To Shiny Rails

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!

I had the good fortune today to visit two depots in Castle Rock, CO. The first (pictured last in the gallery below) was from a distance. It’s the dark green building, a 1911 AT&SF Railroad Depot building that today sits as pictured along the southbound Joint Line route. That’s as close as I could get. The other was a total surprise. I did not know that the Castle Rock Historical Society and Museum was an old Denver & Rio Grande Railroad depot built in 1875. They’re not normally open on Tuesdays, but I just happened to meet some of the staff and board members at a meeting in town and voila, they invited us over! The two depots are basically across the highway (I-25) from each other on the south end of town (“Old Castle Rock”).

While Lynn and I were visiting Steamboat Springs, CO, we found the old Steamboat Springs Depot. It was built in 1909 by the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, but rail service ended by April of 1968, and by 1977 the building housed a theater. Union Pacific Railroad hauls coal through here today. The interior is now a beautiful art gallery and events center. They managed to make the conversion to an event center and still keep some of the great features of the depot, like the bay windows. They’ve also incorporated an amazing wall system that amounts to lots of panels hanging from the ceiling on tracks (get it!) that can be moved around to create all kinds of configurations for the room. Those are trackside hot springs in two of the photos below. The tracks are still live there today, and I did watch the signal drop from red to yellow to black; but obviously never saw the train as it was moving away from us.

My wife and I recently visited the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, CO for the first time. We had a great couple of hours, including a 15-minute train ride. They’ve got quite a collection of full-scale historical equipment. All the day’s photos are here.

My sister Vickie and I played disc golf at Palmer Lake this afternoon. The course is also known as “Rockin’ the Rails” because the “front nine” go right alongside the railroad (BNSF/UPRR) right-of-way from north of the pedestrian bridge over the tracks on the mountain side of the tracks (holes 1 and 2) to south of the bridge and east of the tracks (holes 3-9). The “back nine” are closer to the lake. Had we been stronger disc throwers there would definitely have been a concern about discs going into the railroad right-of-way. We almost finished the 9th hole before the weather drove us off the course (rain, cold, windy). Here’s a big clue for newbies on this course: the 7th basket is back toward the bridge from the 7th tee. We went the other way, quite a ways, to find nothing. The 8th basket is buried in very high, thick bushes. If you happen to be a railfan as well as a disc golf player, you’ll love this course. If you’re there a couple hours, odds are a train will come through.

Here are a few pics from the January TECO Model Train Show that Matteo and I attended at the Colorado Springs Events Center.