Owl Canyon Railway Club
Progress and Updates

  OwlCanyonRailway

Update 11/20/2021:
Set up small section of track near Marana, AZ

Update 11/20/2018:
We've made a lot of progress with hauling the former Royal Gorge Scenic Railway to our private ranch, here in Wellington, Colorado.
We have moved all 4 locomotives, 24 riding cars, the ballast car, the flat cart, some of the tools, and about 2,000 feet of rail.
We are trying to get several groups of people together to help us on the weekends or during the week. The next big haul will be December 1 and 2nd.
Because we are doing this out of our personal pocket and our funds are running thin, we have created a gofundme account to help
with the remainder of the hauling costs including labor, fuel, and tools. We've had to buy specialty tools just to get the job done.
Including a demosaw and an battery powered impact. Each blade for our demo saw cost $10, we can get about 20 cuts per blade. Each rail
is welded, which we had not anticipated orginally. The rails are cut at the joints roughly every 20 feet.
We are using our personal trucks and trailers for this haul. Please consider donating through our gofundme account or through paypal.
Every bit will help us get the remaining rail from the former Royal Gorge Scenic Railway. Thank you!

Update 10/5/2018:
We got a phone call from the realtor of the former Buckskin Joe property to inform us that the former Royal Gorge Scenic Railway
is now availabla seperate from the property as the new owner wants to use the railroad bed as hiking and biking trails. We pulled
everything we have to seal the deal. We couldn't stand to see the trains be potentionally sold as scrap after serving Canon, City's
toursim since 1957.

Update 12/23/2017:
We had Santa out on December 23rd, 2017 along with Austin Taco's, a tractor pulling hay rides, Biscuit and Gravy miniature horses,
draft horse carriages, and had a jolly good time with all the Christmas lights and smiling faces.

Update 12/17/2017:
We completed the Owl Canyon Railway's 1,400 foot loop on December 17th, 2017.

We want to specifically thank David Thomas, Joshua and Amie Martin (and their son Benji), Dave and Karyn, Shirrel and Cam,
Gary and Judy Novacek, and Brad Snyder for being instrumental in helping us complete the Owl Canyon Railway project. Without you
all putting in your time, hard work, motivation, and dedication this would not have been possible! THANK YOU!

Below are some pictures of our track work, light displays, and pre-opening day!






Update 11/18/17

Sorry for the lack of updates here! Facebook has provided an easier platform for daily updates.
We now have almost 600 feet of track laid as of today! It has been a long hard month of cutting wood and laying track.
Gary, a very kind gentleman that lives nearby, has been building our riding cars and finding us amazing deals
on 4x4s for our ties! I will be uploading pictures of our track-laying progress and riding cars very soon!
If you want to stay updated more frequently, please follow us on facebook! Search "Owl Canyon Railway" on facebook
and be sure to click the "Like" button!




Update 10/5/17

We had a successful trip to Ohio to bring home aluminum rail! Now that we have our rail, it was time to get our plans
set in stone so we can begin grading the dirt for where the track will lay. So grading began October 3rd!
We decided to go with a smaller track plan to start with for finacial and time-restraint reasons. We want to be operational by the end
of November for our Holiday Lights Train! Below is a picture tour of what we have done with the track plan as well as some of the work on the railroad.
If you wish to donate wood ties (4x4"s that are at least 30 inches long and in good condition) we need 1,900 of them and would
GREATLY appreciate any donation! Without YOU, we wouldn't be able to get this railroad up and running!

Feel free to contact us with questions. Thanks for following our progress and stay tuned for the next update!



Update 9/1/17

We finally got our engine, the Owl Canyon Cannonball, running! We only have about 40 feet of rail to run it on
currently, but, it was fun to hear it purr! Before too long we will have much more rail for it to run on. We are also working
on designs for an eight passenger riding car! Below is a picture of getting the Cannonball all cleaned up after her test run.
To view a video of the first run of the OC Cannonball, please visit our facebook page: Owl Canyon Railway


Update 8/25/17

We finally found some rail! We put a deposit down for 5,000 feet of aluminum rail which is located in Dayton, Ohio.
Kate and Kody plan to make the trip out to haul it home sometime in September! We also have a crazy big track plan
for all this rail. We are also working on setting up a way for people to easily make donations towards our railroad project.
The new track plan will have 2 bridges, 1 tunnel, a train shed, a picnic area and a playground for our friends kids to play on.



Update 8/1/17

Sorry for the lack of updates this summer. Kate & Kody have been busy with their day jobs at Tiny Town and
Owl Canyon Horse Services. However, our locomotive from Chandler, Arizona got a new name and a paint job today!
It still has some work to be done, but we are happy with the progress.
Meet the Owl Canyon Cannonball!

BEFORE: AFTER:


Update 5/6/17

Such a sad day today. We were borrowing roughly 400 feet of track for the train rides and we had
to return it! So much labor, out of love and passion, went into building the railroad for Holiday Train Rides
and now the track has to get torn down and returned to its owner. HOWEVER, we have plans in the works to purchase
our OWN rail! Rail is hard to find so we will try to wait patiently for the right deal to come along and hopefully
be operational again by Fall 2017!



Update 1/20/17

We have had some weather cancelations which has prevented us from opperating most of this month.
However, we plan to have our last run on Jan 28, 2017.
We will offer FREE train rides from 5:00pm - 8:00pm on Jan 28th!
Bring your family and friends to ride the live steam train and see the lights!
Of course, we would appreciate any of your kind donations to help cover the cost of opertating the train. Thank you!

Update 12/24/16

We had a GREAT turn out for runs on December 23rd! We estimated roughly 80 people that came to ride the train and enjoy the horse drawn carriage! We added roughly 2,500 more lights making our total up to about 14,500 LED lights! Thank you so much to all our volunteers for making this such a success! Thank you Moonlight Carriage Company for bringing your beautiful draft horse and carrage. Thank you Madisen for bringing your two adorable miniature horses for cart rides. We look forward to more successful Holiday Train Rides!
Merry Christmas Everyone!





Update 12/15/16

Our opening day was December 10th. We fell a little behind schedule and the locomotive
had trouble getting up to temperature. Once it was finally ready to run, we offered several
fun (and full!) holiday train rides. Everyone stayed warm with some hot cocoa
and enjoyed the petting zoo with the miniature goats April, Twilight, and Snickers.
We also had miniature horse cart rides, which were a huge hit! The kids and adults enjoyed
the laid back atmosphere, the animals, and of course, the main draw:
The Live Steam Locomotive and pretty Christmas Lights ~ we are up to about 11,000 lights!
Unfortunetly Kate was too busy to remember to get the camera,
so we don't have any pictures of our opening day... Shame on her! Haha.
Instead, please enjoy these pictures from our first snow storm on 12/14/16!


A huge THANK YOU to everyone who helped make this posible!!

One last note, with frigid temperatures planned for this weekend we will be CLOSED Saturday 12/17.
It is only suppose to be a high of 1 degree, YIKES! Please stay in and stay warm!
Sunday, 12/18 is only tenatively scheduled due to cold temperatures, but if it stays above 15 degrees we will try to run!
We added train rides for Christmas Eve (Dec 24th) 5:00pm to 8:00pm as well as December 26th 5:00pm to 8:00pm.