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}} The Georgetown Loop Railroad is a narrow gauge heritage railroad located in the Rocky Mountains in Clear Creek County, Colorado, in the United States. The railroad operates summer tourist trains between the communities of Georgetown and Silver Plume, a distance of . The railroad route is long and ascends an elevation of through mountainous terrain along with trestles, cuts, fills, and a grand loop.〔Trains May, 2007 p 56〕 ==History== The Georgetown Loop Railroad was one of Colorado’s first visitor attractions. This spectacular stretch of narrow gauge railroad was completed in 1884 and considered an engineering marvel for its time. The thriving mining towns of Georgetown and Silver Plume lie apart in the steep, narrow canyon of Clear Creek in the Rocky Mountains west of Denver. Engineers designed a corkscrew route that traveled nearly twice that distance to connect them, slowly gaining more than in elevation. The route included horseshoe curves, grades of up to 4%, and four bridges across Clear Creek, including the massive Devil’s Gate High Bridge. The Georgetown, Breckenridge, and Leadville Railroad had been formed in 1881 under the Union Pacific Railroad.〔(Colorado Historical Society: ''Colorado Timeline'' )〕 The Loop portion of the line was the crowning segment of the line, crossing the top of the gorge on a high trestle. Originally part of the larger line of the Colorado Central Railroad constructed in the 1870s and 1880s, in the wake of the Colorado Gold Rush, this line was also used extensively during the silver boom of the 1880s to haul silver ore from the mines at Silver Plume. In 1893, the Colorado and Southern Railway took over the line and operated it for passengers and freight until 1938. The line was later dismantled, but was restored in the 1980s to operate during summer months as a tourist railroad, carrying passengers using historic narrow gauge steam locomotives. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Georgetown Loop Railroad」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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