leadville, colorado & southern railroad

This was a fun day to spend with my kids and show them some amazing views. We had a blast eating popcorn and traveling by train. Great price and fun was had by all! Higly recommend for families.

We took our grand daughters and they had so much fun. It is a slow trip through the beautiful Aspen trees up to a spectacular view of the Rockies.A must do if you are in the area in the fall.

Lots of folks wonder what to do in life. A few geniuses innovate something great. A larger number of folks take a more humble task, and make some fun-quality-value from it (in Leadville, the folks at High Mountain Pies, for example, seem to be doing this). Some hustle luggage that nobody wants, or operate ripoff-rate foreign exchange booths in airports. Some operate tourist railroads and hope that folks will buy tickets.Colorado has a number of train-buff-oriented rides. From Tiny Town's railroad (highly recommended for families with kids, or for fans of model railroading or models in general) to the biggies (California Zephyr, Southwest Limited, Durango and Silverton, and Cumbres and Toltec). There are the small, perhaps somewhat afterthoughts. The Georgetown Loop, the Royal Gorge, some others, this one. These need something special to make one enjoy them, as a $20-100 few-mile train ride to nowhere can rarely compete with other things for our time and money. Classic equipment nicely maintained? A great story? Great scenery - sometimes punctuated with a seasonal spice (like wildflowers or autumn foliage in season)? If they fall short, might they be more attempted hype than worthwhile reality?I have researched this railroad, including reviews on TA, Yelp, etc. I have been to the depot to check the place out. Ho hum. I tend to agree with the TA reviewers who gave this 1, 2, and 3-star reviews - other than those who said "enjoyable". Is this a really viable, good-value, operation? IMHO, no.I just wonder if this would be a better "rails to trails" trail for walking, biking (including electric biking), and maybe Segway tours than the current operation?My humble suggestion. If you're curious and in Leadville, visit the depot at departure time. Do this before buying tickets. Reread the TA and other reviews. You may have just seen the best part of this operation.

Our 7-year old daughter picked this to do for her birthday so we purchased the tickets online. Arrived just in time to board due to accident at a highway construction site which delayed us. Sadly the train was overbooked, and despite the train conductors repeated pleas for families to shift down to cover any empty seats, our fellow passengers would not do so. So many families, including ours, were split up...Mom 20' away from my daughter and I, grandma in one car, grandpa in another. While not the train operators fault this did affect the ride...Since one side predominantly stares at the incline going further up the mountain, ie - wall of rock at times, and the other side overlooks the valley, the conductor announces that for the return trip people should switch sides. Of course the people with the scenic valley view would not. So your stuck craning your neck to see anything. Again, not the train operators fault as they did try to get people to switch, but our fellow passengers being complacent or rude did not, and it again affects the trip.The gift shop on train, with drinks and food was nice.

My husband and I were in Leadville, CO last weekend. Unfortunately we didn't have reservations to ride the Colorado & Southern Railroad train, but we did drive to the train station, went inside and saw many people - couples & families with kids - board the train. It is about 2-2.5 hours and goes into the higher mountains to see the fall leaves and other sights. It's a really great-looking train and everyone seemed to be having a fun time - :>)! Next time we will make reservations and go!

We went on this train ride in late August, a beautiful time of year in CO. Our train conductor was very knowledgable and my friends with kids (2 families rangin from 8 months to 8 years) had a good time, and the kids loved the conductor. We unknowingly were on the sunday ride which is about 3 hours, instead of 2 I believe. So that was a very long time with little kids. I would bring some other entertainment for the little guys. I loved that you could sit outside, inside, visit the little coffee/convenient store on board, etc. It's not fancy but it's so gorgeous, I would say it's worth the trip for sure!

The train ride was wonderful, although maybe a bit too long...2 and 1/2 hours. Although great time to go for the Aspens were turning beautiful shades of yellow and some oranges, really pretty.

My wife and I took the train ride in late September and there was a slight snow falling and the mountains were white... it was wonderful and serene. The pricing is fair, and the conductor who served as tour guide was knowledgeable. Don't this is a luxury sightseeing trip, it is not, but it is a way to spend an afternoon with wonderful views.

We were in the area and walked in and got tickets without a reservation. It was peak fall color time and we were tired of driving so thought we'd sit back and let the train do the driving for us! The seats all face the large windows. As the train pulled out of the station I realized that I was looking uphill at the mountain and the gorgeous wide open views were on the other side - down the mountain. No troubles, a person can change their seat easily. They are not assigned and even on a beautiful fall day during peak color it was not so crowded that I couldn't change my seat. The ride was very pleasant and at some point the train stopped by an old water tank where we all got out, stretched our legs and took photos. There were snacks available for purchase during the trip. We had hot dogs and pop corn. Was it the most exciting train ride ever? No. But it was well worth the money for the relaxing trip and nice memories it leaves me with. I would recommend it to anyone who happens to be in the area.

This was a fantastic 3hr trip. We were pleased that there were enclosed cars, covered cars, AND open air cars. You didn't have any particular assigned seat, and were free to move about the train as you pleased. When we boarded it was raining, so everyone was inside, and as we set out it cleared up and we were able to move to the open cars. Staff was very helpful ensuring everyone was advised to layer the clothing and bring jackets as it could be very chilly.... Was nice to have drinks and snacks available on board. Conductor was fantastic with her stories and history of the area that she shared along the way. Oh...I nearly forgot to mention the beautiful scenery!!

The people there were great to make the trip better. The trouble is, that the Durango Silverton is so much better for scenery and atmosphere. My advice is to take the Silverton Durango ride if you have to choose only one trip.

I was not sure how to rate this ride. We went today,9/23, and did see some beautiful colors from the Aspen trees changing color, and the ride up the mountain and back down is nice. But for the first third of the trip, you're looking thru thick Pine trees so not a lot to see. I'm not sure, without the fall color, that I would have enjoyed this ride that much compared to other train rides we've done. We debated between this ride and the Royal Gorge Railway. I almost wish we would have chosen that ride.

While staying in Vail we did a couple of day trips and one was to Leadville to take the train. It was a day well spent. This time of year the train only runs once and day and boarding is 30 minutes prior. We did not pre-book and there was a line when we arrived but the train has several cars so there was plenty of room. Our conductor was a 35 year resident of Leadville and she had lots of stories to share. The aspens were gorgeous and the conductor told us when to expect another pretty stand. The train stopped for a few minutes at the water tower to allow people to get off, stretch their legs and take pictures. One tip would be to try to get a seat toward the end of a row. The person next to you will no doubt lean over the rail to get a picture therefore destroying your shot. Most people keep their seat on both legs of the trip. The conductor said the downhill side was most scenic while uphill (or depot) side was more likely to see wildlife. I think they saw one deer on our trip. Very few people gave the conductor a tip which I thought was sad.

I took my 16 yr old grand daughter on this trip, it was fantastic.We went Towards the end of September and the fall colours were spectacular.Make sure you book in advance though

Went on the ride for the fall colors, got there about 1:30pm as we were scheduled for the 2pm train ride and let me advise that you should get there plenty early if you want a seat we sat clear in the back last car before the caboose! The trip was great and the colors were mind blowing, the staff and guide were very knowledgeable and very informative during the whole trip, the only draw back we saw was rude people sitting by us who were letting their kids run wild, standing on seats and infringing on our space on the train even though its bench style seating they did not seem to care that other passengers were trying to enjoy themselves! And if you have dogs they do allow them on the train with you, they have a car that has snacks and drinks with bathrooms but the restrooms were slightly over used as they are similar to porta-potties, and we stopped at the water tower on our trip and they said due to forest service fire bans that no smoking was allowed when you got off the train at the stop but do you think people listened no they smoked anyways! Besides those couple of issues its a great way to see the fall colors.