Dated 1926, this handsome little booklet contains 15 pages (about 4,500 words) of text praising Colorado scenery by the then-well-known “cowboy poet,” Arthur Chapman. I put cowboy poet in quotation marks because Chapman wasn’t a cowboy; he was a newspaper … Continue reading
The Rio Grande ran a special train on winter weekends from Denver to Winter Park, Colorado. The train stopped in Winter Park just 100 feet away from a ski lift. At one time, the train used former Northern Pacific heavyweight … Continue reading
The heart of this booklet is a lengthy essay by Joseph Emerson Smith, a Colorado newspaper writer and editor who lived from about 1877 to 1955. The 20-page booklet also includes eight hand-colored photographs and numerous other illustrations. Click image … Continue reading
We’ve seen an edition of this brochure from the late 1930s and one from about 1950. Here’s a version from around 1916 that features not only the Rio Grande but Western Pacific’s Feather River route. The brochure’s map is dated … Continue reading
The centerfold of this booklet has a beautiful color illustration of the Moffat Road’s route over Rollins Pass with an arrow pointing to the future location of the Moffat Tunnel–a tunnel that would not open for another 13 years. The … Continue reading
Dale Hastin of Denver, Colorado collects rail memorabilia and especially blotters. She offered to let me post items from her collection of blotters, so during a recent visit to Colorado I scanned many of the blotters that related to passenger … Continue reading
Though stretched over six panels, instead of the four used in the 1934 timetable, this timetable has, of course, fewer trains. Gone are the narrow-gauge trains over Marshal and La Veta passes. Gone is the Scenic Limited. Gone are trains … Continue reading
In 1934, the Denver & Rio Grande Western had just completed the Dotsero Cutoff allowing its trains to go due west from Denver through the Moffat Tunnel and over the Denver & Salt Lake Railroad to Grand Junction and Salt … Continue reading
In 1983, Amtrak President Graham Claytor called the president of the Rio Grande and offered to take over passenger service, replacing the tri-weekly Rio Grande Zephyr with Amtrak’s daily Chicago-Oakland San Francisco Zephyr (which Amtrak renamed the California Zephyr once … Continue reading
Although the menu cover is rather plain, in Rio Grande Gold (meaning orange), at least this Rio Grande Zephyr 1979 dinner menu is still a folder. Instead, the menu offered four table d’hôte entrées: Rocky Mountain trout (the favorite), London … Continue reading
