Happy Thanksgiving! 10 Reasons to be thankful for the C&S

I'm so grateful for many things this Thanksgiving, foremost among them being my Savior, my wife, my daughters, and my country.  As always in life there are great things, but there are also small things, and these add sweetness.  The C&S is one of them. 

Below is a list of 10 random reasons, in no particular order, that I'm thankful for the Colorado & Southern Railway.

I'm thankful...

1. That so much of this tiny railroad has survived over 70 years after the last narrow gauge run.

2. For Italian stonemasons being so talented that work like the Palisades (and Ohio Pass Palisades) seem as strong in 2017 as they were in 1881.

3. For preservation groups like the South Park Rail Society, The Denver, South Park & Pacific Historical Society, the Como Depot and Hotel, the Colorado & Southern Railway Society, the Georgetown Loop, and the Leadville, Colorado & Southern.

4. For a past time that brings me a lot of joy and doesn't require any substances to do so!

5. For a past time that is both fun and enriches my knowledge.

6. For a past time that brings together people of so many ages and from so many places.

7. For a past time that is (typically) lacking in contention.  I love to talk deep issues and politics, but it's still nice to have a subject of serious interest that doesn't usually become a source of tension.

8. For the remote nature of so much of the C&S grade because it keeps a great deal of it from being gobbled up by developers.

9. For people like Ray Rossman, Dow Helmers, Richard Kindig, Mac Poor, and many others who did so much to chronicle and protect so much of the history and remains of the C&S, and, in particular, my personal favorite area: Alpine Tunnel.

10. For rock slides and ice that kept the scrapper from getting into Alpine Tunnel in 1923/1924!  Nature sure gave the old South Park a hard time, but in this case it kept a little of the railroad intact for those of us down the line!