A Replica of the McGees Depot?

In preparation for my family’s trip to Colorado I was reading through sections of Robert K. Bain’s meticulous guide called Tracing the Denver South Park & Pacific. My curiosity was piqued when reading about McGees where Bain notes that a replica depot was built there and “is said to be on the site of the original depot. It is now a railroad-oriented Bed & Breakfast.”

Curious to know more I looked it up and discovered the Trout City Berth and Breakfast. I assumed that this was just another kitschy type spot (and some of it is), but upon reading further it became clear that the owners were much more exacting than I guessed.

After acquiring the site of the former McGees depot in 1987, Irene and Juel Kjeldsen, according to Colorado Central Magazine article, accessed plans and blueprints from the Colorado Railroad Museum in order to create several accurate DSP&P replicas including of course the depot, but also a handcart, a Pullman sleeping car, a caboose, and a model of a Mason-Bogie. The sleeping car and caboose were “mounted on trucks (the wheel assemblies) brought back from a narrow-gauge logging line in Oregon and set in place where the original DSP&P rails ran through the property.”

In addition to replicas, “the main room of the depot is filled with railroad memorabilia found on the property as well as maps, photos, an authentic telegraph set, framed correspondence between McFarland and his supervisor, and a poignant entry in his personal journal concerning the death of his wife.”

Of course, the depot's express purpose right now is accommodations, and the article below gives more detail regarding what is provided. As of this writing I wasn’t able to find a website (though it does appear on this site with lists of caboose lodging through the US) and considering that my main source of information was from a 1998 article, I can only guess that it is still in operation. The phone number listed in the article is 710-395-8433.

Sources:

Tracing the Denver South Park & Pacific: A detailed, mile-by-mile guide for tracing the roadbed of this legendary narrow gauge railroad by Robert K. Bain. 1994.

“Berth and Breakfast at restored railroad station” by Clint Driscoll. Colorado Central Magazine, 1 August 1998.

All the photos, except the first one are from this link on a real estate site.