Can anyone provide a rough estimate of the total yearly number of tourists that visit rail heritage sites in the state of Colorado?

ryarger@rypn.org

Much discussion about this at TRAIN. D&S, Cats and the Ashby lines all have very good numbers. Reliable, that is, not "good" as in lots of tourists. Numbers were very significantly lower than previous years. I don't know if the Cripple Creek line has numbers, probably the museum in Golden does, if we include the Cimmaron site the state may have some. Pueblo? Anybody's guess. If we go further and include the stuffed and mounted hulks in parks certainly not. Strangely, nobody at TRAIN had anything to say about the Forney museum which is probably relocated by now but who knows? The Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, and Denver trolley guys probably have some reasonable estimates. I'd venture to suggest the Aspen trolley guys don't. Somebody with a couple hours to spend on the phone could probably get a decent number together, but then how do we account for the same tourists visiting more than one?

Dave

> Much discussion about this at TRAIN.
> D&S, Cats and the Ashby lines all have
> very good numbers. Reliable, that is, not
> "good" as in lots of tourists.
> Numbers were very significantly lower than
> previous years. I don't know if the Cripple
> Creek line has numbers, probably the museum
> in Golden does, if we include the Cimmaron
> site the state may have some. Pueblo?
> Anybody's guess. If we go further and
> include the stuffed and mounted hulks in
> parks certainly not. Strangely, nobody at
> TRAIN had anything to say about the Forney
> museum which is probably relocated by now
> but who knows? The Fort Collins, Colorado
> Springs, and Denver trolley guys probably
> have some reasonable estimates. I'd venture
> to suggest the Aspen trolley guys don't.
> Somebody with a couple hours to spend on the
> phone could probably get a decent number
> together, but then how do we account for the
> same tourists visiting more than one?

> Dave
Regarding Forney, They have indeed relocated to a nice modern industrial type building. Building is climate controlled, and zone lighted. Great Auto collection as well. Most of the RR equipment is indoors now. Still appears to have the ability to receive additional equipment, but not very much, as trackspace is limited. At least most of the stuff is indoors, and Mother Nature has been put on hold.

> I can tell you that the Fort Collins Municipal Railway carried 6670 passengers last year and was down about 20% over the previous year. Our current fare of $1 we intend to keep for at least for the next year. Another point is that our current fare of $1 in terms of the value currently of our currency is actually cheaper than the original 5 cent fare of the old days.
Roger Mitchell
Master Mechanic
Fort Collins Municipal Railway

n0mcr@netzero.net