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Bernie's Colorado Journeys; walks thru the shop that is rebuilding Colorado Springs – Denver & Rio Grande railway steam engine #168 - show #56

Today’s show has real railroad noise in the background because the interview was done live in the work yard of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad (C&TS) in Antonito, Colorado but this story really started more than 80 years ago. Rather than sell the Locomotive for $300 in scrap, officials of the D and RGW approached the City offering to move it across the street from the train station and erect it in the Park on a set of Palmer's original narrow-gauge rails that were imported from Sheffield, England, and placed them on a bed of marble from the Colorado quarry that produced stone for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Along comes the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad (C&TS) that in 1970 formed a heritage railroad partnership with the states of Colorado and New Mexico, and jointly purchased 64 miles of former D and RGW narrow gauge railroad between Antonito, Colorado and Chama, New Mexico. In March, 2015, the Colorado Springs City Council approved a lease agreement between the City and the C&TS Railroad for the restoration of Steam Locomotive #168 and in late September the engine was very slowly rolled off its neglected pedestal for a new life on tracks it proudly once ran on. Residents of Colorado Springs have a very unique reason to make the trip and visit #168, they are offered a substantial train fare discount because the City has made the long-term loan/lease agreement of its 1883 Steam engine to the C&TS but that's another story I’ll have to do.

Published: 2/19/2019 0 Comments
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SHOW INFORMATION:
Locally Produced: Local Production
Theme: Talk Radio, News, & Culture
License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Generic
Rating: TV-G
Language: English
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