Crain's
Colorado Narrow Gauge Circle Tour
Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, Canada, T4T
2A2
Phone/Fax: 403-845-2527 email us
Updated 10 Sep 2005 c.1998 - 2008 E. R. Crain, P.Eng. All Rights
Reserved
Part
3: Canon City - Royal Gorge
Railway Pages Index
Originally
part of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad’s
narrow gauge mainline from Pueblo westward to Salida, Leadville,
and ultimately Salt Lake City, the Royal Gorge Route was the
logo for D&RG advertising for years. It was converted to
standard gauge in 1893 and is famous for its hanging bridge
that allowed the track to follow the Arkansas River through
the narrow 30 foot wide canyon. Here the canyon is 1000 feet
deep with near vertical walls. The hanging bridge was built
in 1878 by the Santa Fe and inherited by the D&RG in 1880
after the “Treaty of Boston” gave the route to
the D&RG. It has been strengthened several times but retains
its original design to this day.
The
last D&RGW passenger train through the Gorge
was run in 1967. The Royal Gorge Route Railroad opened for
passenger traffic in 1999. It departs from Cañon
City (southwest of Colorado Springs) and is strictly a tourist
attraction on standard gauge, using ex Canadian VIA Rail passenger
cars still sporting their original CN roster numbers. Some
cars have the roof and sides cut off between the undisturbed
vestibules to make open-air excursion cars. You can touch the
rock walls of the canyon if you are dumb enough to want to
do so. Watch for white-water rafters on the river.
The
train has a vintage diesel at both ends and, believe it or
not, is controlled by Santa Fe RR CTC in Omaha. The ride
is out and back in about 2 hours. You have to use your imagination
a bit to visualize what this trip must have been like in the
early days of the narrow gauge.
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Websites
of Interest
http://www.royalgorgeroute.com/
Continue
to Part Four
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
E.
R. (Ross) Crain, P.Eng. is a Consulting Petrophysicist and a Professional
Engineer with over 40 years of experience in reservoir description,
petrophysical analysis, and management. He has been a specialist
in the integration of well log analysis and petrophysics with
geophysical, geological, engineering, and simulation phases of
oil and gas exploration and exploitation, with widespread Canadian
and Overseas experience.
"I
am a life-long model railroader and have modeled in O27, HO, HOn3,
and N Scales. Failing eyesight brought me to G Scale. My father
started me in model railroading as a tiny tot in 1944 - he scratch
built his first locomotive in 1940, the year I was born, and I
still have this loco on my mantle-piece. I am a Life Member (#517)
of NMRA, a member of the Rocky Mountain Garden Railroaders (Calgary,
Alberta), and have toured a lot of model railways, railway shows,
and garden railways. I have never seen a model railway I didn’t
like. An extensive library of railway magazines and books, covering
topics that appeal to me, sit behind my office desk, ready to
be put to use at a moments notice. I hope these pages can communicate
to you some of my accumulated experience, my successes and failures,
and my love of model railways."
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