After a long and needed absence from most forum activities I am bring the RRAdventures stories back to TrainBoard. For those that have joined TrainBoard in the last couple of years you might not be aware of my travel topics so I thought I might semi start over by doing a brief cliff notes version of the old trips first. I also thought I would just have a single topic (rather then one per trip) so that its easier to follow along. Not all of our travels are RR related so I might drop in a Offtopic (non-RR) post here and there within this topic; if no one has an objection. You will find allot of our trips are Fallen Flag based from the various railways that once existed in Colorado but we have also captured photos / videos of railroads outside Colorado as well as outside the US / North America as well. I am no rivet counter but someone that just enjoys taking photos / videos of the places we travel so that I can share those moments of our journeys. So, you will find we are heavily focused on capturing shots of historic places, equipment, structures as well as playing tourist on as many tourist railroads as we can travel on. When our journeys reach their final destination I hope folks are able to say they enjoyed our Trip Reports as if they had traveled with us. For those that want to follow RRAdventures more closely we have a Blog and Twitter account setup to catch highlights of our most recent activities. To all my old friends here at TrainBoard I look forward rebuilding our friendships after my long and needed absence. I truly look forward in rejoining my extended family here once again as well as making new friends with members I have yet to meet. With that said, let the RRAdventures Trip Reports begin...
1978: Nevada City, MT As strange as this might seem, we will start in Montana in Nevada City. In reviewing my old childhood photo albums the earliest RR photo I have found that I took would be here. In those days my family could not afford much but we did always try to find a way to travel by camper via mostly KOA campgrounds. Being able to afford a camera and film plus processing was limited so I could only take a few photos in those days. Here is most of the photos I took on that Summer of 1978 trip. I wonder how much still survives today and how this old museum is still doing (if at all) as I have never had a chance to return to this location since that day. The people you are seeing in the photos are of my family; Mom, Dad, and my brother as we explored this place... - - -
Thanks for the link Ken! Would be fun to get back there and see if/how things have changed since I was there last
1979: Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad Still using an old camera and film, my family and I head to Chama, NM and take a ride on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. Again only a few photos are taken given the costs so here is the bulk of the photographs I took that summer day. [FONT=Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica] - [/FONT][FONT=Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica] - [/FONT][FONT=Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica] - [/FONT][FONT=Trebuchet MS, Arial, Helvetica][/FONT]
1984: Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad In June 1984 we (Lisa and I) stopped by the Cripple Creek & Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad depot in Cripple Creek, CO and caught #2 heading out for another run and #1 sitting idle.
I wish I could have a time machine to see these things I was too young to remember back then. Thanks for sharing!
Darren, your family sounds a lot like mine, although we did not have a camper but did mainly day trips for vacation. My Mom, Dad and sometimes oldest brother would travel all over Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and upstate New York and visit every railroad museum or grass strip runway airport. We always packed a lunch, nobody ate out as much back then. I look forward to more posts!
This is why I though it would be good to start over with my RRAdventures stories as these old trips I never did a trip report on as they occurred so long ago and little photos to show. The best part of the entire story is that I meant a girl in collage that never got to do much traveling and always wanted too and once I introduced her to Steam Tourist Trains see got a bit of a Railfan bug in her too. That girl became my wife (Lisa) and we have been traveling as much as we can even after she broke her back in a freak fall at her moms house a few years ago.
1985: Rollins (Corona) Pass Lisa and I will take our first real Railfan trip and travel up to Rollins and Corona Pass. I promised her a nice backroad mountain drive with scenery with a bit of RR history at the top and we packed up the 1966 Chevy II Nova SS and off we went. She was not disappointed and will use that excuses to get to various places for all the years to come and still do today. Heck, she is now researching where more of these places are at as Colorado Railroads and Geology / Nature go hand-in-hand so it gives us fun destinations to seek out. This was one of the few vacation I was allowed to take her photo and post it online. Man was I allot skinner in those days and look I have dark / thick hair too! - - -
Ha ha ha. This is all too familiar for the wife and I...... And taking a hike such as pictured here today, I wish, but no way.
Yeah, like Ken said. Sharon would not allow me to photograph her today. I visited the barber today and was alarmed at that pile of grey hair he swept up after I was done. Thanks for sharing your history with us, Darren. :startled:
1987: Royal Gorge Scenic Railway In August of 1987 we stopped by “Buckskin Joe’s Frontier Town & Railway” where the Royal Gorge Scenic Railway operates along the canyon rim. This is a 3 mile loop ride on a scale model train. This little narrow gauge train I rode as a kid but I don't know of any known photos that were taken. That's me standing next to it in 1987 and the Silver Chevy II Nova SS behind me is my old car. Still skinny (6'5" / 180lbs) with long dark hair; that won't last much longer...