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.