A First Visit to Platte Canyon, part 1

 

  When I interact with C&S fans online, it’s encouraging to know that I’m not the only one who lives far, far away from the railroad I enjoy so much.  Living in Ohio doesn’t afford me many opportunities to just hop over to the lovely state of Colorado, but in October of 2022, a surprise opportunity presented itself.  

My oldest daughter, Mia, a senior in high school, got very interested in a Bible-based gap-year program based in Canon City, Colorado named Worldview at the Abbey.  My wife and I loved the vision of the program and our daughter’s excitement about the possibility.  Still, sending our oldest across the country by herself without having made a personal visit as parents first seemed a bit intimidating so we signed up for a preview weekend in October.  

The main point of this trip was, of course, for me to check out the program with our daughter, but the chance to visit Colorado, even for a mere two and a half days set my mind ablaze with what C&S visits I could make!  I got to work checking out the routes we could travel via the DSP&P Historical Society’s Google Earth overlay and corresponding with the ever-helpful Tom Klinger, co-author with his wife Denise of five stellar C&S books.  

Map of ROW and new walking trail

Because our flight was to arrive in Denver around 1pm on Thursday, we basically had Thursday afternoon and evening and Friday morning for C&S adventures before the Abbey preview weekend program began Friday afternoon in Canon City.  Tom Klinger helped me work out an itinerary for my available time.  This itinerary began with a visit the Colorado Railroad Museum Thursday afternoon and even a possible short hike on one of the new walking trails built partially on the old C&S line up Clear Creek Canyon.  After this, the Klingers had graciously offered us dinner at their place in Wheat Ridge, just next to Golden.  For Friday, our plans included getting to Canon City by the back route via Route 285 in Platte Canyon, as I had never been east of Kenosha in past Colorado visits.

Disappointingly, our first plans were blown off the track like a boxcar in the South Park when our plane to Denver was delayed a frustrating three hours.  By the time we at last landed and got our rental car (which required another hour of waiting in line), we were at least glad we could visit with the Klingers whose hospitality and company were simply a delight.  As I am in the process of writing a C&S book, it was a joy to hear Tom and Denise relate their completely unplanned foray into becoming authors after A.A. (Brownie) Anderson’s son shared his family photo albums with Tom and kept saying, “Tom, I want you to write a book.”

My daughter and I woke up Friday morning to a dreary day.  On our way south to catch 285, there were times we could barely see the car in front of us through the fog.  This was not an encouraging prospect for sight-seeing!  When we later crested the mountains, the misty, foggy morning finally gave way little by little and the sun came out.  Our sights were stunned to see the Rockies awash with a mix of deep green pine trees juxtaposed by stunning yellow aspen leaves.  For us flat landers, it was an act of spontaneous praise to the Creator as we barked one “Woah!” and “look at that!” after another.

Due to our need to arrive in Canon City by 2:30pm, we had to make a few cuts or short visits along the way.  I wanted to visit Pine to see the two gondolas on display, but since I could not figure out a way to get from Pine, which required a drive down Pine Valley Road off of the highway, to Bailey without backtracking to 285, we skipped it.

Bailey

With anticipation we entered South Park railroad country at last as 285 makes a sweeping right hand curve in the old town of Bailey.  We pulled off to the left in the center of the curve.  Helen McGraw-Tatum Memorial Park was easily visible straight ahead of us behind a shop bearing a William Jackson photo of a Mason Bogie and a coach near the Alpine Tunnel.  The first sight to see was an old South Park railroad bridge across the North Fork of the South Platte River leading to a footpath.  

We rolled over the gravel, parked on what was likely the South Park right-of-way, and walked over to a delightful small park dedicated to an adventurous woman who loved the history of this area.  Helen McGraw-Tatum is known to many C&S fans for her film recording of C&S No. 9 hauling the last passenger train in April 1937.  

Spanning the creek is the old Mill Gulch bridge from Platte Canon.  We walked across the ornate bridge several times with it’s ornamental “Keystone Bridge” sign high up on top.  A note in the November 1977 Rocky Mountain Rail Report gives a little background on the structure.  

Mill Gulch Bridge

THE HISTORIC MILL GULCH BRIDGE, or as it is now referred to, the Keystone Bridge, (it was built by the company of the same name) will have a new resting place near downtown Denver if all goes as planned. The Denver Water Board has offered to dismantle and move the old DSP&P bridge from the canyon, and reassemble it across the South Platte River near Denver's Mile High Stadium.

A permanent bridge is needed at the location to provide fans attending events at the stadium, a way in which to cross the river from certain parking areas. The Water Board has to replace the bridge in the canyon with a stronger one (which will use the same abutments) to allow movement of heavy construction equipment. It was the intention of the Board to disassemble the bridge anyway, and store it until a worthy recipient could be found. So it will now be preserved and used, although not in quite as picturesque a setting.

The bridge was taken apart in the summer of 1978.  In the November Rocky Mountain Rail Report the following was explained, along with a new plan for the bridge’s use.

The Denver Water Department is in the process of widening the narrow gauge roadbed farther into the canyon, to permit access by heavy construction equipment, so the bridge had to be replaced. The large girders at the top were used to support the structure as it was carefully taken apart. They were then lowered onto the abutments to become the main supports for the new bridge. The old bridge is now in storage, and is to be given to the Forest Service, who has indicated it will be used near the Keystone Ski Area.

The bridge was never used in Denver or the Keystone Ski Area, but was instead put back together and placed in Bailey in 1985.

Glen Isle and Grousemont

Next, we visited the old Glen Isle way station to the left of the Keystone bridge.  Originally located at the Glen Isle resort just a bit west of this spot, the open air station had been restored in 1994 by combining it with another way station from Grousemont.  Inside, one can look up and see signatures of passengers who put their names here while waiting for trains.  Unfortunately, it is a bit hard to decipher which are original as many recent visitors seem to have kept up the tradition of adding their names.  Still, some are dated from the 1920’s and ‘30s.  

To the left of the Glen Isle station, a C&S standard gauge caboose, donated by the railroad in 1973, rests on what was the South Park’s right-of-way.

 
From there we hopped back onto 285, now a two-lane highway and right on top of the former C&S roadbed.  We passed Glen Isle where the old hotel with its rounded front, dating from railroad days, still stands on your left.  Of many resort hotels along the South Platte River, it is the only one still standing and serving vacationers in the canyon.

Maddox

Our next marker was to look for Fitzsimmons Middle School and Platte Canyon High School on our right as a marker to remind us to look for the old Maddox Ice Pond on our left, where scores of C&S cars were loaded with ice on a siding that could accommodate 48 cars.  Once we passed the school, we easily
identified the large square, man-made lake still glistening in the fall sunshine.  We pulled off onto a left hand driveway and took some photos of the lake, and then ran across the street to a gated driveway.  This path was a rutted dirt road which connected with the old right-of-way where it veered to the right away from 285, leading to a ranch called Mile High Anglers, a provider of guided fly fishing tours.

Cassells

We headed back on the road, this time with the roadbed on our right.  It was hard to see traces of it, especially as the driver!  We made two quick stops near what was called Cassells in early railroad days.  The site once hosted a resort built and operated by the Cassells family and it also sported a siding large enough for five cars.  In 1930 the property was sold and given to Catholic Charities and rechristened “Santa Maria,” a camp for underprivileged children.  Today it is a YMCA camp, where one can still see the enormous, 55-foot tall 1930s-era statue of Jesus with outstretched hands named “Christ the King”  on the side of a mountain rising above the North Fork of the South Platte.  We made a quick stop to snap a photo of this at a turn off in the road.

We made another short stop in the Cassells area to find where the railroad’s roadbed crossed 285 from right to left.  The ROW runs through a property on the right, passing a shed and then a house.  The roadbed seems to be used today as the driveway.  We photographed and filmed that, but when we crossed the highway, we were unable to find any roadbed traces easily visible from the road.  

Grant

While I wanted to stop in Grant where a bridge that was part of the end of the wye is still in use for a road, I decided to skip it, knowing it was on private property, and I was not sure how close I could get.

*******

In part 2, I'll continue our trek onto Webster and over Kenosha Pass to the great South Park.

C&S 9's 2010 arrival in Breckenridge

Here is C&S No. 9 when she was placed on display in the town of Breckenridge, a mining town she traveled through so many times during her operating days between Denver and Leadville. The engine has been cosmetically restored since its short and ill-fated partial season operating on the Georgetown Loop in 2006. 

Following the C&S in Platte Canyon: Bailey to Maddox

In this video, filmed fall of 2022, you will trace the Denver, South Park & Pacific/Colorado & Southern Railway's right-of-way from the town of Bailey to Maddox. Today's US 285 is now on top of the old railroad grade. Along the way you will see places where the trains once stopped such as the resort of Glen Isle where the 1901 hotel still stands and the original Glen Isle wait station (now restored in Bailey). You will also see the stop at Grousemont and its wait station (now combined with the restored Glen Isle wait station in Bailey). Lastly, is a stop at Maddox where many C&S boxcars were once filled with ice and sent to Denver. At the end is a look at where the RR grade leaves 285 on a ranch driveway.

What was the first tourist RR in Colorado?

What was the first tourist railroad in Colorado to utilize a former common carrier line? 

It would seem to be Cripple Creek and Victor’s 2-foot gauge route constructed on the old Midland Terminal/Florence and Cripple Creek right-of-way in 1967. 

A chance view of someone’s home movie footage posted to Youtube, however, revealed a tourist line that preceded the Cripple Creek and Victor by at least 14 years. The origin of this line, and its disappearance, is a mystery to me and I hope that this post elicits more information from those who might know.

A gentleman posted footage of a 1953 family vacation to Colorado which included a visit to Idaho Springs. In the video, a 15-inch gauge live-steam train hauling kids first crosses a bridge (constructed by this railroad? That would seem to be an expensive item) over Clear Creek and then turns westward past the Argo Mine loading chutes. 

These chutes were used in the past to load Colorado & Southern narrow gauge gondolas. 

At least 12 years after the C&S rails had been salvaged in 1941, this unknown live-steam group had laid 15-inch gauge track on the abandoned right-of-way. The video follows the train as it passes the Argo Mill. From there, it is hard to determine where the track ends.

Could this be the first time track for an active railroad had been relaid on an abandoned railroad grade in Colorado?

I don’t have any information on who started this line, when the tracks were laid, or when they were removed. 

The only follow-up is that the narrator of the home movie shows what became of the engine. It later went to the Comanche Crossing & Eastern live-steam railroad where it is today. Sometime after the 1953 video, the engine’s cab was rebuilt and now includes a CC&E logo patterned after the C&S’ Columbine logo.

While this is not the first full-scale tourist railroad in Colorado (Cripple Creek and Victor probably gets that honor), it is likely the first active tourist track relaid on a narrow gauge roadbed.

Here is the video itself. At 2:13 the family takes a bus trip to Idaho Springs and rides the live-steam train past the Argo Mill chutes.

After that segment, the narrator relates how descendants of his would later learn to drive the same locomotive, now lettered with a C&S style logo for the Comanche Crossing & Eastern.  Does anyone know where this locomotive is today?

The C&S shows up again when there is a quick shot of C&S 60 at 3:24 in gleaming paint, though lettered for the Burlington Route.  It is still at the original location with the log gift shop behind.

Happy "Colorado Railroad Heritage Week"!

I was not aware that there was a "Colorado Railroad Heritage Week," but there is! It begins tomorrow. Below is a post from the CRRM's Facebook page:

In honor of Colorado Railroad Heritage Week, which runs June 24 - 30, our June Attraction of the Month will honor all Colorado railroad attractions. 

Why? Because that’s a big part of what Colorado Railroad Heritage Week is about!

It was never easy to build a railroad in Colorado. As the highest state (average elevation 6,800 feet) in the United States, it’s filled with mountains, deep river gorges, severe winter snowfalls, droughts, floods, and steep elevation gains, all making the art of building railroads here a difficult – and sometimes treacherous – occupation.  

As a result, Colorado railroading became legendary.  

The so-called “Narrow Gauge Movement” – which advocated for building less expensive railroads to a gauge much narrower (at 3 feet between the rails) than so-called “standard gauge” railroads in the U.S. (built to 4 foot, 8 ½ inches between the rails) – came onto the scene just as Colorado was constructing the vast majority of its railroad network, in the 1870s and 1880s. This innovation allowed trains to navigate tighter curves and to be built in what had previously been impossible places.

Colorado’s Alpine Tunnel opened in 1882 as the highest railroad tunnel in the world, while Colorado narrow gauge railroads spread tentacles out across the state, reaching mining destinations that produced trillions (in today’s dollars) of precious metals. After about 1890, most new railroad mileage was built to standard gauge, allowing for the interchange of freight and even people without the necessity of changing trains or transloading cargo.

The romantic, at times dangerous, and always fascinating history of railroads in Colorado captured a huge rail fan base starting in the 20th century. Today, thanks to thousands of crewmembers and craftspeople, dedicated volunteers, and rail historians, Colorado is one of the top historic railroad destinations in the world.  

Colorado currently boasts:

● 18 steam locomotives in operation, with five more undergoing restoration to operating condition, making it one of the top two states for steam locomotion in the U.S. today

● The highest and longest steam railroad in North America (the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad)

● The highest cog railroad in the world (Broadmoor Manitou & Pikes Peak Railway)

● The highest and fourth-longest railroad tunnel in North America (Moffat Tunnel, used by Amtrak’s “California Zephyr” and Rocky Mountaineer’s Denver-Moab, Utah trains)

● Five out of the six original, famed Galloping Geese, a rail enthusiasts’ favorite contraption that took early automobiles and fitted them with train wheels and room for passengers, mail and freight (Colorado Railroad Museum, Galloping Goose Historical Society, Telluride Volunteer Fire Department)

● One of the largest model railroads by size in the U.S. (Colorado Model Railroad Museum in Greeley)

● Trains that have appeared in a number of movies, including “Around the World in 80 Days” and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (Durango & Silverton), “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (Cumbres & Toltec Scenic), and “A Ticket to Tomahawk” (Colorado Railroad Museum)

To celebrate this amazing rail heritage, the Colorado Railroad Museum has worked with Colorado Governor Jared Polis and the numerous rail heritage sites in the state to create Colorado Railroad Heritage Week, June 24-30, 2025. Check out the web page https://coloradorailroadmuseum.org/colorado-railroad.../ for special activities, tour offerings and more!

“We hope Colorado Railroad Heritage Week will be a time for Coloradans to reflect on all that railroads have meant to our state,” says Paul Hammond, executive director of the Colorado Railroad Museum. But Railroad Heritage Week is just the tip of the iceberg.  Hammond points out there are many ways to appreciate and learn about railroad heritage in Colorado all year long.

You can find the more than three dozen operating heritage railroads and rail historic sites in Colorado that have previously been featured as a Colorado Railroad Attraction of the Month on the Museum’s social media channels here: 

https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/CORRofMonth/

Hammond says: “Rail heritage sites can be found just about everywhere in Colorado – from the eastern plains of Julesburg, Hugo and Limon, to the San Luis Valley in the south, to Western Slope communities from Durango to Grand Junction to Winter Park, and along the Front Range from Fort Collins to Pueblo. We encourage everyone to get out and visit at least one of these unique places during Colorado Railroad Heritage Week!”

5 Sections of Relaid C&S Track: Alpine Tunnel Area

Here is a look at 5 places you can find C&S rails relaid on the original roadbed between the West Portal of Alpine Tunnel and Sherrod Loop. Since service ceased in 1910 and the rails pulled in 1923-1924, a few spots of relaid rails have sprung up. There are five:

5. The turntable lead. After the engine house fire a turntable was constructed on top of the tailings removed from the tunnel's construction. It is just outside of the west portal cut. The turntable ring and a segment of track leading to it has been relaid.

4. Engine house lead No. 1. A short curved section of track that once led off the mainline to the east entrance of the engine house is again intact.

3. The mainline and passing siding. A nice long tangent of the mainline again passes in front of the station/telegraph office. An old harp-style switch stand also mans the switch leading to the old passing siding that parallels the mainline.

2. Engine house lead No. 2. Another curved piece of track was relaid past the restored tool shed and just into the western entrance of the engine house ruins near the remains of the indoor water tank.

1. Sherrod Loop/Curve. A tangent of track was relaid at the beginning (eastbound) of what was the big balloon loop that allowed the railroad to reverse itself in gaining altitude on its climb to the west portal.

Enjoy a look at all five below.

A look inside the Pitkin depot before the move

Here is a look inside the South Park Pitkin depot before the move. One can see just how little like a depot it looked inside after all the modifications through the years. It will be fun to see what the new owners do to restore its original design.