"Boar--dd, all aboard," calls the conductor, as latecomers scurry to hop on the train in Laramie. The Wyoming Colorado Scenic Railroad carries passengers on a 108-mile all-day excursion from wide-open prairies to the Medicine Bow Mountains and back again, showing Wyoming's diverse landscape.
From Laramie, the tracks stretch wetward across the kind of landscape you associate with "Home on the Range." The buffalo no longer roam here, but the deer and the antelope still play. You frequently glimpse antelopes' white behinds bobbing alongside the rails.Conductor Bob "Handlebar" Johnson, who takes his moniker from the bushy white mustache that frames his ever-present smile, knows every inch of the way. "Hundreds of covered wagons passed this way 150 years ago on their journey along the Oregon Trail," he says, pointing out ruts, now overgrown with summer sagebrush and wildflowers, carved by the wheels of Conestogas drawn by plodding oxen.
Today's travelers have an easier time traversing the terrain. You relax in comfortable seats arranged two-facing-two if you want. If you're glued to the window, you may see beaver dams, herons, eagles and an occasinal elk or fox.
If you pay for the first-class Santa Fe car, you sip champagne and nibble tasty tidbits while lounging on sofas upholstered in soft Southwestern pastels. Hopi artwork helps complete the New Mexico illusion.
Open-air platform cars give fresh air fans the chance to let the Wyoming wind whip through your hair as the engine clips along at 35 mph.
The only scheduled stop is Centennial, a small trackside town where an early lunch or a short stroll to stretch your legs eats up the time. Do-it-yourself "build-by-the-number" log homes were built in Centennial, labeled, disassembled and freighted out to customers.
The gold in "them thar hills" provided the inspiration for a railroad system to connect Laramie with the mining community of Centennial and continue into the Medicine Bow Mountains. Work began in 1901 and proceeded with incredible slowness. The lackadaisical on again/off again project finally reached Centennial in 1907. Thirty miles of track in six years - and that was on the level.
Gradually, spacious plains give way to forests of slender aspens and spreading evergreens. Trees are so close that branches brush against the window-panes. Quickly gaining altitude on one of the country's highest standard-gauge railroads, the train reaches the pine-scented air of the Snowy Range Mountains.
Johnson tells how he spotted a shiny piece of metal from the train, hiked in on his day off and "rescued" an old piece of rail. "It sure got heavy dragging it back to my truck, but it makes a perfect anvil," he says.
He identifies the few dwellings en route, telling who lives there. Each, of course, has a story attached - like the mayor's wife who trades oven-warm cookies for cold beer as the train passes her home. Children signal with high fives from their yards.
"Now we're into serious railroading," says Johnson, indicating the tracks on the hillside defining the Albany loops that curl around the mountain like a roller coaster course. The locomotive chugs through the steeply graded seven-mile span, twisting and turning its way to the top in 15 minutes while an eagle covers the same distance with a few flaps of its broad wings.
Today, students still study the superb engineering of the "Loops," which gain 1,000 feet of altitude - affording spectacular views of distant peaks and close-ups of tranquil Lake Owen adjacent to the tracks.
After tooting a warning whistle at the Albany crossing, the engineer exchanges waves with some of the 15 year-round residents, who interrupt their daily routines to watch the train clatter by.
The track continues uphill to Fox Park, the 9,055-foot summit of the journey.
Years ago, mining gave way to lumbering. In recent times lumbering gave way, too. Now there's not much activity in these parts. The original route continues south into Walden, Colo., but this is the end of the line for the excursion.
While the operator detaches the engine, passengers remain on board as the iron horse circles on a spur to be hitched up to the opposite end of the coaches to lead the return trip. Retracing the route provides another perspective, as everything looks different from the other direction.
Roving entertainers in cowboy hats strum guitars and encourage community sing-alongs in verses of "She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain," "I've Been Working on the Railroad" and other old favorites. In between choruses, snacks emerge from backpacks and sacks to feed appetites piqued by the hard work of wildlife-watching.
Seven hours after boarding, folks disembark in Laramie paraphrasing from the popular tune - "We've been ridin' on the railroad, all the live long day. We've been ridin' on the railroad, it's fun to pass the time away."
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Railroad rates
The trip from Laramie to Fox Park and back, with a one-hour stop in Centennial, takes about seven hours. Rates: adults, $32.95; children under 12, $17.95; seniors (over 65), $29.95; First-class, $49.95.
You can also board at Centennial. Advance reservations are required. Call (307) 742-9162 for schedule information.
This is a non-smoking train. No coolers or hard-pack containers. Beverage service is available on board.