DENVER (KDVR) — The Boulder Valley Railroad hasn’t seen action in over 20 years until recently. One railroad-loving family built railbikes on the historic tracks.

The Rummer family became engrossed in Erie’s railroad history, which lies on Colorado Railbike Adventures‘ website.

The history of this site dates back 150 years to the Erie Coal Train when early settlers found coal in Coal Park. The town was then named “Erie” after Erie, Pennsylvania in hopes it would become the coal town of the West.

The town began producing large amounts of coal, and the first coal trains ran through along the Denver and Boulder Valley Railroad, stretching west through Canfield, Leyner and on to Boulder.

The railroads were used for over 100 years until one of the last mines closed near the intersection of Erie Parkway and Interstate 25. By 2002, the freight service ended and sold their right-of-way and tracks to the Regional Transportation District for future development as urban public transit.

The track lay empty until the Rummers rebuilt its history.

It all started with Grandpa Bob who taught the Rummer family about levers during the pandemic.

The family used to live in Collier’s Hill, which overlooked Coal Creek Park and the trestle bridge. Grandpa thought about building a hand cart on the railroad, which is how the family started looking into running railbike tours.

After the Rummers learned about the significance of the Erie railroads, Colorado Railbike Adventures was born.

Now, these two-hour railbike tours in Erie run through rain, shine and snow.

The railbikes were originally built for track maintenance crews, but in recent years they have been used as a family-friendly activity.

While the railbikes are on real train tracks, you won’t bump into any moving trains. Not only has the railroad gone unused, but it’s also disconnected from active railroads.

The railbikes open on May 24, and tickets for a four-person railbike are already available for $160.