This past weekend we spent a mini-vacation in Breckinridge
with our daughter’s family. The Breckinridge Summer Fun Park thrilled the
grandkids, but made my back sore. After a half dozen runs on the Gold Runner
Coaster and a few races down the Alpine SuperSlide, this ol’ gent was ready for
something more sedate.
I had never taken the two and a half hour ride on the Leadville Colorado & Southern Railroad because the train came along
after my Steve Dancy Tales. In Leadville,
the second in the Steve Dancy series, trains had not yet arrived in the ore rich town.
A sub-plot in the book involved the Santa Fe and Denver & Rio Grande competition to lay
the first narrow gauge track into Leadville. This feud between the two railroad
companies had started years earlier in New Mexico. In The Return, Steve and his friends comfortably ride to Leadville on
the winning Denver & Rio Grande line.
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| Leadville Colorado & Southern Railroad |
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| Denver & Rio Grande |
The predecessor to the standard gauge Leadville Colorado & Southern train
came along about a decade later. The tourist attraction travels for about seventy-five
minutes, stops at an authentic water tower, and then reverses direction. I knew
the train didn't use restored period cars, so I wasn't expecting an authentic
frontier experience. Beyond resting my back from being jerked hinter and
yon, I enjoyed the ride and appreciated seats which had been configured for
comfortable sightseeing.
The kids enjoyed the train ride as well, but were happy
to get back to the Coaster and SuperSlide. It made me wonder what a frontiersman
would think of our modern playthings … or the cost. The mines may have played
out, but there is still gold in them thar hills.
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| Honest westerns ... filled with dishonest characters. |