Historic Rail Adventures, LLC

Historic Rail Adventures LLC is the operator of Colorado's Georgetown Loop Railroad, a three-foot narrow gauge line completed in 1884 by the Georgetown, Breckenridge and Leadville Railway, a company formed in 1881 under the Union Pacific. Regarded as an engineering marvel, the corkscrew route linked the mining towns of Georgetown and Silver Plume — two miles apart in Clear Creek's steep canyon — via horseshoe curves, grades up to 4 percent, and four bridges including the Devil's Gate High Bridge, and it hauled silver ore through the 1880s boom. The Colorado and Southern ran it from 1893 until 1938, and the track was pulled up in 1939. Restoration along the old grade began in 1973 with rail donated by Union Pacific, a new high bridge was built to the original specifications, and the rebuilt segment opened on March 10, 1984. After a troubled management era in the 2000s, the Colorado Historical Society awarded operations in 2009 to a local Georgetown businessman's new company, Historic Rail Adventures, which has run the Loop since, restoring reliability and ridership.