Hi, I'm Jim Griffin.  I grew up in Boulder, near the Rio Grande's Moffat Route,  spending my formative years there, about 1965 through 1984. Now I'm fully formed, or deformed, or misinformed, or something. I need to be re-formed, that much is certain!  Anyway, my folks used to take us kids for drives and picnics to various locations along the Moffat Route, and so I developed an early love of the Rio Grande. My first grade class went for a ride on the Yampa Valley Mail in the Spring of 1967, from Rocky up to Rollinsville; that dome ride made one heck of an impression on this 6-year-old kid. (I left my sack lunch on the train, but a crewman found it and returned it to me.) So, two characteristics were formed in me early in life: a love of trains, and chronic absentmindedness!

My adult rail obsession was awakened by a ride on the Rio Grande Zephyr to Glenwood Springs, in November of 1981. I began to try to model the train, and also began getting up on Saturdays to go shoot pictures of it-- two things about which I knew absolutely nothing. My new bride & I rode it on our honeymoon (Aug 1982), but before even our first anniversary passed, the train was history. I mourned for years...

My folks were kind enough to give me a Minolta X700 as a graduation present from CU (class of '84-- Go Buffs!), and I began taking rail pictures as opportunity permitted.  These became fewer when we moved to northwest New Mexico a couple of months later...  In the '90s, we discovered the newly-refurbished Ski Train, and we began to take frequent trips to Winter Park.

I have published a book, Rio Grande Railroad, dealing with the history of this interesting line.  You'll see lots of self-serving propaganda for it on these pages.

Historically, I have shot film rather than digital, but I have recently acquired a digital camera.  Most new additions will be courtesy of my Konica Minolta 5MP camera.