RTD Photo Contest For Denver Union Station Light Rail Plaza

Friday is the deadline for RTD's DUS light rail station photo contest. For those who haven't heard about this contest, the details are below in an RTD press release.

POTD - Coal Glides Down the Divide

Mike Yuhas is a well-traveled photographer whose site is chock-full of great photos, primarily from the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. Trains magazine has been running a number of his entries for their Photo of the Day. Considering the skies in evidence, Trains picked a well-lit  morning shot of BNSF 9226, an EMD SD70-ACe bringing a load of coal south down Gen. William Palmer's Divide into the Arkansas River drainage.

Photo: Mike Yuhas

Tickets For Goosefest Includes VIP Offer

photo by Matt Isaaks

As mentioned before, Goosefest on June 16 & 17 at the Colorado Railroad Museum is the first full Galloping Goose reunion. Tickets are $15, 5 & 10 for adults, children & seniors, or $30 for families. Additionally, there is are 40 VIP packages available for $250. CRM Executive Director, Donald Tallman, explains,

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.

Goosefest 2012: Rio Grande Southern Galloping Goose Full Reunion

Major Event

The news out of Golden couldn't be more significant. For the first time since the abandonment of the Rio Grande Southern, all seven Galloping Gooses will be on the same rails! Goose Fest is a two day event on June 16 and 17, 2012, at  the Colorado Railroad Museum. Donald Tallman, Executive Director of the Colorado Railroad Museum writes,

Having the seven Galloping Geese [sic] together and operating is an event of both National and International significance to the railfan community.  People from around the world have contacted the Museum and are planning to “flock” to this once-in-a-lifetime reunion! 

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

POTD - An experiment with good results

Sometimes a photographer takes a leap of faith with his audience and tries something new. Kevin Morgan, no stranger to CR's POTD, took such a leap with this shot. Kevin confesses, "This was one of those unplanned shots that just kind of happens sometimes!"

A UP coal load descends the Moffat Route toward Arvada Colorado, passing through Tunnel One,
(left of center) before rounding the curve over Colorado 72 and  through Blue Mtn. crossing on March 4, 2012.
Photo: Kevin Morgan 

POTD - In the sticks for a winter special

Kevin Madore, whose photo of the E&P #4 was our POTD yesterday returns for a double today with a photo from earlier in 2011. Rockwood is becoming a popular haven for photographers of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad in all seasons, not just summer. A quick hop down the rails got Mr. Madore this fine photo of what he calls "the chocolate plume from D&RGW 478." Couldn't have said it better.

Former D&RGW K-28 #478 rolls through the brush near Rockwood, Colorado on its way
home to Durango with a winter steam charter on February 21, 2011.
Photo: Kevin Madore 

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 - Is it real, or is it a painting?

Kevin Madore of Massachusetts caught the Eureka & Palisade engine #4, the Eureka, on the bridge leaving Silverton one bright August afternoon during the D&S railfest last year. The photo is so ideal, it could pass for an oil-on-canvas original. It doesn't get much better!

Extra No 4 crosses the Rio de las Animas on its way out of Silverton for the return trip
to Durango with her diminutive train and a beautiful white crown of steam on August 20, 2011
Photo: Kevin Madore 

Checking In

Back in (coal) Black
Boy oh boy. I wish I could say I was in some exotic location, blogging about so-and-so's steam special and what a blast I'm having. It's not all that glamorous to say I've been weathering my illness and playing Minecraft. Oh well. The coffee's nice and the nursing staff at my exclusive convalescence location is quite friendly and accommodating. Still, all things being equal, I'd rather be in Durango.