mountain railroad
• D&RGW 821, a 2-6-0T used by the Salt Lake shops in 1923
• Several pictures of Rio Grande’s affair with Fairbanks-Morse
• Denver & Salt Lake’s true (double expansion) 2-6-6-0 Mallets
• Colorado & Wyoming’s Ford truck with flanged wheels (a la RGS Galloping Goose)

This is one of the best books on Colorado railroads, period.

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This review also appears in its abridged form on Amazon.com since 2014-Dec-05. - SW

Christmas Trains

December is here and so are the Christmas trains! For those of us missing a model train at the foot of our Christmas trees, here’s a chance to go out and see the real thing. While the first regularly scheduled passenger train first ran on Christmas Day in 1830, the history of the relationship between Christmas and trains is elusive. Nevertheless, the connection couldn’t be more apparent. What else moves massive quantities of toys and other gifts? Santa Claus must have ditched the sleigh and reindeer for steel wheels on steel rails to deliver all those toys.

Here’s a list of the Christmas trains with runs remaining this season in Colorado. While some have already passed, there are still some good opportunities.

Dates	Railroad/Location	Website Details
Dec 8, 9, 15, 16	Rio Grande Scenic Railroad	North Pole Express, routes vary
Dec 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23, 24	Manitou & Pikes Peak (cog railway)	Santa Train, Two departures each day. Combine this with a visit to Santa's Workshop.
Dec 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27	Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad	The Polar Express, two to three departures each evening
Dec 8	Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad	Antonito Cinder Bear Express
Dec 15 - 24	Royal Gorge Route	Santa train departs daily 12:30 pm

Gunnison DVD Shares Special Beauty of Marshall Pass Route

DVD - Gunnison - Buy it here

Culled from the footage of the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club, this DVD explores the Denver & Rio Grande Western (D&RGW) narrow gauge lines around Gunnison, Colorado.

Length: 59 minutes
Video: Black and white with some color
Audio: Synchronized
Locations: Gunnison, Ohio Creek, Crested Butte, Marshall Pass, Sapinero, Black Canyon of the Gunnison and Cerro Summit.
What makes this DVD special: Rare footage, especially of a flanger car in action as it plows the tracks clear of snow.

Otto Perry and Irv August both made trips to the Gunnison area in the 1940s and 50s to capture the narrow gauge action in and around this mountain town. Their efforts give us a glimpse into the final decade of operations over the Marshall Pass route, the original narrow gauge mainline of the D&RG to Utah. When the standard gauge route over Tennessee Pass was completed, the Marshall Pass line became a backwater with steam engines hauling livestock specials and the odd shipment between Montrose and Salida. A few fall aspens and gorgeous vistas form the backdrop for D&RGW 268 in Bumblebee livery (now on display in that livery in Gunnison) and her sister engine 278 (preserved at Cimarron) both make several appearances as do the Mikado-style engines that serve as the engines for today's Cumbres & Toltec and Durango & Silverton lines.

So much history comes alive on this DVD. Several locations shown are now beneath the waters held by dams on the Gunnison River west of Gunnison. Livestock extras and a flanger plow in action viewed from the caboose also separate this DVD from the pack. This film is a must for any serious narrow gauge modeler as well as the average enthusiast looking for an alternative to the ho-hum, standard-gauge fare. A worthy addition to your collection.

Coming Soon: Resource Reviews

The aspens have all shed their golden leaves and the first snows of the season are on their way. There's a chill in the night air and morning coffee feels just that much better. Time to fire up the DVD player, break out the books and get the summer dust off those models!

As a fifth-generation Coloradoan, I have a passion for the mountains and the railroads that ventured through them. I envy the lives of William H. Jackson, Otto Perry and many others who saw steam working such places as Red Mountain Pass, Telluride, the Chili Line, Marshall Pass and Leadville. Places like Silverton, Durango and Antonito are magical to me. I've spent hundreds of hours perusing books, studying maps and physically following ghost railroads all over Colorado. Railroad DVDs and past VHS volumes have graced my screen on many a cold winter night. I simply love Colorado railroads.

With this in mind, I'm announcing that I will begin reviewing and recommending DVDs, books and assorted resources that I've found. Most often, you'll be able to get them through Colorado Railroads' relationship with Amazon.com, but a few will be hidden gems or just plain unavailable stuff that you might be able to find down at your local library or museum. I'll bring out the good stuff as much as I can. As always, you can chime in with your own reviews using comments.

I will roll out the first review soon. Until then, keep the fires banked and the glass full. Bring on the snow!

Grande Web Photographers Craft Their Art

Kevin Morgan of ColoradoRailfan.com snapped these shots on Friday the 21st while the Colorado Rockies had their last homestand against the Arizona Diamond Backs. Though the D-backs would top the Rockies 4-2 that night, it wouldn't prevent the Coors Field staff from setting off some fireworks, lending a spectacular backdrop to Kevin's shots of Grand Luxe rail's passenger cars at Union Station a few blocks away.

Meanwhile, CJ Lamas has been playing around with stuffed animals (or is the proper term "mascot" or possibly "character of dubious gender?") down in Antonito and Chama on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic. The costume didn't interfere with these shots, as he picks some beautiful views of Colorado narrow gauge steam. The autumn rains really add to some of these shots too.

Congratulations to both photographers for excelling in their art!

RTD Fastracks Overview

Recently found this Fastracks overview by Railway Gazette from June helpful, if a little hard to read because of the tiny font. Still worth reading if you want to catch up on the generalities of what RTD is planning.

More News at DRGW.net

ND Holmes of DRGW.net has news about D&RGW 315, a BN rotary (!), and narrow gauge odds and ends as of Sept 17th. Go check it out.

Georgetown Restaurant Owner Seeing Red

It's an unfortunate story, but one that seems to be dominating railroad news. Georgetown Loop Railroad's abysmal season has affected Clear Creek county's tourism in such a way it's making shop owners nervous. It's disappointing to see Mark Greska, the former operator of the Loop, so accessible to the media. At best, it looks like he's gloating over the failed season. Observers of the situation will note that neither the CHS or Railstar has been especially adept at managing affairs, but Greska's sour grapes doesn't exactly sweeten the chill air off of Clear Creek. Greska's on top of his game at Royal Gorge with his standard gauge diesels, but he's going to need to find a home for those five narrow gauge engines he has. They're not getting their proper use at the Colorado Railroad Museum, and when D&RGW 346 returns to the grounds, there will be--oddly enough--a surplus of power there. Questions remain:

1. Will Railstar and CHS make the changes necessary to improve reliability and lessen or even eliminate downtime in 2008? I hope so.
2. Will the businesses of Georgetown and Idaho Springs recover from this difficult season? Probably, but only if the point above is sufficiently resolved.
   
3. Will Greska tack down a third rail and run narrow gauge through the Royal Gorge to Parkdale for the first time in nearly a century? Or will he sell them off and hope they don't end up in the hands of his rivals? There's only so many places that want Shays, and the Loop is one of them.

None of the questions will likely be answered before March 2008, when preparations for the summer begin. Until then, it's going to be a cold winter in the valley.

Taking a Garden Railway Seriously

Dick Maddock is living a fantasy, and I envy him. Imagine running and maintaining your own private railroad, with a working, coal-fired locomotive to boot! I was especially gratified to see that he and his son "play trains" on weekends. This is what trains are all about for me, bringing fathers and sons together. Nothing is more worthwhile.

D&RGW 315 at Railfest

I'm still awaiting word on whether the D&SNG ran the D&RGW 315 as announced (PDF) at their 9th annual Railfest. This being the last day of Railfest, we should hear something about it soon.

UPDATE 9/23: No such luck, but there's a rumor about it being available for a fall color special or two.

Colorado State Fair Express Chase

I could post all the footage and photos I got of UP 844 as it came south from Denver to Pueblo, but I would be hard pressed to keep up with Kevin Morgan of ColoradoRailfan.com. Seeing him near Larkspur and again in Pueblo, I saw how easily the pros drift through the amateurs and somehow make it all look so easy.

I still might post a few. I'll have to recover my ego first. In the meantime, I'm offering an editorial, although it will likely just add to the consensus of the railfan community at large.

I was reminded yesterday that mainline steam tends to bring out the very worst of railfans. I will spend little time citing what's wrong, but it's still worth noting that:

• Slowing traffic to a crawl on a major Interstate highway just so they can pace a train that is still 100 to 200 feet away from them causes active and thorough resentment from not only the general public, but other railfans trying to get to the next photo location
• Walking in front of the photo line to get their own shot reveals just how unprofessional and ridiculous some railfans can be, especially when the same person shows up in shot after shot after shot. His wearing a pale yellow T-shirt makes it all the worse

On the positive side, I appreciated so many of the fans finding discrete places to photograph the train. Positioning themselves in the bushes, below the grade or generally out of the way, many of the photographers were decent to each other and respected each other's desire for the perfect shot. Following the golden rule--even in a hobby--by talking with folks already set up about where you can go to stay out of their way helps everyone feel respected and yields some good rewards. The challenge of catching a locomotive at speed is challenging enough without climbing all over each other to do it.

While it's not unique to railfanning the events, there is a great opportunity for connecting with others. Among railfans, you can easily spot loyalties and what sub-category of railfan they find themselves in. There's the big steam fan, the narrow gauger, the local historian, the obscure short-line fan, the camera geek and the dabbler, to name a few. One usually finds a mixture of two or three interests in a single railfan, but there is usually a chief love, proudly proclaimed somewhere about the person on their shirt, cap or jacket, making it easy to spot each other. Striking up conversation about such a love is easy and opens up roads to long and true friendships.

Speaking of great loves, I was gratified at the UP's surprising good taste in letting the Rio Grande Heritage unit, UP 1989, assist the 844 over the Palmer Divide. It's always a beautiful sight to the eyes to see the flying Grande in gold and black on home rails, especially the joint line. It was 136 years ago, before Colorado was even a state in the Union, that the Rio Grande's founder directed the Grande to build south from Denver. When so many "& Pacific" railroads were going east-west, Palmer was the true entrepreneur, defying convention and running north-south to tap the riches of the Colorado piedmont on the way to Mexico City. That he never made it past Raton is dwarfed by the fact that his work still survives today.

UP 844 To Lead Colorado Mountaineer

Don't forget this great opportunity for Front Range railfans!

http://www.coloradostatefairexpress.com/

By the way, the UP 844 will be substituting for the 3985. While we won't see an articulated in action, it should still be worth the time to see it. Here is the schedule.