About the FCMRS

  Our mission

The Fort Collins Municipal Railway Society (FCMRS) works in partnership with the Fort Collins Museum to operate the Fort Collins Municipal Railway, presenting a living history of electric public transportation in Fort Collins. We preserve, display, operate, and interpret streetcar service, and collect artifacts and information of an educational nature and of significance to the City’s electric railway. We strive to:

• Promote excellence in operating safely and in strict accordance with the Operating Agreement between the FCMRS and the City.
• Adhere to all applicable federal, state and local laws.
• Maintain the equipment, power supply and track in safe, attractive and functioning condition and as close to the historically accurate, original condition as practical.

The FCMRS is an all-volunteer, not-for-profit organization consisting of:

• Elected officers and board of directors
• Conductors and motormen
• Equipment and right-of-way maintainers
• Crew scheduler/dispatcher and charter coordinator

In addition to directors and staff positions, our volunteers perform regular line maintenance, maintain operating equipment, manage membership information and souvenirs, write and publish our Trolley Fare newsletter, manage public relations with the City and local news media, and maintain these Web pages. Directors and officers are elected for two-year terms at an annual meeting each January.

The FCMRS was formed in 1980 to complete the painstaking restoration of Car 21, restore the 1.5-mile line from City Park to Howes St., and work with the public and City. Work on car 21 took seven years, while line restoration took almost five years. Although the complete restoration has been apprased at over $2.5 million after its completion, it was accomplished at no cost to the City. All material for restoring track was donated by local railroads and businesses. In order to obtain enough light rail, we helped salvage rail from local railroads, including an abandoned mountain tourist line in the dead of winter.

The Society currently has an agreement with the City to operate Car 21 on scheduled weekends and to operate special excursions during off hours. We conduct regular written and on-line operator training and testing to ensure that we operate in a safe manner. Our operation is also governed by the Federal Railways Administration (FRA), who performs annual safety inspections on our car and right-of-way.

For information on becoming a volunteer, please complete our Volunteer Application Form.

  Recognition

Our work restoring car 21 and the Mountain Ave. line has earned both local and national recognition:

• Department of Transportation Award for Outstanding Public Service to Transportation and Historic Preservation.
• Award of Merit from the American Association of State and Local History.
• Preservation Honor Award from Colorado Preservation, Inc.
• Stephen H. Hart Award from the Colorado Historical Society.
• Designated as a Fort Collins Local Landmark and entered in the National Register of Historic Places.

 Directors and staff

 Mailing address