Fort Collins Trolley

The following text was excerpted from the website of the Fort Collins Municipal Railway Society:

The Denver and Interurban Railroad (D&I) built a three-legged streetcar line in Fort Collins in 1907. The streetcar lines fanned out from the intersection of Mountain and College in downtown Fort Collins, going west on Mountain Avenue, south to Pitkin, and northeast on Linden (and on to Lindenmeier Lake). Daily operation consisted of three cars running on the three lines.

The Birney Safety Cars were the forerunners of what we now call "light rail," and Fort Collins operated its small but quality system continuously until May 1951. By then, private autos had replaced the need for a public system and the City had grown far beyond the reach of its 6.2-mile line. Most of the tracks were paved over or torn up, and the Birney cars were soon scattered across the country. Car 21, the first of the original Birneys to operate, was kept and put on display.

In 1984, after years of dedicated volunteer restoration work, Car 21 once again ran, taking passengers along a 1.5 mile track to City Park. Today, the trolley runs from City Park to Old Town on Saturdays and Sundays, May through September.