25-08-16 PHOTOS: Glenwood Springs

People might best know the town of Glenwood Springs, CO as that extra long stop on Amtrak's California Zephyr, but there's a reason for the extra long platform and the generally high level of activity. Glenwood Springs is the locus of a non-winter tourism district that aincludes an amusement park, natural scenery and actual hot springs, not the type that just keep one's wagon train from dying. Glenwood Springs is also served by the privately operated Rocky Mountaineer, which preserves the concept of railroad promoted tourism practiced by the Denver, Rio Grande and Western.  During a 2025 trip to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park I managed to manipulate the itinerary to include a stop at the Glenwood Springs Amtrak station in time for the arrival of westbound Zephyr Train 5. Also included in the set are additional photos of the semi-abandoned Tennessee Pass Line near Leadville. 

The Glenwood Springs station was constructed in 1904 by the DRGW. It's size and opulence was a direct function of it catering to the upper class tourism market in a similar fashion to the Great Northern station in Whitefish, Montana. At the time western railroads played a large role in promoting tourist destinations as a method to see better returns from their passenger operations that would otherwise see little travel in the sparsely populated western United States. It is currently the second least least used station in Colorado behind Denver.

The original interior has been preserved with both an active ticket office, baggage service and an interior waiting room.

The Rocky Mountaineer maintains its own private waiting room for its ultra luxury offering. Passengers can either travel between Glenwood Springs and Denver or overnight at Glenwood Springs before continuing on to Moab.

Even on days when the Mountaineer isn't running, local hotels will continue to send shuttle vans to meet Amtrak Trains 5 and 6.

Westbound Amtrak California Zephyr Train 5 was running no more than the typical hour late with a trio of P42DC's providing power.

Amtrak P42DC #37 was leading with #22 and #14 behind.

 

After doing its thing Train 5 departed westward. The interlocking immediately to the west of the station used to include a junction with a branch line running to the south, but in the 2015 re-signaling project the junction was turn out and the right of way converted into a bike trail. 

The station wings had sign storage, baggage support and what appeared to be support for motorized track cars.

On the return trip from Black Canyon of the Gunnison I managed to expand my coverage of the moribund Tennessee Pass Line. At the east end of the Princeton siding boulders had rolled onto the trackway while at the west end section of rails had been removed so that locals could better access the Arkansas River. In terms of souvenirs I was lucky enough to find an inanimate carbon rod. 

The signals were still standing at the east end of the Malta siding with the rear door open to simulate a Clear indication.

The friend I was visiting lives in Evergreen where it is not uncommon to see Elk hanging out along the side of the road. 

Heading back to the airport I got this photo of an RTD A-Line train with a storm front in the background. 

The final photos from the set show the Denver International Airport concourse C peoplemover station which is located in an open trench with some sort of simulated pueblo excavation used to make the scene more visually interesting.

That's everything of interest from this trip. Next time I'll be back in Philly checking out the rail situation around Fairmont Park.