Tickets go on sale today for The Denver Post Cheyenne Frontier Days Train, a Colorado tradition since 1908.
A ticket coupon appears on Page 8C of The Sunday Denver Post.
This year’s train departs from Denver’s Union Station at 7 a.m. on Saturday, July 21, and is expected to return about 8:30 p.m.
Cowboys-for-a-day will have a continental breakfast aboard the train, view the giant parade through downtown Cheyenne, enjoy a catered barbecue at the rodeo grounds and have a light supper on the way back. Country music aboard the train and at the barbecue will be supplied by Southern Exposure, making its 16th trip, with Halden Wofford and the Hi-Beams playing for dancing in the baggage car.
The annual trip, begun by Post founders Harry Tammen and Frederick Bonfils to foster business relations between Cheyenne and Denver, was discontinued in 1970 but revived in 1992 to help celebrate the newspaper’s 100th annniversary.
Through the years, celebrity riders have included actors, musicians, politicians (Govs. Dan Thornton, John Love and Roy Romer and Denver mayors Bill McNichols, Wellington Webb and John Hickenlooper among them) and prominent businesspeople.
At the head of this year’s 17-car train of 1950s-era Union Pacific passenger cars will be steam locomotive No. 844, the last built for the UP, in 1944. The 900,000-pound giant has remained on the railroad’s active roster since then but is now used only in rare excursion service. Hundreds of people are expected to line the route along U.S. 85 to watch the train speed past.
Information on tickets, which are $235 each, and the day’s schedule is available at 303-954- 1904 or online at cfdtrain.com.
