16th Annual Cheyenne Frontier Days Train
DENVER, July 17 /PRNewswire/ — The Denver Post’s 16th annual Cheyenne Frontier Days Train, featuring the massive Union Pacific 844 steam locomotive, heads north to the “Daddy of ‘em All” on Saturday, July 21.
The 17-car-train departs Denver Union Station at 7 a.m. and is expected to return from the Wyoming capital at 8:30 p.m.
Inaugurated in 1908 by Post founders Frederick G. Bonfils and Harry Tammen, the train ceased operation in 1970 but was revived in 1992 as part of the newspaper’s centennial celebration.
The 600 passengers on the special train, which uses vintage domes and coaches from the UP fleet, will watch the Frontier Days parade, enjoy a private barbecue at the rodeo grounds, attend the “Daddy of ‘em All” rodeo, then have a light supper on the train en route back to Denver.
In the midst of the train is a former baggage car, “Council Bluffs,” which will serve as a dance hall, complete with the Hi-Beams, a country-and-western band, on the trip home. As they have every year since the train was revived in 1992, the band Southern Exposure will play for attendees starting at 6 a.m.
Through the years, city officials, business leaders and prominent Coloradoans have ridden the special train. Wendell Wilkie rode it as a presidential candidate in 1940 and Lyndon John Johnson road when he was running for vice president in 1960.
The UP steamer number 844 was the last build for the Union Pacific Railroad. Designed as a high-speed passenger engine to pull the UP’s flagship trains, including the Overland Limited and the Portland Rose, it was delivered in 1944 and has never been taken off the UP’s roster of active locomotives.
Tickets for the train sold out two months in advance. Cheyenne Frontier Days runs July 20-29. Information on the train and its schedule on the 100-mile trip between Cheyenne and Denver are available at http://www.cfdtrain.com/.
The Denver Post is a publication of the Denver Newspaper Agency, which also publishes the Rocky Mountain News under a joint operating agreement. Business operations for the two newspapers are managed by the Agency, which is equally owned by MediaNews Group and The E.W. Scripps Co.
Denver Newspaper Agency
CONTACT: Jim Nolan of Mountain Media Consulting, +1-970-366-1806 for theDenver Newspaper Agency