To Shiny Rails

We took our California visitors over New Year’s weekend to the top of Pikes Peak via the BROADMOOR Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway. First time on the total rebuild of the system. Took several years and about $100 million. As it turned out, we road on one of the cars that remains in the stable from pre-rebuild days. All the photos start here.

I took Matteo and AJ to Big Train Family Restaurant after church and then on to the TECO Train Show at the Chapel Hills Mall Event Center. What a hoot! There were plenty of fabulous layouts and AJ really got into the scavenger hunt they provided to help the younger ones focus on layout details. The Rocky Mountain Railroad Heritage Society had a booth there, too.

Big day! Off to the Georgetown Loop Railroad to meet up with the Visalia (CA) cousins for a train ride. What a hoot! Lynn had been trying to tell me that we were there (family reunion) with my parents, sister, her kids, and our own very young children way back when, but absolutely nothing was coming to mind. Even when we got there nothing seemed in the least familiar. Until we got to Silver Plume, the other end of the rail line. And there was the yard where we walked along the rails! Looked exactly like a scene in my mind that I could not place. We were here almost exactly 30 years ago! After the train ride, we went to downtown, historic Georgetown to stroll around a little, had some ice cream (eat dessert first!), and had lunch at Cooper’s on the Creek. All the day’s photos are here.

Last year I started putting together the newsletter for the Rocky Mountain Railroad Heritage Society (RMRHS) along with creating and maintaining their website. I just posted the Summer 2021 edition: https://rmrhs.org/newsletter.html.

Probably the last Parlor Car Chat (the Museum is reopening). It’s here.

This was today’s Parlor Car Chat for the San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum.