Follow other train buffs and rail fans steaming to Rails in the Rockies today in Estes Park, or engineer your own route to discover Colorado’s iron-horse heritage. Here’s a start:
Rails in the Rockies
Holiday Inn conference Center, 101 S. St. Vrain Ave., Estes Park; 970-586-5393 and estesvalley . Open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today; admission $5 adults; kids free.
Fifteen thousand square feet devoted to model railroad layouts and vendor displays, plus train races and other activities make this a mandatory annual event for model-rail fans. The layout landscapes feature stunning detail, including handmade gorges and tunnels, scale trestles, meticulous towns and scenes ranging from exquisite to disturbing.
Limon Union Depot
899 First St., Limon; 719-775-8605; townoflimon . Open Memorial Day to Labor Day; free
This 98-year-old depot houses a restored railroad office (circa 1970), four rail cars, a 1914 rail lunch-counter diner and a working N-scale model of Limon’s rail yard (circa 1940). Don’t miss: The canary-yellow Union Pacific caboose in nearby Railroad Park.
Colorado Railroad Museum
17155 W. 44th Ave., Golden, 303-279-4591; . Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily; $8 adults, $5 children
Colorado’s best-known repository of everything railroad-related is a replica of an 1880s depot. The collection includes thousands of photos, documents, artifacts and ephemera of railroad history. Trains range from palm-sized to retired engines, passenger coaches, reefers, freight cars, observation cars and cabooses outside the building.
Ridgway Railroad Museum
150 Racecourse Road, Ridgway; 970-626-5181; ridgwayrailroad . Open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday in winter, and daily between Memorial Day and Labor Day
Retired engines, cars and cabooses, and a respectable archive of documents and artifacts especially strong on the Rio Grande Southern Railroad, which originated in Ridgway. Rail fans gather here every September for Ridgway Railroad Days, which offer guided tours and day hikes on old railroad routes, and a narrow gauge railroad symposium.
