Georgetown Loop Oktoberfest Offer

If you like microbrews, the Georgetown Loop Railroad is offering beertasting and brats weekends until November 4 (view CR Events calendar). Here's more of the offer from their notice sent to Colorado Railroads.

How about these beers for the Beer & Brat tasting train!

• Great Divide Rumble Pilsner from Denver, Colorado
• Crabtree Serenity Amber Ale from Greeley, Colorado
• Upslope India Pale Ale from Boulder, Colorado
• Lefthand Brewery Nitro Stout from Longmont, Colorado

Dinner
Grilled Avalanche Ale beer bratwurst and all veal bratwurst, fennel sauerkraut, caramelized Granny Smith Apples, roasted red potatoes, and Dijon cream
Our bratwurst are specially prepared for us by the Continental Sausage Co. of Denver, CO

Book your reservation for the Beer and Brat train or the Dinner train.

Here's more from the site:

Oktoberfest

Oct 27, 28 & Nov 3,4
Question: What’s better than free hot dogs, bratwurst, and beer?
Answer: Riding the Georgetown Loop Railroad® and having free hot dogs, bratwurst, and beer. Ticketed passengers get free hot dogs and bratwurst, and you get to sample different micro brews or root beer. If you are lucky you might catch a glimpse of our new bighorn sheep herd that has just relocated to the south side of I-70. You've heard of moving up town, how about our “Bighorns” moving up track. Last week they were standing in the middle of Loop Drive by the High Bridge, Wow.

Sounds like a good time! Now, I just have to find my lederhosen.

OPINION: Reflecting on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic's Experiment

A lot has happened this year and particularly this summer for Colorado's heritage railroads. Nowhere more than the San Luis Valley.

American Heritage Railways, the company that owns and operates the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad had it's first season operating the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. This marked the first time since the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad abandoned its San Juan Extension in 1970 that the two remnants have been operated by the same company. Since the contract was announced in October last year, AHR's management of the railroad has not been an ideal fit with it's government-owners. As a result, AHR has largely bowed out of the contract, choosing to allow one AHR management employee, Ken Matzick, to report directly to the railroad's commission. It's hoped that this will simplify the situation and save the Commission money. Whatever happens, the impact of the change is likely not going to show very clearly for the riding public, especially if the Harper's statements about the commission and the C&TS culture are accurate.

It's not surprising that a private venture would have trouble operating under a government commission and a railroad that has been dependent on public funds for nearly it's entire existence. It's a problem as old as Keynes and Marx, capitalism and socialism. Worse, there is some entrenchment within the ranks of the C&TS Railroad. This isn't said in condemnation of the railroad. You try surviving in Antonito for more than a month without some form of assistance and trust me, you'll find your trenching tools fast. Nonetheless, neither of the two issues loan themselves to capitalists who like to innovate. Something tells me that of the two railroads, Gen. William Palmer, founder of the D&RGW Railroad, would find it slightly easier to recognize the physical plant of the C&TS, and find much easier to fit himself within the operating model of the D&SNG. Could it be the irony of the high iron that in seeking to preserve the history of the Rio Grande narrow gauge, the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic commission, the Friends, and the employees have actually lost something far greater?

If the C&TS commission attempts to bring back capitalism to the San Luis and Rio Chama valleys, it's going to have to sell to an enterprising young man who can grow, live, and possibly die with the narrow gauge. In valleys like these, no one is willing to risk that for an ideology, at least not so long as the government funds continue to flow. I really hope someone is willing to prove me wrong.

New: Colorado Railroads Logo (v.3)

I have long thought about the idea of designing a logo for this site that emphasizes the state it serves. Part of the reason this blog has been as quiet as it has recently is that I've been teaching myself how to work in SVG, an extension which is an industry standard in graphic design. That and trying to learn the legalese of protecting my work once it's out there. I hope you like it, and, if they're well received, I'm going to work on how I can integrate these logos into the site. If your feed does not display the logos below, click here to view the logos in their original post.

Colorado Railroads blog full logo © Steve Walden 2012

small or "mini-logo" versions © Steve Walden 2012

What do you think? Comment in, or vote on the poll at top right!

Rio Grande Scenic Renders Help To Flying W Wranglers

Rio Grande Scenic Railroad is offering relief for the recently displaced Flying W Wranglers. They lost their bread-and-butter when the Flying W Ranch and their chuckwagon supper facilities burnt to the ground in the Waldo Canyon Fire. From the Rio Grande Scenic Railroad site,

BNSF To Protect Joint Line With Fire Train

According to Trains Magazine's News Wire, BNSF is sending a "fire train" to assist with protecting sections of the Joint Line threatened by the Waldo Canyon fire, which is currently threatening several communities, most notably Colorado Springs. The sections of the Joint Line under threat are actually owned by Union Pacific, which inherited the originally narrow-gauge main line of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad in the UP-SP merger September 11, 1996. Despite this, BNSF's trackage rights go back to the USRA and World War I, and keeping the line in service is paramount to keep Powder River and Yampa coal flowing south to Texas.

Half-off Rio Grande Scenic Railroad Tickets For This Weekend

The Rio Grande Scenic Railroad that runs between La Veta (near Walsenburg) and Alamosa, Colorado is offering 50% off tickets for all seats departing June 29, 30 & July 1, 2012. Use the code "valley radio" when purchasing your tickets. The tickets will also give you access to the concert at Fir by bluegrass act Special Consensus and singer/songwriter Anne Hills.

Manitou Springs Evacuation Ordered

Guests at the historic Cliff House in Manitou Springs were turned out of their beds in the early hours of the morning to news of evacuation orders. Manitou is the home of the Cog Wheel Route, the Manitou & Pikes Peak Railway, along with many unmarked and marked artifacts of the Rio Grande and the Colorado Midland Railroads as well as it's successor, the Midland Terminal Railway that have survived up to now. Hopefully, the evacuations are just a precaution. The test will come later this morning when the winds pick up. If the worst happens, it wouldn't be a tragedy to lose artifacts or equipment. The real tragedy would be if human lives are lost. People are irreplaceable.

POTD - Vanishing Color: Cascade Green 2 - The Burning

In July 2009, BNSF 6851 was running long hood forward in Commerce City when an ethanol truck tried to beat it through a crossing. Had it been running short hood forward (with the cab on the front of the train, it's likely that all three of the crew aboard the engine would have died horribly in the massive explosion and fire that engulfed most of the engine. As it was, only one of the crew was injured, spraining their ankle after leaping from the front of the engine.

After the fire, the engine was driven away under it's own power. Despite it's stout survival of the fire, it has sat in Globeville near the BN shops, with only the nose of the unit showing that it once was painted BNs Cascade green. Speculation is that the locomotive has sat untouched for the purposes of litigation surrounding the accident.

"Vanishing colors" barely begins to describe the misfortune of BNSF 6851 an SD40-2 that
survived a 2009 fire only to sit and rust for years afterward on a BNSF Shops spur track.
Photo: Andrew De Kruif

POTD - Vanishing Color: Cascade Green

In 1970, Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad merged to form the Burlington Northern. The new "futuristic" BN logo and Cascade green will be a ubiquitous sight along the northern Colorado plains and the Joint Line for the next quarter century.

Like Tuesday's POTD, today's photo was taken at Palmer Lake, except this time facing south. The color seems to have faded, but the engines appear in much better shape than tomorrow's POTD.

Burlington Northern #5066, a GE C30-7, hauls its manifest up the grade to Palmer Lake
 with the help of a similar vintage SD40-2 and a newer GE BNSF unit in October 2000.
Photo: Moe Bertrand

POTD - Vanishing Color: Grinstein Green

Burlington Northern ^(W) was gone only 2 years when Joe Blackwell snapped this photo of a BN triplet of SD70MACs in Executive or "Grinstein Green" livery. It's presence on the joint line didn't surprise anyone, however. Merged on December 31, 1996, BN acquired the Santa Fe's joint ownership of the Joint Line, adding strength to the adage, "the more things change, the more they stay the same."

Nonetheless, BNSF would experiment with paint schemes and in 10 years, the presence of Grinstein green with cream and red trim would become more and more rare with the orange and green/black of BNSF taking the lions' share of coal down the Front Range. Yet, as we will see, the green of BN is more persistent than yesterday's SP.

A patched BNSF SD70MAC, 9801 and two un-patched sisters lead a string of coal loads
down the single track section of Colorado's Joint Line outside the town of Palmer Lake.
Photo: Joe Blackwell

PS: While you visit Joe's photos at RailPictures.Net, stop by and take a look at my friend "Hemi's" album of Mountain Railroading in the Rockies.

POTD - Vanishing Color: Summit Tunnel

Once upon a time, not so long ago, there were four western Class I railroads. Instead of yellow or orange locomotives, there were green ones, red ones, grey ones, blue ones and even a few left over from the previous mergers. It was a much more colorful west. Strangely, others who remembered further back bemoaned the lack of diverse colors even then. We don't know what we have until it's gone. This week's theme for Photo of the Day (POTD) is vanishing colors.

Monday's vanishing colors POTD is one from "Slideshow Bruce" Fingerhood titled "summit tunnel," Early afternoon sunshine highlights half the nose of the southbound unit, yielding a nice contrast between the left and right sides and also to the smoky confines from which the unit has just emerged. This is one of the better photographs from this now silent location. Perhaps the most recent loss of color, the UP-SP merger would shutter the Tennessee Pass route from Dotsero to just west of Canon City and cover Rio Grande gold and black EMDs and Southern Pacific gray and red GE locomotives with Armour yellow paint and patches.

Southern Pacific locomotive 175, a GE-AC4400CW heads down from the summit of a
still-active Tennessee Pass in June 1996. UP would complete the merger in mere months
Photo: Bruce Fingerhood

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