One of the old steam engines that used to run on the old Colorado and Southern Railroad Highline that the Leadville, Colorado, & Southern Railroad occupies today. Maybe someday they’ll get this old beast up and running again.
The Leadville, Colorado and Southern currently runs a couple of diesel locomotives on the short line that they have preserved between Leadville and Fremont Pass.
Greg, Heather’s dad, getting ready to board the train.
The engine is sitting at the very end of the tracks here in Leadville.
Looking out toward some very big mountains.
Passing some old boxcars with doors built in on the way out of Leadville.
Heading up toward the pass.
The old roundhouse where they still store engines and do maintenance.
A few maintenance cars on the siding.
A wye where things can be turned around.
Heading up through the aspen.
The old diesel rumbling along.
An area to set speeders on for when trains pass by.
The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad railbed is visible in the valley below.
Big mountains ahead.
Looking back down the valley toward Leadville.
Starting to cross the part of the Highline route that gave it its name. The drop-off here is very steep and goes a long way down.
If the train left the tracks here, it would go all the way to the bottom.
This part of the line was blasted out of the rock.
The train working its way through a narrow notch between the mountain and a protruding bluff.
A new zip line goes alongside the train in one area.
This is the spot where a big washout occurred. When I rode this train as a child, the washout hadn’t been fixed yet and we stopped here. Now the train can go along the full right-of-way once again.
There used to be a little mining town down by the highway.
Heather enjoyed the train.
The big Climax Mine on Fremont Pass where molybdenum is pulled out of the earth starts to come into view.
This is the site of a large portion of the world’s easily accessed molybdenum reserves.
The horn on the engine echoes and reverberates off of the mountains near Fremont Pass. On good days, the horn can be heard several mountain ranges away.
Another blast of the horn before setting off downhill to Leadville.
Heading back down toward Leadville.
We stopped at the old water tower partway down so that people could visit the engine and the caboose.
Everyone in front of the water tower.
Going back to check out the caboose.
The coupler and person-way between the last car and the caboose.
One of the seats where the brakewoman can sit and watch the rails as the train backs up the hill toward Fremont Pass.
At the end of the train.
A home-made cow catcher on the caboose.
Looking up the tracks.
Visiting the engine.
An old engine in need of a paint job.
In the cab with the engineer and fireman.
Heading down the highline toward Leadville.
Back in Leadville. What a great train ride!