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Ski Train from Denver to Winter Park

 

Ewan grew up skiing with the Eskimo Ski Club, which, along with Winter Park, owes its existence to a Tenth Mountain Division soldier, Frank Bulkley. It was Bulkley who also suggested plans for a ski train to the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. The Ski Train saved skiers from traffic jams in the mountains (and saved the rest of the traffic from those additional cars). Instead, passengers could sit and watch the scenery go by, scenery that couldn't be seen from the highway.

 

The Ski Train engine shown in the design is currently housed at the Colorado Railroad Museum. The engine is an F9 diesel that only ran between 1971 and 1983, pulling the Zephyr, which was the last non-Amtrak intercity passenger train in the US.

 

The Ski Train began in 1940 and went from Union Station through the mountains and the 6.2-mile-long Moffat Tunnel, finally ending up in Winter Park. The Ski Train was originally run by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, and was sold to the Ansco Investment company in 1988. Ansco ran the train for 20 years until they shut it down in 2009. An attempt was made to revive it, but the attempt failed.

 

However, as with all good stories, there is a happy ending. In 2015, Amtrak, Winter Park Resort and Union Pacific celebrated the 75-year anniversary with a Ski Train trip. When the trip sold out, they added a second trip. When that sold out, they added a third trip, and guess what also sold out! So in 2016 they decided to revive the Ski Train, and this time it worked. In January 2017 the Ski Train ran again for the first time in 8 years.

 

All aboard!