To Shiny Rails

Just got back from a trip to Grand Lake, CO during which we had to get back down to Granby to re-visit the Moffat Road Railroad Museum. Several things are happening there… We had to check up on their progress constructing a 7.5″ gauge ride-on railroad around their perimeter. It’s coming along! Next, we had to check out the old Dumont Depot which was moved to this museum last year and is now undergoing renovation. And lastly, their big new HO layout depicting the Moffat Road Railroad from Moffat Tunnel all the way to Craig, CO. The last (and first) time we saw this layout, it was an expansive, empty room with a concrete floor that had blue tape markings for where the benchwork would be. All the photos start here.

Had to do something rail-related today… Afterall, it’s National Train Day. So, having not been to this place yet since moving to Colorado Springs, it was off to the Pikes Peak Trolley Museum and Restoration Shop. The big surprise was finding a Southern Pacific (SP) Daylight car in their yard. The Daylight was an SP train that ran from San Francisco to Los Angeles along the coastline from 1937 to 1974. It was painted in bright orange and red (“daylight colors”). The car is currently marked MCRX 10400 and we were told it was originally a dining car that was later converted to a maintenance-of-way car. Another bit of a surprise was they had several Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority trolleys that would have been running in Philadelphia, PA about the time my Dad (Papa Bill) was growing up there or shortly thereafter. He may well have seen or even ridden one of these! The tour ends with a little ride on a trolley up and down a short display track. The bright orange HO trolley in the middle of the first picture below is a dead-ringer for one I ran on my Dad’s HO layout in Kansas City. The bright red Cog Railway car (in the pics below) last ran on the Pikes Peak Cog Railway in 2017 (which is just before they began their $100 million renovation project – which is now complete).

A 2018 Halter Ranch Vineyard Estate Syrah was selected as one of five wines for a Dual Top Chef dinner in Colorado Springs, CO on January 18, 2024. Top Chef Chris Viaud from New Hampshire and Top Chef Brother Luck of Colorado Springs joined forces at the Four by Brother Luck restaurant to present a 5-course Top Chef Dinner. Halter Ranch Vineyard Estate is the home of the Halter Ranch Railroad that debuted as a Participant at last year’s Central Coast Railroad Festival. How in the world did we know about this?! The Central Coast Railroad Festival Committee Chairman and CCRRF.com Webmaster and lifetime member of the SLO Railroad Museum lives in Colorado Springs – me! For a video about the railroad, click here.

Sam was in for the holidays from Germany, so among all the outings we did, a trip to the top of Pikes Peak via The Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway was in order. And indeed it was a fun trip as usual.

After our second and last show at the John Wesley Ranch, I stopped very briefly at the Midland Depot in Divide, CO. The ranch is just a few miles south on Highway 67 from Divide. The Teller Historic and Environmental Coalition is working to restore and open this piece of history. Click here to see their plans as published earlier this year. The depot is next door to the new police station which is about 1500 feet from the signaled intersection in Divide back toward Woodland Park on Highway 24. From the Coalition’s website: “The Colorado Midland Railway built the first standard gauge line into the Colorado Rockies in 1886. The first Midland Depot in Divide, constructed in 1887, burned and was replaced by the existing structure built in 1903.” For more about the depot, click here. I learned about the existence of this depot from all the framed artwork hanging on the walls, at the John Wesley Ranch, about the Midland Railroad and the depot in Divide. The Coalition usually has a Midland Days event in early September (this year set for September 9th).

AJ told me about this guy a couple of days ago, and today I finished the last 3 episodes of his trip across America from the southernmost rail station in the country to the northernmost rail station in the country. It was a 10-week odyssey that he documented in 10 episodes on his channel (15 to 25 minutes in length each, roughly). Though I’ve never met him, I’m convinced Michael Downie is a kindred spirit! I highly recommend this series to any rail fan, particularly those of you who like traveling by rail, any kind of rail. He started at Dadeland Station in Miami and ended up at the Fairbanks, Alaska train station ten weeks later (or so). And he hit several iconic, historic, and unique trains along the way. It turns out he hit a few I’ve had the pleasure to ride: the California Zephyr, the Cog Railway at Pikes Peak, the Grand Canyon Railway, and the Alaska Railroad. My next-up bucket list items that Mike’s trip covers are the Rocky Mountaineer Denver to Moab and the Durango and Silverton, both within “easy” reach of Colorado Springs. Mike’s trip starts here on YouTube.

“All Aboard!” Just so I’d have a photo on this post, I threw in the image above of my Dad on our Zephyr trip from Chicago, IL to Emeryville, CA in 2005. This was shot at the Glenwood Springs, CO station. It is pretty hard to beat a train trip across the Rockies in a snow storm!