Brief by Kenneth Jessen
Transportation – December 1998 – Colorado Central Magazine
Rolling Next Spring
Passenger trains will once again run through the Royal Gorge from Cañon City to Parkdale and back beginning in May of next year. Plans call for three trips a day, each lasting about two hours. The new Cañon City & Royal Gorge Railroad, carried guests during the weekends of October 17-18 and again October 24-25 to test schedules and public reaction.
The highlights of the trip will be the passage under the Royal Gorge Bridge, more than one thousand feet above the train, and over Hanging Bridge (above), a unique structure supporting the track. Also, passengers will get to see the remains of the primitive stone forts constructed during the Royal Gorge War between the Sante Fé and the Rio Grande lines over the right of way through the Gorge.
Lindsey and Rosa Ashby started a small tourist railroad in Central City about thirty years ago and currently operate the Georgetown Loop Railroad west of Denver. They are now the owners and operators of the CC&RG RR and of Rock & Rail Inc., after jointly purchasing the track and right of way over this 11.6-mile route. Rock & Rail Inc. will carry rock from a quarry near Parkdale.
If the Union Pacific, former owner of this route, wants to run freight trains through the Gorge, it will do so by permit.
— Kenneth Jessen
