Heading for Austin

Well, I've completed my Amtrak loop and I'm headed back to Austin. I'm taking the slower, perhaps more scenic route, of US 90 just because I've always wanted to do it. Tonight I'm in Alpine and tomorrow night in Del Rio then finally back at my Dad's place. After that, Wanderin Bill should be settled down for the winter and working as a volunteer for the Austin Steam Train Association on the Austin & Texas Central Railroad. Anybody who is interested in some of the stuff ... funny, stupid, good, bad, whatever, that happens on a small excursion railroad can listen in at RailroadBill.blogspot.com. I just hope I don't get in trouble.

Summary of three months of train riding

Trains that I rode ... 58
Arizona ... 15
Nevada ... 7
Utah ... 5
Colorado ... 24
New Mexico ... 7

Trains I knew about and didn't ride for various reasons ... 7

Full size excursion trains including narrow gauge ... 20
Light rail, monorail or tram systems ... 4
Commuter rail systems ... 1
Trolleys ... 4
Park and zoo trains ... 25
"Live steam" 7 1/2 in. gauge ... 3
Incline railways ... 1

Toy Train Depot

At $4.00 the train ride at the Toy Train Depot must be one of the most expensive park trains I've ridden. Although this train runs in a city park it is a private operation and it must pay for the right to do so and earn it's way so that probably explains the high price. The trains are park trains that have been preserved from scraping at other locations. Some of the equipment is 40 years old or more. The trip is one of the longest park rides I've had though there is nothing much special to see. Besides the train ride, there is a toy train museum with all scales on display. The museum is an additional charge.

This is my last ride of this summer quest. There will be a later post to summarize the trip but right now I am getting ready for a two week around the country Amtrak trip. I've started a new blog for that trip that I call Amtrak Bill. If you are interested, the address is amtrakbill.blogspot.com. The trip starts Aug 4th so I don't expect to have much out there before then.

It's been fun. Bill

Spring River Park and Zoo Train

The Spring River Park and Zoo in Roswell is unlike any I have visited. The Zoo is truly part of the park with no admission cost and multiple entrances that really are just part of the trails in the park. Maybe you should just think of it as a Zoo with a very large park attached. Besides the train there is a large area shaded with trees, a carousel, and part of an extended hiking trail. The train ride matched the Pueblo City Park train with a low price of twenty-five cents but I think this train gave you a longer ride. The trip passes through a remote area of the zoo where the Emus and Llamas are fenced in together but this is the only part of the Zoo that you don't see easily just walking around. Also the first zoo I've visited that displayed Longhorns but no Aliens on display.

Santa Fe Southern

The Santa Fe Southern is a freight railroad that carries passengers. The Santa Fe Southern is an excursion railroad that hauls a few freight cars every now and then. It's hard to tell which of those is the most accurate statement. I'm sure that they are obliged by federal regulations to haul freight for any customers that request it which would make them a freight railroad. On our trip, we stopped at two locations in Santa Fe and picked up a boxcar at each place. When we got to Lamy, the cars were set out on an interchange track to be picked up by the BNSF. But I can't imagine that they make enough money off of those few cars to stay in business so that would make them a passenger railroad that hauls freight.

I stopped at the post office on the way into Santa Fe and almost missed the train because of lack of parking. Get there early if you don't want to deal with that problem. As the train trundles out of town, it passes diagonally through the intersection of Cerrillos Road and Saint Frances Drive, two of the busiest streets in town. Boy that brings everything to a halt. Soon you pass under I-25 and are in the country side. You then pass through a small community called Eldorado at Santa Fe.

This is a curious place. All the road's I saw were unpaved. Almost none of the homes had any kind of yard with the native flora growing right up to the outer walls of the houses. Sounds like kind of a depressed area, right. But many of the homes were huge sprawling single level houses set on giant lots. Although most were made in the adobe or Pueblo style, I suspect many were simulated not real adobe. Perhaps I will find out the story of these houses someday.

In Lamy, there is a caterer who operates a dining car and an outdoor service area with much the same food. With a full train, there is not time to seat everyone in the dining car so most eat at the outdoor venue. I snuck into the dining car because I wanted to see the car and had a grilled turkey meatloaf sandwich, a first for me.

I enjoyed the trip. It's pretty relaxing with nothing spectacular in the way of scenery although there are some nice long vistas in several places. The 1920's era cars have been nicely restored. They have a more modern dome car but I didn't get to see what it looked like. There is also a flatcar with sides added on for a better view. It's certainly something you would want to do if you were already in Santa Fe.

Thunderbird Express, Albuquerque Zoo

The Thunderbird Express Zoo Train is different from the Rio Line BioPark Train. The zoo train is contained completely within the zoo and does not connect with the Rio Line although it does shares some track. The station for the zoo train is quite far from from the BioPark train station, on the opposite end of the zoo. Even though the zoo train shares a loop of track with the BioPark train and passes right by the BioPark station, you can't get off there to catch the BioPark train. Very confusing!

The zoo train takes you passed lots of the exhibits and even a few places that you're not likely to see walking around. The zoo train cars are different from the BioPark train, more comfortable in my opinion. If you buy a combo pass when you enter the zoo or the aquarium, you get to visit all parts of the BioPark and ride both trains as much as you wish. It's a lot to do in one day however and I skipped the botanical garden. The sharks in the aquarium were really cool though.

Rio Line Bio Park Train, Albuquerque

The Albuquerque Biopark is a large area on the Rio Grande River that contains a zoo, an aquarium, a botanical garden and a large park with fishing ponds. Unfortunately, these are strung out over a large distance and are not easy walking distance from each other. The solution is the Rio Line train that runs from the Zoo to the Aquarium with a stop at the park. You can board the train at the zoo, or the aquarium or the park and go to any other venue. The ride includes two tunnels that duck under city streets and a spin through the nursery area of the botanical garden so it's a fun ride. They have two train circulating all the time so the they board every half hour at each stop. They're working on a third train which will complicate the schedule but cut down the wait.

New Mexico Rail Runner Express

The New Mexico Rail Runner Express is the commuter rail service for the Albuquerque I-25 corridor from Belen to Bernalillo. It will soon be extended North to Santa Fe.

The price is quite moderate, I was able to buy an all day pass, including all Albuquerque buses for $4. A one way ticket is $2. I bought the pass online the day before and printed it out. Tickets and passes are also available at the platform or on the train from roving ticket agents who take cash or credit cards.

The Rail Runner’s five locomotives are diesel-electric MP36PH-3C’s built by Motive Power Inc. in Boise, Idaho. Rail Runner locomotives produce about 3600 horsepower and are capable of running speeds in excess of 100 mph. Since they run on diesel fuel, the Mid Region Council of Governments is investigating the potential use of biodiesel as a fuel source for the locomotives. The trains use Bombardier Bi-Level commuter cars.

The graphics on the sides of the trains are striking, with a road runner head and neck on the locomotives and the tail feathers repeated on each car.

I rode the train from Bernalillo to Belen then back to downtown Albuquerque. From the downtown station I visited the Zoo then completed my round trip to Bernalillo. Since the route used by the trains is so straight, I had no opportunity to take a picture of the train from a rear car while in a curve. Instead, I am using the view from a seat in the cab car that was controlling the train on the northbound trip. The engineer was seated just to the front and the right of me in a different compartme

Cheyenne Depot Museum Train

The Cheyenne Depot Museum Train from Denver to Cheyenne really makes sense. The Denver Post Cheyenne Frontier Days Train goes from Denver to Cheyenne and back on Saturday. On Sunday, the train has to go back to it's home in Cheyenne anyway so why not sell some tickets on the train and raise some money for the Museum. I really wanted to talk to some of the museum folks to see how long they had been doing this and how successful it was but just didn't get a chance. I know the train was not sold out, the car I was in had plenty of seats but maybe the domes were full. BTW, seats and cars were not assigned so I picked the Texas Eagle to ride in.

I had failed to secure a reservation on the Saturday Frontier days train but while trying to find someone with an extra ticket at Union Station on Saturday morning I had come to realize that this was going to be a real party train. I think I really enjoyed the folks on the Sunday train better than I would have those on the Saturday train. And the ticket was a whole lot cheaper.

The trip was one way only however, with a bus return. We left Union Station at 1 PM and made very good time, sometimes hitting 70 MPH, until we came to a stretch where thieves had stolen some wire and disabled the signal system. We were then reduced to restricted speed for a number of miles. We got a clear signal at the north end of Carr and picked up speed but soon reached the spot where a photo run by was planned. Those who wished climbed off the train and waited track side as the train backed up and 844 came steaming by for a photo opportunity. Then they backed up the train and did it again. It was great fun even though it was reported to be 105 outside. We arrived in Cheyenne with no further incident a little after 5 pm and used the time until our 7 pm bus departure to eat supper and visit some of the vendors who were set up for Frontier Days. The bus driver did about 90 miles in 95 minutes and we were back at Denver Union Station.

Colorado Railroad Museum

Several times a year, the Colorado Railroad Museum holds what they call a Steam Up, sometimes for special occasions, like Fathers Day, sometimes for no reason at all. I was lucky enough to be in the area for one of those "no-reason-at-all"s. They fired up engine Number 40, hooked up a variety of passenger haulers and started around their loop of track. Each loop takes about 5 minutes so they did it three times to give a nice ride. Also makes it possible to try again if you miss a picture angle the first time around. I chose to ride in a nicely restored old passenger car that was marked for the Denver and Rio Grande Western. It looks like it's going to get some more paint on the outside but the inside was very nice. Someone has done a lot of good work on that car.

The museum has a nice collection of equipment, most of it better cared for than you find at a lot of other outdoor museums. They have a nice selection of railroad books and other railroad items in their gift shop. Check 'em out.

Platte Valley Trolley

The Platte Valley Trolley is a project of the Denver Rail Heritage Society. Their station of origination is near the new REI flagship store in Denver which was formally the home of the Forney Transportation Museum and originally a power house for the Denver Trolley system. REI is a little hard to find but if you take the 221 exit off of I-25 and go east all the way under Speer Blvd. you will find it. From Downtown, go Northwest on 15th and turn left on Platte just before you get to I-25. The REI parking lot is posted for customers only but I don't think you will have a problem if you're there to ride the trolley.

The trolley itself is not native to Denver. The trucks and controls came from Australia and the body is a replica fabricated in the US. The trip first follows the Platte river past the Aquarium, the Children's Museum, Elitch Gardens and Mile Hi Stadium. They then turn west up Lakewood Gulch as far as Decatur Street. During the 11:30 trip, the ride continues farther west, but having forgotten my GPS I can't pin down the exact stopping place. This originally was the part of Route 84, the interurban to Golden. Within the next couple of years the local transit authority (RTD, see July 11th) will begin rebuilding that line to carry light rail back to Golden. At that time all trolley trips will terminate at Decatur Street but if the historical society's plan are met they will have a new trolley barn and museum at that location and may have extended the other end of the line all the way across the river to Union Station.

Georgetown Loop Railroad

The Georgetown Loop Railroad is another one of those must ride classics among excursion railroads. Despite recent organizational problems they put on a good show and do it professionally. No more Shays or whatever their geared locomotives were but their little 2-6-2 from the sugar cane fields of Hawaii of all places did a fine job with the steep grades. Wednesday must be large-groups-of-kids day, I think I counted five schools buses at one time or another. The trip is not long and there are no spectacular 1000 ft high vistas but the trip over the high trestle gives you great views both up and down the canyon and the twists and turns keep you guessing which way you are going. Clear Creek seems too big to be just a creek but it often demonstrates just how steep the canyon is with dashing rapids that are probably too rough for kayaking. There is a gold mine tour available mid trip but I chose not to do that. This one is worth a special effort to ride.

Tiny Town Railroad

The Tiny Town Railroad has a little bit different story than other similar places. Many of the park railroads built a railroad then added hokey buildings for decoration. At Tiny Town they build a bunch of hokey buildings for people to come see then built a railroad around the buildings. I don't mean to be critical, the hokey buildings were originally built, starting in 1915, as a gift to the founders daughter. He never intended to display them to the public. But word got out and people wanted to see this "tiny town" so by 1920 it was opened to the public. It's history after that is beset with the misfortune of floods and fires but eventually it became a community project and has of late been quite successful. The railroad boasts four engines, two steam (real steam) and two diesel and a roundhouse with a turntable. The trip around the periphery of Tiny Town crosses Turkey Creek twice and affords a view of most all of the miniature buildings without the walk. The steam engine that pulled our train had a really nice whistle.

Fort Collins Municipal Railroad

The Fort Collins Municipal Railroad is actually the revived Fort Collins trolley system and a project of the Fort Collins Municipal Railway Society. I have heard nothing but good things about this system and have been looking forward to riding it. I was not disappointed. The car they use, restored from one of four that used to operate in Fort Collins was beautiful. It has a factory new appearance. The work that required after it sat in a park for so many years must have been tremendous. The trip starts in the same park where I rode the Fort Collins park train but not nearby and I did quite a bit of driving around before I found the terminal. After a two block trip over to Mountain Avenue, the trolley follows the original tracks down the grassy median. The tracks almost disappear under the grass in some places but they had no operational problems at all. At one point, the median becomes solid concrete and there is a short siding where two trolleys could meet. The siding is not operational but they look forward to the day when they might have two trolleys and need to restore the meeting point. There were two crew members on the trolley, one to drive and one to collect fares and provide information. Both fellows were quite friendly and spotted me as a rail fan right away. If I lived in Fort Collins I would be very pleased to become active in their organization.

Fort Collins City Park Train

The Fort Collins City Park Train is very similar in appearance to the one in Loveland. It's a freight train with two open gons then an enclosed cattle car and a caboose. I prefer to ride in the last car of the train but like the Loveland caboose, there was no way I could get in it, much less take pictures. This was my third lady engineer of the day and she was very enthusiastic. She was also a lead foot, giving me the fastest park train ride I've had on this trip. The loop was small so we went around three times.

Buckhorn Northern Railroad

The Buckhorn Northern Railroad is in City Park of Loveland, CO. It was actually constructed and is operated by the local Lions club. The consist of the train was somewhat unusual in that it was all freight cars. The cattle car and the caboose are completely enclosed and locked from the outside. Didn't seem like a particularly fun way to ride a train but the kids seemed to like it. The lady engineer seemed to be having more fun than the passengers, blowing the whistle and ringing the bell just for the fun of it. The trip was reasonably long, a loop that went out through a well maintained and attractive park. It's has surprised me how many of these small towns have such nice and well used parks. I guess they don't get much use in the Colorado winters though.

Estes Park Ride-a-Kart train

The Estes Park Ride-a-Kart train has got to be the oddest looking train I have ridden. The cars and even the locomotive, look like they might have started their life as watering troughs. I've posted a picture on Picasa that give you a nice view of the train. If my watering trough theory is correct, I'll have to say who ever did the conversion did a nice job, especially with the engine. The cab has very nice lines except for that bell which would be about 6 ft in diameter if scaled up to life size. The ride was not very long, out around the batting cage and another of those hokey western "towns" that seem to be so popular. I'll have to say the engineer was the prettiest of all the trains I've ridden and happy to talk about her train.

I'm also guessing that the Ride-a-Kart park is a home grown facility. There were an assortment of activities available with no particular theme but the park was well maintained and clean.

Ride-a-Kart

Winter Park Ski Train

The Winter Park Ski Train is a Denver tradition going back many years. Originally operated by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, it is now operated by a Denver company over UP tracks. Winter Park is a small community just at the western end of the Moffat Tunnel that pretty much exists because of the skiers that came there in the winter. In the summer time, riders on the train have a choice of warm weather activities including mountain biking and rock wall climbing or more sedate things such as miniature golf. The trip itself is worth the time and money, climbing up the front range of the Rockies and passing through 29 tunnels including the 6.5 mile long Moffat Tunnel. I opted for the Club car, which cost a little more, gets you some free food and roomier seating but doesn't guarantee that there won't be noisy kids riding with you.

Denver Zoo Pioneer Railroad

As Zoo trains go, the Denver Zoo Pioneer Railroad is nothing unique except it's run with natural gas. The engine and cars were built by Uhrich Locomotive Works which is an outfit on I-70 east of Denver. Although this engine is a non-steam replica, Uhrich does steam work right up to the full size engines. The trip was pretty short, a small loop with no narration and nothing to see that you couldn't see walking around. The Denver Zoo itself is very nice. It's clean, well landscaped and the animals are presented in an informative way. It's bigger than I expected and I'm sure I missed a lot of it. I had other places to be in the afternoon and left right after eating lunch.

Denver Light Rail

The Denver Light Rail system proclaims itself as the number one in North America. I don't know who decides such things but I don't think they would lie about it. It is a very smooth operating system. They say there are five lines but four of them share substantial amounts of track. There is only one line, the D line northeast of town that doesn't share it's track with any other line and that's only a small portion of the whole D line. I believe I rode all the track they have although I didn't ride the full length of the F line route. The G line is the most unusual route, running from Nine Mile station in the far south east to Lincoln station in the farther southeast and coming nowhere near downtown. I wonder what the demographics are that makes that line useful. I noticed they only used one car on those trains. I paid ten dollars for a regular service day pass. That allowed me to ride any train or bus in any zone all day long. No one ever asked to see my ticket. I think it's interesting that they can have a system that operates well in downtown traffic, stopping every few blocks and can then hit speeds up to 60 mph between stations that are miles apart. The web site indicates plans for a major expansion in the future adding 70 or more miles to their system.

P.S. I know this is a terrible picture but I wanted to get Union Station in the background.

Lakeside Amusement Park Train

The Lakeside Amusement Park in Denver is, well, beside a lake, Lake Rhoda according to my map. The lake is part of the amusement park and not accessible from outside the park. The train trip follows the lake shore very closely, thereby earning the train the name of the Lake Shore Express. The trip is about a mile and between the lake and the assortment of plants it was pretty scenic. Our engine was in the form of a very shiny and strangely shaped diesel. They advertise and show a picture of a steam engine on their web site but I never saw that.

There were no boats on the lake while I was there but the park has a ride called bumper boats. The lake was pretty large, 30 or 40 acres, and the water near the shore was full of Bull Rushes and other water plants. I didn't see any signs of algae so there must be some amount of circulation through the lake. In other words, this was a pretty healthy lake, undisturbed by anything but an occasional train on the shore and some bumper boats. There's a good chance that it serves as a sort of unofficial wildlife preserve, especially when the park is shut down October thru April.

Pueblo City Park Train

The Pueblo City Park Train is part of a small amusement park embedded in Pueblo City Park and shares a parking lot with the City Zoo. If you plan to go, be aware that the hours are 6-9 pm closed on Mondays. Short of free, this is the cheapest train trip I've had and probably will remain so, twenty-five cents. The trip starts in the fenced off part of the amusement park but goes out a gate and wanders through the main park. Unlike many park trains, this is not a loop to loop track but you get a nice long ride anyway. I wish the rest of the park were in better shape but I guess the problems I saw were typical of any big city park. BTW, no I did not ride the roller coaster. It may be a railroad like contraption but I don't do roller coasters.

Colorado Springs Trolley

Officially known as the Pikes Peak Historical Street Railway Foundation, this group has a number of assets, the best of which is their people. Every Saturday from 10-4 is a work day so I scheduled my trip to Pueblo for July 7th. Stuck back in a light industrial area, they were a little hard to find. I introduced myself and ask if they were running anything today. Well the regular group was not there that day but the gentleman I was talking to took me to meet Irene who was working in a flower bed. Irene was a very charming lady who I would estimate was about 85 years old. She said she would be glad to take me for a ride in one of their PCC cars. While the first fellow was looking for the key, Irene explained that she had first operated one of these PCC cars in Pittsburgh in 1942. She did that for many years though I can't recall how many she said. The key was located, the power was turned on and off we went ... for about 150 ft. This group rents the remains of an old Rock Island round house and a few acres of land from the City of Pueblo and the only track they have to run on is 150 ft to the gate. Before we started back, Irene entertained me with several interesting stories from her days as an operator in Pittsburgh. On one trip she just had to shut down the car and wait because of the bonfires built on the tracks by people celebrating the end of World War II.

After a couple of more passes on that 150 ft of track we put the car away and I got a short tour of the other projects the group was working on. They had several early 1900's trolleys that were receiving extensive renovation, in some cases requiring fabrication of major wooden components. They also have several more of the PCC cars, all needing only minor work to get them running. Their long range plan is to install tracks in part of downtown Colorado Springs and restore streetcar service there using these PCC cars.

Leadville, Colorado and Southern

The Leadville, Colorado and Southern has a kind of homemade feel about it. All six of the passenger cars were built up from flatcars. They all have seats facing out on each side of the train with an aisle down the middle but since there's not much to see but trees on the east side of the train, half the seats don't get much use. All of the cars have waist high sides but four of them also have roofs. Two of the roofed cars have been enclosed by adding standard aluminum house type horizontal slider windows. I didn't check to see if the glass was FRA approved shatter proof glass but I doubt it. This railroad has no connection to any other rails and doesn't cross any state borders so perhaps FRA rules don't apply. Oh and did I mention the concession/latrine car made from an old boxcar.

The trip starts off a little boring as we back out of the station, with nothing to see but pine trees on both sides. Soon however, as we gained altitude, the valley containing the East Fork of the Arkansas River appears through the trees and eventually is visible north and south. In particular, looking south, there is a great vista of snow capped mountains out the end of the valley. The train reaches end of track just short of Climax and then returns a short distance to an old water tank left over from the steam days of the Colorado and Southern. The train stops and everyone is given a chance to get off and visit the locomotive or the caboose. After 20 minutes, the train proceeds back to Leadville at a much brisker pace than it came up the mountain. It was July but we were at 11,000 feet and the jacket I debated bringing was almost not enough when it started raining. I swear I saw some snowflakes mixed in with the rain.

Santas Train

What better way to spend the Fourth of July but at the North Pole. Tuesday night, watching the local news in Colorado Springs, I see this ad for Santas Workshop at the North Pole and a quick flash of a park train. I type in the URL they showed and sure enough, a local amusement park with a Christmas theme is just down the road. A price of $16.95 was discouraging however until I see that anyone over 60 gets in free. After I finished with the Pikes Peak railroad, I went a few miles farther west on Hwy 24 and took advantage of their kind offer. Lady at the ticket counter didn't even want to see my id. She said if you claim to be over 60 they take your word for it. The Northpole is basically a small amusement park set in a mountain forest with many of the usual rides. Everything is painted red and green except the roof of Santas home which is blue. The train is a standard park train and the ride is nothing exceptional. The narration of the history of Pikes Peak was interesting and the pen full of reindeer was unusual. BTW, they claim to have the worlds highest ferris wheel at over 7500 ft.

Manitou & Pike's Peak Cog Railway

Or just the Pikes Peak Cog Railway, this train has all sorts of claim to fame. It is the highest cog railway in the world and the highest railway in the United States. I was quite lucky, arriving just before train time, wasting time looking for a parking place, walking up to the ticket window and buying almost the last ticket available, sitting down in a forward facing window seat and leaving. I don't recommend that as a plan but it worked out this time. The ride is all they promised, up a narrow canyon with house sized boulders, out onto a mountain side with views all the way to New Mexico and finally above the tree line with curious marmots to entertain. I thought it odd that with only about 40 minutes available at the top, people would go inside and order food but maybe high altitudes really affects some peoples appetite. I wandered around trying to figure out where the highest point was. Everywhere I went, it looked like somewhere else was higher and the floor of the large observation platform looked like it was at a crazy angle. Didn't feel like it when I walked on it though so I expect it was level as they could make it. According to their web site, they spend many hours clearing snow from the tracks in the winter and the train is open through December. A trip to a snow covered mountain might be a lot of fun.

Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad

The Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad doesn't carry much history with it, but does present the history of the area well. Built on part of the abandoned right of way of the Midland Terminal, it runs on 2 ft narrow guage track as apposed to the standard gauge of the Midland Terminal. Two foot gauge was rarely used in the US outside of mines. The CC&V was created through the efforts of John Birmingham in 1967 as an expression of his interest in old railways. His son Jim runs the railroad now and tries to preserve the railroad experience for his guests. Passengers are presented with the gold mining history of the area and of Cripple Creek, which was once the third largest city in Colorado and missed becoming the state capital by only 4 votes.

My real adventure of the day came when I decided to return to Cañon City on CR 88. It's a much shorter trip than the way I came but is unpaved most of the way. However, it presents you with some rugged back-country scenery. Don't try it on a rainy day though.

Due to a camera malfunction, I have no pictures of this trip. However, I did get a picture of Cripple Creek from the top of Pikes Peak so I have included that for your enjoyment.

Silver Rock Railway

The Silver Rock Railway is just outside the gate of the Royal Gorge Park and is part of the park. As far as the railroad, well lets just say, I rode it, it's off the list, I wouldn't ride it again. Not much to see but hokey, homemade sights, goes nowhere near the gorge, hard to understand the narration but hardly mattered. Don't bother unless you're killing time in the parking lot and it's about to leave.

Royal Gorge Incline Railway

Well, the Royal Gorge Incline Railway has to fall into the category of railroad like contraptions. Steel wheels on steel rails but not much other resemblance to a railroad. To quote a few specifications, 1550 feet long, 100% grade, 45 degree angle, powered by Otis. The cars (one blue, one red) hold 30 people each on 15 levels. The ride takes 5.5 minutes with all passengers standing. It's a cool ride though, taking you right down next to the river at the bottom of the gorge. I didn't manage to time it so the train was passing through but you are right next to the railroad tracks (except for a fence.) Sign at top says no bathrooms at bottom but as I was leaving I noticed some newly constructed ones right on TOP of the concession stand. Hmm.

Royal Gorge Scenic Railroad

Well, The Royal Gorge Scenic Railroad has got to be the ultimate park train for my trip. At least it's hard to imagine anything grander. It's not actually part of the Royal Gorge Park but rather a private enterprise on the road leading in and part of Buckskin Joe's Frontier Town. It was early in the day, so the ridership wasn't so great but it was worth the ten bucks. The lady in the gift shop was a real huckster, selling the train to all who entered ... "Three mile, 30 minute ride to a view of the gorge." Ten dollars a ticket adds up pretty fast for a family so not everyone was buying and it took a while to get enough for a trip. The ride starts off plain enough, through a grassy field with nothing much to look at. Gradually the terrain drops and gets rougher. Blooming cacti adjoined the track along with some rocks that glittered and turned out to have a large mica content. Around a curve and a huge trestle appears off in the distance. But before we crossed that one an even larger one appeared under us. There was a lot of engineering and labor that went into laying these tracks. The roadbed loops about as it descends toward the rim, just like a full size railroad that must take a round-about route to maintain a reasonable grade.

At the promised viewing platform, the engineer announces "five minutes." We actually stayed longer than that and he didn't seem too concerned. The platform was large, sturdy and shaded, with room for all to get their pictures etc. You can see down into the river and both directions in the gorge and are about 300 feet below the suspension bridge and 4860 ft away, according to my GPS.

Like most large park railroad, the layout is a loop to loop so the trip back offers a slightly different perspective of the same terrain.

BTW, the redheaded "fireman" next to the engineer is a large Irish Setter that rides on "most" trips.

Royal Gorge Route Railroad

Now this is a railroad ... sort of. Three engines and 16 cars on a passenger train far exceeds anything I've seen so far. Only problem, the train only goes 12 miles! But several of those miles are pretty spectacular. Two EMD F units lead the train out of town, followed by 15 assorted passenger cars, a midtrain power car and finally another F unit running backwards. They leave from a very pretty Santa Fe Depot in downtown Cañon City, CO. I'm going to have to do some more checking to see what a Santa Fe depot is doing on an old Denver and Rio Grande line, but it's a very nice depot. Shortly after leaving town the train enters the gorge and the ohs and awes start. Several trips I have taken so far had beautiful views down into gorges but this is the first one right through the gorge. At one point the gorge narrows to about 30 feet and rather than chisel out a ledge for the train to run on the engineers just bridged the gap above with some steel girders and hung the track over the river, the famous "hanging bridge." After going the 12 miles to Parkdale, which is actually just a siding, the train stops, the engineer gets out and walks to the other end of the train, and uses the rear facing engine to take the train back to Cañon City. One interesting railroading note ... on the return trip, we stopped a few minutes at the hanging bridge, as we were told is a long standing tradition. When we started up again, the engineer blew three short blasts on the horn, indicating that we were actually going backwards.

Ride it if you can.

Rio Grande Scenic Railroad

The Rio Grande Scenic is a relatively new operation and only started running with a steam locomotive this year. When it comes to scenery they compare to Durango and Silverton or Cumbres and Toltec but the scenery starts slowly. Alamosa is located in the middle of the San Luis Valley and as the train leaves east out of town the land is flat and the mountains seem quite distant. After 23 miles of perfectly straight track, the train passes through the small town of Fort Garland and turn northeast along the Sangre de Cristo Creek toward La Veta Pass. Soon the terrain can only be described as mountainous as the railroad leaves the highway and climbs higher and higher toward the 9200 ft. crest of the pass. The area through here shows no signs of habitation for miles and miles ... no cabins and no roads. It is not far from the summit, called Fir on the railroad, to the small town of La Vita, but the grade is a steep 3 percent so the train stops and the train crew sets the retainers that will insure that brakes are applied continuously as we descend. The trip down is as scenic as the one up, though with more signs of habitation, and the smell of hot brakes is evident. Soon we deboard for a two hour stop in La Vita. The town is geared up for tourists, both from the train and folks visiting just for the "quaintness," so a meal is easy to find and my salmon sandwich was quite tasty.

As much as I enjoyed the trip, I wish I could say nice things about the cars we rode in. Used passenger equipment is hard to find and expensive as more and more excursion trains get started. There were three passenger cars on the train and one ex RPO, used for concessions. There were no assigned seats except for the back half of the last car which was designated the Parlour Car. One car had only two back to back rows of church pews down the middle. These seats were quite popular but getting to the concession car meant walking in front of everyone on one side or the other. The other two seating cars were ex commuter cars from the Long Island Railroad. One even had 3-2 seating and almost no one sat in that car. The other had 2-2 seating but half the seats faced one way and half faced the other and they could not be rotated or flipped. Since the engine was turned in La Vita but not the train, you were riding backwards for half of the trip is you stayed in the same seat. The train was not crowded however and everyone in my car was able to find a new forward facing seat for the return trip. The seats BTW had been often used and sagged badly with almost no cushioning left. Don't know if that was the cause but I had a sore back that night. The interior of the cars themselves was clean and modern and simply putting in new, turnaround seats would make a great difference.

Over all, well worth the trip.

Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec

First let me say thanks to Terry, Sherii, Jeff, Bob, Mark, Bryant and G. O., I had a great time even if I was moving pretty slow.

Every summer, the Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec host six volunteer sessions to work on various projects around the railroad. Projects range from baggage cart restoration to painting of buildings to complete rebuilds of rail cars. Or, in the case of the project I chose to volunteer for, the rebuild of a Jordon Spreader.

A Jordon Spreader is a machine/contraption that, in various incarnations, dates back to at least the early 1900's. To many it is just a complicated snowplow but it was originally intended to be a ballast spreader and maintainer. The one we were working on was used primarily as a snowplow but, judging from the damage it has incurred, was probably used to push a little dirt around also.

In most all of it's models, the Jordan Spreader was an ungainly looking machine. It worked mostly by brute force, being shoved ahead of a locomotive and just pushing stuff out of the way with wings that traveled folded in but could be swung out and adjusted in height using air powered cylinders similar to train brake cylinders. There was usually a cab for the operator where he could move valves to operate the cylinders. The one we were working on still lacks it's new cab though many of the cab parts have been pre-constructed.

The work on the C&TSR Jourdan Spreader, designated OU, has been going on for 4 or 5 years now. The scope of the project has changed from a cosmetic restoration to a full mechanically operational rebuild that will allow the railroad to use it out on the line. Age and some severe damage have made this an ambitious project. The week I spent there involved installing back various parts that had been removed for repair or rebuild. We acomplished most of that with only some piping left to hook up. In addition, it was hoped to get the wooden deck attached and the operator cabin built. Because of the intricate fitting required to get the ship lap deck installed, only about a third of that was complete. Several parts of the operator cabin have been prefabricated but since the cabin requires the deck first, none of the cabin parts have been installed. It's possible another session will be scheduled in August of this year to finish up the leftover work.

Jordan Spreader

Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad

It seems like every time I ride a new railroad it becomes my favorite. The Cumbres & Toltec is going to be hard to beat though, at least in terms of scenery. As for sheer awe factor, the Durango and Silverton may have the high point as it clings to the canyon wall but there isn't much variety on that trip. The C&T scenery is changing constantly, through different types of terrain and a variety of types of vegetation. We started at about 7800 ft but soon got into aspen country and topped out at over 10,000 ft. At times it seemed we were above the tree line but I think we were just entering a more arid area that didn't support as many trees. We started seeing wildflowers as we descended to Antonito, some looked like pale versions of the bluebonnets so familiar in Texas. I guess they were just another form of lupin. As we approached Antonito the land leveled out into a very broad treeless valley.

The C&T also has everybody beat as far as food. The train from Antonito and the train from Chama meet in Osier. Everybody gets off and goes in to eat a meal that's included in the ticket. You have your choice of a turkey plate or a meat-loaf plate or soup and salad. There are a variety of hot and cold drinks. Dessert is pick what you want, take all you want but eat all you take. I didn't hear any complaints.

Then everybody gets back on a train. Some continue the way they were going, some go back where they came from. Those that go on have a bus waiting to take them back to their starting point, about a one hour trip. Since the bus takes a different route from the train, that's a sightseeing bonus.

BTW, the post was made with the assistance of the WiFi site of Chama Steam, a little shop in downtown Chama. Check'em out at www.chamasteam.com

Mesa Verde National Park

Mesa Verde is another one of those none railroad venues I had in mind when the trip started. I was last here in 1964 and have since visited dozens of Mesoamerican sites in Mexico and Guatemala. I wanted see how Mesa Verde compared in the way the people lived and the way the government was preserving and presenting the cultures in each country. My impression was that the Mesa Verde culture was less advanced (no writing for instance) but the Mexican government was doing a better job of preserving and presenting the sites in their country. I was struck by the fact that at the site I visited, Spruce Tree House, they were doing what appeared to be basic archeological investigations, measuring the walls and floors and sketching them. I asked the Park Ranger why it had taken so long to get around to this and was told it was a lack of funds. Although they had received funds to do this work several years ago, they had two big fires in the park and spent all the money, I think he said three million dollars, fighting the fires. It was only recently that they had those funds replaced. In general, the facilities I saw were old and often in need of repair. They were improving the roads in the park so that was a good sign that some money was coming in. I hope the trend continues.

Going back 50 years.

Five Branches RV Campground is the name of an RV park that sits on the land where I spent three great summers attending a boy camp. That was almost fifty years ago however so not much remains from that camp. What was the mess hall is now the office and store for the RV park. What was the boys camp office is now the Rec Hall. Can't say I recognized anything else except the cabin where the owner of the boys camp lived and that has been sold off to someone else. So, not as many memories as I had hoped but it's still a pleasant place to spend a few days in the Colorado woods.

Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is one of the premier excursion railroads in the US, a celebrity if you will. They work hard at keeping that reputation and certainly deserve it. The only thing in the whole setup that might improve their operation would be to move Silverton a little closer to Durango. The seven hour round trip is a little bit too long for some. Of course you always have the option to take the bus back which shortens the day but you have to decide that when you make your reservation. Another thing to remember is that narrow gauge cars have narrow gauge seats and todays wide gauge folks don't fit too well.

All that said, it was a great trip. Luckily I checked the weather in Silverton before I left and found the high was to be about 43. I dressed warmly and was comfortable even though it SNOWED most of the time we were in Silverton. Not a serious snow, no accumulation, but unusual even for there in June. There were times when I couldn't identify a source for the snow (like no clouds) and there is a chance it was actually old snow being blown off of the nearby snowcapped peaks. Who knows.


BTW, the same company that operates the Durango and Silverton also operates the Great Smoky Mountain Railway in North Carolina. If things go as it appears they will, this company will soon take over the operation of the Texas State Railroad in Rusk/Palestine. It will be quite interesting to see what the results will be.

Durango and Silverton

Arches National Park

I have returned from the Fiery Furnace! In case you're wondering, that result was in doubt. The ranger guided hike through the Fiery Furnace is considered a "moderately strenuous" hike but if you are over 60 and overweight, it's a little more difficult. It was worth the effort however, just wish I had taken more pictures. Even if you are an experienced hiker, don't go in there, unguided, on your first visit. You will get lost! I still don't understand the exact geology that formed this maze but it works in three dimensions, not two and there are no maps. The narrow canyons keep a GPS from being useful so even backtracking with that would not help. Just go with the ranger. You do have to plan a bit to set that up however. Trips are limited to 25 people, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. You have to get your ticket in person at the visitor center, up to 7 days in advance, and they often sell out early.

BTW, back to railroading, there is a railroad close to Moab though not in it. Just North, across the Colorado river, an old spur, once abandoned has been rebuilt to carry out a pile of tailings from a shutdown uranium mine. The tailings have been there for years but will now be moved to a safer location. This will require the movement of 12 million cubic yards of material.

Fiery Furnace

Moab?

So what am I doing in Moab? No trains here, at least as far as I know. This is not exclusively at train riding trip, there are plenty of other things to see and a friend recommended Arches National Park so here I am. Tomorrow I go into the Fiery Furnace.

This will be my last stop in Utah. There are many kinds of deserts and I've seen a lot of them on this trip, in Arizona, Nevada and Utah. Each has it's own appeal and many people are very attracted to them. But I like trees ... and there aren't many trees in any kind of desert. Wednesday I head for Colorado and trees, trees, trees. Hooray! When I first started planning this trip, it was going to be confined to Colorado and the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad in northern New Mexico. But then I thought about going to SLC to do a little genealogy research and why not stop along the way to see whatever there was to see railroad wise. Anyway, it sort of grew. I'm glad I went to all those places, there are some very nice excursion railroads out there and chasing down some of these park railroads sent me places I never would have seen otherwise. But I now know a bunch of places I don't need to go back to and maybe one or two that might be worthwhile to see again, if I'm in the neighborhood.

Tooele Railroad Museum - Tooele

Hmm, notice something strange about this train? Aha, no engine. Actually, the engine was in the rear, pushing instead of pulling. Didn't ask why. Also, apparently they have a problem with the cars tipping over so, almost visible in the photo, the car in front of me had "training wheels," no pun intended. Sticking out from each side but not touching the ground was a axle with a small rubber wheel on it. If the car started tipping, due to rambunctious riders I assume, the wheel would touch the ground and stop the tip. We made it safely around with no problems.

The museum itself was quite interesting, a steam engine and several cabooses from the Tooele Valley Railroad, a depot containing tons of railroad memorabilia as well as equipment from the nearby copper mines and smelter, long closed down. A couple of stranded passenger cars contained an HO model railroad and a nice exhibit of WW II soldiering equipment. Very friendly folks also. If you're ever in Tooele, go by and visit.

Tooele Railroad Museum

S&S Shortline - Farmington, UT

I don't have much to compare the S&S Shortline to. This is really a hobby railroad that got out of hand. They are only open to the public on limited occasions, first and third Saturday of June for instance ... I was really lucky. It appeared to have started in their backyard, expanded to the front yard then to the back forty. They have two gauges of track, a round of two foot gauge that is confined to the back forty and a maze of 7 1/2 in gauge that wanders all over the property, including ducking through a tunnel and circling the owners home twice before returning to the back forty. The small gauge train was by far the most popular though not as comfortable to ride. Besides the riding trains, they have a room full of O scale trains that will start up for a quarter, a birthday party pavilion with a play ground, a small mini-golf course and some little hand powered cars on a circle of track. In general, the grounds were very well kept and attractive. They also operate a small museum/souvenir store/snack bar where I had a very economical lunch. Since S&S doesn't "fit" anywhere, it is hard to compare but this has easily been my favorite "small" railroad so far.

Midway Mystery Solved

While at the S&S Shortline railroad, I found the answer to the Missing Midway Mystery. I spotted this building parked on a trailer in the back lot so I asked the engineer of the train I was riding why it was there. The gentleman who had owned and operated the Midway Shortline Railroad had become ill and had approched the S&S shortline about buying his equipment. They accepted his offer and the Midway Shortline is no more, explaining why I couldn't find it. I didn't see any other examples of Midway equipment around the facility so I guess the change happened long enough ago to have repainted at least the rolling stock.

Hogal Zoo Train - Salt Lake City

This is the second of the zoo trains I will visit so it's inevitable that I should compare this one with the zoo and train in Phoenix. To be fair, the zoo in Phoenix is not even in Phoenix but in one of the many suburbs. But still, the zoo in Salt Lake City is so much nicer an experience it's hard not to notice. The animals are presented better, the grounds have paved walkways rather than gravel/sand/dirt and the grounds are free of litter. That said, I liked the railroad in Phoenix better.

At Hogal, the ride was were too short, the train moved too fast to really enjoy the animals you did pass and except for some bored looking American Bison and a cage of ravens, you never really saw anything you couldn't see while walking around. The Phoenix train was a much more relaxed trip through several gates that took you right into the enclosures with some of the animals. Other than the ostriches, the animals pretty much ignored the train but you were much closer to them than the folks on the viewing platforms.

BTW, I just discovered two more Zoo Trains to ride, both in Albuquerque. Actually, one is a zoo train and the other connects the zoo to the aquarium and botanical garden. There's an easy bus connection from the downtown RailRunner station to the zoo so I still won't have to take my truck into town.

Salt Lake CIty Light Rail - TRAX

TRAX is the first of two light rail systems I will visit during my trip. Surprisingly, Phoenix does not have such a system though one is under construction and due to open in December of 2008. BTW, the term light rail doesn't have anything to do with the weight of the rail, rather the amount of traffic it carries or the type of car it uses depending on what definition you use. TRAX has two lines, I rode them both. One goes east to the University of Utah and it's medical center, the other goes south to the city of Sandy. The trip to Sandy however never leaves an urban area. There is also a route that connects Sandy and the university, diverting from one line to the other at the place where they meet up and not requiring a transfer. It runs infrequently and I didn't get to ride that route. They have plans for considerable light rail expansion, and a "heavy rail" commuter line north to Ogden so the system must be rather successful. The train I rode south was coupled to a waiting train at Sandy so the trip north was on an impressively long consist of four articulated cars, giving the impression of an eight car train. Since we were headed into town on an afternoon train, the eight cars were pretty empty but they were ready for the rush hour to begin. BTW, that building in the background of the picture is the Grand American Hotel. It's quite impressive up close.

The track south, though in an urban area, appears to have originally been a freight railroad. In fact there are spurs off of the main line leading into warehouses and other plants with freight cars spotted on them so it must still be used for freight operations at night.

Midway Shortline Railroad

Never found it. I think I was in the right neighborhood but my GPS cable failed and I was searching from memory. Midway Shortline was documented in only a few places as a privately owned live steam operation that was occasionally open to the public for free. Midway, UT is near Heber City so I gave it a shot after riding the Heber Valley Railroad. If anybody knows any more, please let me know.

Heber Valley Railroad

Like the Nevada Northern in Ely, the Heber Valley Railroad is the remnant of a real railroad that was saved from destruction. Lots of the infrastructure of the railroad remains though not nearly as much as in Ely.

Running through the lush Heber Valley bordering Deer Creek Reservoir then, below the dam, running alongside the Provo River, the scenery is hard to beat. As the train winds down the canyon, snow covered peaks appear and disappear from view. Kayakers, fishermen and campers wave as the train goes by. At Vivian Park, the track comes to an abrupt end and the right-of-way becomes a hike and bike trail. There's a siding at Vivian Park, with just enough room past the switch to clear up the engine and run it around to the north end of the train for the trip home.

This is the Provo Canyon Limited trip and takes about 3 hours. Another trip, called the Soldier Hollow Express, follows the same track but turns back sooner and only takes about 90 minutes. During the 2002 Winter Olympics, two of the venues were near Soldier Hollow and spectators were shuttled to and from that location by steam train.

By chance, I happened to encounter Craig Lacey, the executive director of the organization, and had a nice conversation. He, like all the other employees I met, was open and friendly. They were ending a five day "Day Out With Thomas" event and it was fun to compare how they operate and how the Austin Steam Train works the event. I was actually surprised to find that they were running their regular train along with nine Thomas trains.

Utah railroads and other places.

All of the excursion railroad activity that I found in Utah was centered around Salt Lake City. But then most activity of any kind in Utah is centered around SLC. Salt Lake County holds about two thirds of the population of Utah. Since I'm also an amateur genealogist, I plan to spend some extra time in SLC at the Morman Genealogy Library, undoubtedly the largest and best in the world. Utah is also known for it's natural wonders and I hope to include some of those in my visit.

Nevada Northern - Keystone

The other trip the Nevada Northern operates is toward the west, into the mining district and is referred to as Keystone. This is a much more interesting trip, passing by numerous mining operations, through two tunnels and even a brothel where the employees come out and wave. This trip is also more interesting because it is normally pulled by a steam locomotive, either #40 or #93. Both these locomotives are veterans of the Nevada Northern and there are others being restored even now. The engine shop I mentioned earlier is crammed with huge machine tools. I can't say what repairs they couldn't handle there but I would guess they are few. In 2006 the whole railroad was designated a National Historic Landmark. The Secretary of the Interior referred to it as "the best-preserved, least altered, and most complete main yard complex remaining from the steam railroad era."

Nevada Northern - Adverse

Many excursion railroads have nicely restored or preserved equipment, some have a few original buildings. Nevada Northern has a whole railroad. The NN was started in the early 1900's to support a copper mine in the area. It continued in operation, updating its motive power occasionally until the last train of ore left in 1978. In 1983 the last freight train arrived in Ely and the railroad was closed down. At that time it was owned by the Kennecott Copper Company who basically donated the whole railroad to the White Pine Historical Railroad Foundation. The depot building and a warehouse building were transfered to the State of Nevada in 1990 and they operate a museum in the depot building. Among the artifacts found in the complex were extensive business records of the railroad. These are being cataloged and preserved by the museum.

Some of the passenger rolling stock is not authentic as passenger service had been discontinued long before the railroad was shut down but basically, the railroad is like an old photograph come to life. Volunteers come from all over the country to help in the operation of the trains but many are from the local area. Tours of the yard and engine house are available.

NN has two different trips, one pulled by a diesel, either an RS2 or and RS3, that goes north to Adverse. This trip is not big on scenery unless you like wide open spaces and long vistas. The Great Basin is a new part of the country to me, enclosed by mountain ranges that prevent any of it's water from draining into an ocean. Almost treeless, it has a certain appeal for awhile.