Earache

I seem to take a shitload of pictures of trains as I ride around the Rocky Mountains. All of the towns have a train or two up on blocks in the town center. So here are a few. I'll add more here as I see them. Starting off with my home town - Black Hawk, Colorado. These are the trains that were used to haul gold ore from the mines to stamping mills for processing....

Nah, here's one of the trains in Black Hawk, Better pic...

They'll eat just about anything that they can catch.

I'd run outta that bar room as fast as I could. Some places just give me the creeps and this is one of them.

Then there are these guys - loads of them, hunting in packs. My driveway appears to be a good hunbting ground for them as we always seem them there. They are the main culprits for snagging cats and smaller dogs for dinner..

I should do a train thread - every freakin' town here has at least one or two old steam loco's sitting on rails in their town center. Our small town has at least 2-3 of them. Here's one from Idaho Springs - next town over from ours..

It's funny, people that just move here are always posting pictures of their lost lost cats and small dogs that are lost. "Help me find Buffy" type posts. Lady, your cat isn't missing, he was lunch.

We have a bobcat that hangs out in our front yard from time to time, he's a fat bastard, too. Haven't got a lot fo good pics of him as he's always here during low light times; early morning, late evening. Don't see them much in daylight.

Mos tof these places were probably built by one or two guys with limited tools. So wood was probably the easiest and most plentiful materials available. There were no towns to go to get help, stone mason s, etc. So wood it was. The train station in Black Hawk is all brick, as most of the town's buildings are brick / stone - but labor to build them was available here in the big city.

Some pics from last year when I was up there on my XR. Knew there was a box car up there!

Route...

Couple of hours later and I'm home. A pic of our abandoned railway station here in Black Hawk...

One last ranch home in Tarryall before I head out...

A couple of open range pics. One thing we have here is open land. Lots and lots of open land...

Some more of Tarryall's best and finest homes...

Old farm across the street. Who knew that they had caravans back then?

Old homestead cabin in Tarryall....

100 miles later and I'm passing through what used to a be a town called Tarryall. The Tarryall School, built in 1898, is slightly more spartan than Fairp[lay's school...

Making a big loop to turn back north to get home and I pass the Fairplay School in Fairplay, CO...

At the western bottom of the Pass are a steam engine and other cars used on Boreras. Quite the snow shovel on the first car...

The views across the valley are of Breckenridge Ski Resort - you can see the ski runs carved out of the woods...

10 miles later......

The view from up here ain't bad at all...

About 5 miles down the hill from the Station House is the water tank...

I swear to God, the last time I was here there was a train car sitting on these now empty tracks. That was about a year ago. Have no idea where it went. Probably those fuckin' gypsys - they'll steal anything!