For my birthday, Heather, Jeff, Matt, and I went up to Georgetown to ride the famous Georgetown Loop Railroad. As a kid I rode this train with my parents when we came to Colorado to visit my aunt and uncle. The train ride was just as good this time as I remember from the last time I rode.
Pulling away from the station.
Backing down underneath the famous bridge.
Piling on the steam and oil to head up the hill toward Silverplume.
Rolling over the bridge and looking down toward Georgetown.
Crossing Clear Creek.
Pulling into Silverplume.
Filling up with water for the return trip down to Georgetown.
The commemorative photo that we didn’t buy.
Heading down the grade.
Engine #9 running down the hill.
The bridge in the distance.
The train pulling away from the station at the old mines. We got off here to do a mine tour.
Getting ready to go underground.
We went into the Lebanon Tunnel. I remember touring this mine as a kid.
Looking back out toward the entrance.
A deep shaft filled with ghostly water. The shaft goes down a few hundred more feet to flooded levels of the mine deep below. When the pumps get switched off in a mine like this, the old shafts and adits flood quickly up to the level at which the water can escape to the surface. The adit we walked down is the high water point.
Old and new rails. When this adit was reopened for tourists, they used a wider gauge of ore cart to bring out rock.
Looking up along a drift.
Leaching ore.
There is probably some good, rich rock behind this wall.
Looking back toward the entrance.
An old hoist and bucket line.
Miners’ footprints in the muck left over 100 years ago.
An interesting form of rock only really seen in old mines.
End of the line. This is a big water tank that helps regulate how much water is released from the mine.
Engine #9 coming back down from Silverplume to pick us up and take us down to Georgetown.
It’s a geared locomotive with an offset boiler. Really neat design seen throughout the world on narrow gauge lines in mountains, on logging railroads, and on mining railroads.
Heading across the bridge and into Georgetown.
Georgetown as seen from the top of the bridge.
Toot toot! Birthday train!