All aboard!

I'm a slacker. I admit it. I've been going to Leadville for 40+ years and it was only last weekend that I first rode the Leadville train. Of course, in its present incarnation as the Leadville Colorado & Southern Railroad, its only been hauling passengers since 1988 so I guess I'm not too late to the party.

We took my wife's mother along for the 2 1/2 hour jaunt from Leadville up towards Fremont Pass gaining 1,000 vertical feet along 9 miles of track. It's an out and back ride and features spectacular views of the Arkansas River valley as well as Colorado's two highest peaks, Mount Elbert and Mount Massive. The railroad encourages mask wearing and social distancing but, as they tell you when you get on board, they are not policemen and make no effort to enforce the guidelines. On the day we went I'd guess it was about a 50-50 split between those wearing masks and those not. The train features seating inside and outside and seemed to offer a fair amount of room to spread out. Dogs are also allowed to ride then train. My mother in law brought along Bijou and you'll see this little white fluffball featured in the video below.

Tickets were $40 a person and there is some light food and beverage service onboard. And yes, there are restrooms on the train as well. All in all, it was a great trip and I'd recommend it to train buffs and anyone who likes to occasionally ride the rails. It was certainly a nice break from all the stuff going on in the world right now. If you can't make it up to Leadville in the next couple of weeks (the weather seems to still be cooperating for trips like this) just sit back and come along for the ride in the video. Oh, and if I ever come out of retirement I want the engineer job on a railroad like this one...