3 replies to this topic

[KevinKorell]

The second & final day in Denver, Wednesday 9/18/19, is the topic of discussion here.  

 

My recounting of this day will take place Thursday from Chicago since I won't have any internet access on the train.

[KevinKorell]

And this time we had four people involved.  Again everything went according to plan, and much personal time was available once again to fill in things on our own.

 

We met in the morning at Union Station, where Jeb joined us. He had flown in from the Twin Cities very early in the morning, and had already taken one earlybird trip with Bill before our official activities began.

 

First was a B Line train to Westminster.  The B once funding is defined is supposed to go all the way to Boulder; for now it terminates in Westminster and is the only commuter line that only runs once an hour since it only serves one unique station.  The whole trip took 15 minutes one way.   At the Westminster station we had a 19 minute layover for a return trip that would take only 2 minutes.  When we rode inbound three of us got off at Pecos Junction, to switch to a G Line train (Bill continued inbound to Union Station to prepare for his trip back to the airport to return home). The wait here was not too long, and soon we were headed west on the G Line.  This one makes several stops going through Arvada.  The last station, Wheat Ridge-Ward, is literally at the doorstep of the first range of the Rocky Mountains.  At this endpoint, our equipment went into a layup yard and another train representing our inbound trip soon picked us up.  We rode the G Line (this one ended up a few minutes late) back downtown, thus ending our official Fest activities on RTD.

 

We split up here, with Jeb to return home in the afternoon.  Bruce and I each on our own went for lunch and rode more RTD lines. 

 

I went downtown on the 16th Street Mall Shuttle and took an H Line train to Colfax/Auraria, having lunch in that area.  From there I took a D Line train south to Englewood, walked around there for a while, and then continued south on another D Line to Littleton/Mineral.  I then rode a C Line train inbound to I-25/Broadway, followed by an F Line train downtown.  I rode the turnback loop around at 19th Street to get that small piece of trackage, getting off at 18th & Stout. Then it was time to take the L Line (which used to be the D Line north of the city core).  The L Line does the opposite turnback at the south end of the downtown area, so that 2 seconds of riding was new to me.  I rode out to the end at 30th/Downing, and then had to run around the bumping posts to get the next train on the opposite track.  Finished with the L, the only line left I hadn't ridden yet in the two days was the W.  I took the 16th Street Mall bus to Union Station, and then boarded the next W Line outbound to Jeffco Government Center/Golden.   After going to the end of that line and then just missing a departing inbound trip, I ended up returning back to Union Station on the same equipment.  There is no argument that the Day Passes both days were well put to use!

 

Soon it was time to return to get luggage left at the hotel, and then back to Union Station to await Amtrak.

[bratkinson]

What Kevin wrote for the morning with Jeb and Bill. 

 

I also bought a 'full system' including airport all day pass.  I carefully pondered whether or not I was going to use my Amtrak AGR credit card that BofA keeps declining and indicating I have to contact the BofA fraud department every time I attempt to buy an Amtrak ticket or other rail ticket.  All other uses of the card, they accept without any problem.  I wisely used the Chase card in my wallet instead.  Yesterday, there was no hesitation to use the Chase card.

 

After we split at Union Station, I decided to walk the length of the 16th Street mall to people-watch as well as take in the atomosphere of all the revitalized and brand new buildings downtown.  Denver is certainly doing it up right!  They did 'right' to follow the lead of Portland OR, in my opinion.  After a couple blocks walk, I decided to have lunch at a Cheescake Factory restaurant that was nearly full.  Fortunately, I got an inside seat looking out over the mall as well as the patio dining area for the restaurant.  When done, I continued walking and as I did so, I decided I'd do the 'day 1' scheduled trips in reverse.

 

So, I boarded an F line train to Ridgegate/Parkway, but bailed out 2 stops early as I had 'timed' the next R line train to Peoria and figured the next one would be about 2 minutes after I got off the F train and crossed to the opposite platform.  I was right.  At Peoria, I switched to the A line train to the airport as I needed to use a restroom.  Then back downtown arriving at Union Station about 4PM. 

 

While passing through Old Town Arvada in the morning, I noticed that the downtown buildings were likely built pre-1930.  There was also a number of arts-and-crafts style houses north of town built in the teens and twenties.  I'm a fan of architecture and decide to go back and explore a bit.  I also checked Amtrak status for train #6 and saw it was an hour late at Grand Junction and with the padding into Denver, probably arrive about 30 minutes late.  So off to Old Town Arvada I went.  Arriving there about 15 minutes later, I figured out my required schedule to put me back at Union Station ready to board about 6:30 or so.  That gave me about 20-25 minutes to explore downtown, which I did.  Like most 'restored/revitalized/reused' small-town downtown areas, it was clearly a 20-something-to-30-something 'trendy' place to be.  Various bars and small restaurants are in abundance.  I spotted an 'old time' candy store shortly after getting off the train that I figured I'd stop at on the way back to the station.  As I walked in, I was thinking there should be an 'off limits to diabetics' sign prominently displayed at the entrance.  I first spotted the giant chocolate covered raisins and grabbed the scoop and starting filling a small bag 1/3 full.  I also spotted rolls of Reeds Root Beer candies which I hadn't seen since I was 10 or so.  I took one of those and a vending size bag of caramel M&Ms too.  My total 'damages' was less than $7.00, so I was a good boy.  The raisins and M&Ms lasted until after dinner tonight.  I'm still  working on the root beer candies. Then it was back to the station to head back downtown.  I hadn't realized until I was back at the station it was a single track line through Old Town Arvada, and probably single track to the end of the line.  So it was a good 15 minutes wait for an inbound train.  Outbound, having left Denver a little after 4PM, the train was standing room only.  On the return, there were not more than 5 others in the car with me.  All too soon, it was back at Union Station, off to the hotel to pick up my bags and return to Union Station where I located Kevin. 

 

#6 arrived about 40 minutes behind schedule to start the journey home. 

[BillMagee]

I had to work day two around my scheduled 2:09 PM flight out of Denver International.  While I originally planned to complete both rides with the group the possibility of one of the RTD trains experiencing an issue led me to shuffle things around a bit.  Jeb had arrived from MSP and we rode the new G Line out to Wheat Ridge - Ward on our own prior to the official 10am start of the Fest itinerary.   At 10:09, I joined the group for the B Line ride to Westminster, then rode back to Union Station with the group departing at Pecos Junction for the official ride on the new G Line. Arrived back at Union Station just before 11:00.

 

The RTD commuter rail is a very impressive operation.  Given all new rail and trackbed, the rides are smooth and the EMU's are very fast accelerating.  Denver is nice city ro tour around with the mountains visible to the west and the west lines noticeably climbing in elevation (nearly a 1000 foot climb for the W Line from Union Station to Jeffco).  Very pleasant rides and I was happy to have had the opportunity to join the group.