Heritage route
Royal Gorge Route
Cañon City → Parkdale · United States
Royal Gorge Route in pictures
Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 19 km
- Fastest time
- 1 h
- Average speed
- 19 km/h
- Top speed
- 25 km/h
- Operator
- Royal Gorge Route Railroad
- Train
- F40PH diesels, Vista Domes
- Countries
- United States
- In service since
- 1879
- Runs
- daily year-round, up to 4 departures
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
Rides the canyon won in the 1879 “Royal Gorge War”, the Arkansas River alongside and a suspension bridge 291 m overhead.
The Denver & Rio Grande and the Santa Fe fought an armed “war” for this canyon in 1878–79, because only one railroad could fit where the granite walls squeeze to a few dozen metres. The winning line’s trains still pass over the spot where an 1879 hanging bridge suspends the track above the Arkansas River, while the Royal Gorge suspension bridge hangs 291 m overhead. Dome diners and open-air cars make the run from Cañon City year-round.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 1419637 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 3 m from it
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
Along the way
- Hanging Bridge of 1879
- Royal Gorge Bridge overhead
- Arkansas River rafters
- Bighorn sheep on the canyon walls
- Parkdale turnaround
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