From Bible running to rail running, Brad Swartzwelter is all in

By Lisa McIntyre

The conductor’s cap sits nobly atop his head as he sounds the train whistle while departing Denver’s Union Station. Brad Swartzwelter, a 25-year train veteran, pilots Amtrak’s California Zephyr and its Winter Park Express passenger train over the lofty Rocky Mountains.

Swartzwelter, 55, dreamed of being a train conductor from the time he set up the model train that wound around his bedroom floor as a child. “Now I operate a 1:1 scale model train that runs 400 miles,” he says, sporting a childlike grin.

As a youngster, while fishing with his father from the banks of the Colorado River west of Fraser, he remembers anticipating the passing of Amtrak’s California Zephyr making its run from Chicago to San Francisco.

It was that same train that first brought him to Colorado in 1964 when, at two-weeks-old, he and his family moved west from Iowa to join his father who had been transferred to Lowry Air Force Base.

He recalls his mom’s story of needing to return to Iowa for his great-grandfather’s funeral during a snowstorm in 1966. She loaded her three children, all under the age five, onto the California Zephyr. The conductor and staff, recognizing her situation, moved them to a first-class car for the night-long trip. The seeds of rail travel were planted and the story remains with him as he creates the passenger experience today.

“When my mother tells me the story, it reminds me of what’s important in my job,” he says. “Throwing switches and keeping the train over the tracks is all good … but the important stuff is taking care of the people who need it the most.”

Traveling onboard one of his trains is like sitting front row at a Red Rocks Amphitheatre show — you just can’t get enough. Swartzwelter first positions himself at the instrument panel where he can view the world 20-feet above the tracks. He completes safety checks with the crew and eventually turns everything over to the train’s engineer.

Now it’s time to work his magic. He walks the chair-lined aisles of each train car greeting passengers with a handshake and a smile, as if you’ve just sat down on his living room sofa. Along the route, he shares historical facts that bring life to the mountains, tunnels, and structures that are passing by. His infectious energy helps passengers connect to the verbal history lesson.

Early Wheels of Determination

As a young man, he ignored the tug of railroading to attend an Upward Bound program that combined Bible studies with mountaineering in the Austrian Alps. While in Europe, he found a wanderlust in which he could serve a greater purpose: Bible running.

The Eastern Bloc countries were under communist rule and he knew the kids needed Bibles. He and a colleague printed children’s Bibles in Vienna, then distributed them to the other side of the Iron Curtain for several months in his old Zastava Yugo junker.

That’s when he met Barbara, a girl from a small village outside of Vienna. He was 20, she 15. Their families met and supported their relationship. He then courted her until she graduated from high school. Soon after, they married in Austria. He and Barbara headed for Colorado to start their family.

Once here, he continued to pursue life with a commitment to matters greater than himself.

“Who’s ever accomplished anything great by being half-in?” he says, when discussing his steadfast approach. Swartzwelter also has an entrepreneurial current that pulses through him with fervor and grit.

He eventually earned his Travel Administration and Tourism degree from Metropolitan State University in 1994. In addition, he launched Denver’s first pedal-cab business. With the opening of Coors Field and the new Colorado Convention Center, the timing was right. He and his business partner worked closely with the city’s leaders, Mayor Federico Peña and John Hickenlooper, then executive director for the Downtown Denver Partnership, to establish regulations that paved the way for today’s successful pedal-cab businesses.

After he sold his share of the business, he took an internship with Amtrak and the Winter Park Ski Train, finally starting his career in rail. Transportation has continued to drive him toward the future.

In 2003 Swartzwelter published a book, “Faster Than Jets,” which addressed high-speed underground rail travel using magnetics and vacuum propulsion. His book tackled the idea of tube transportation, or hyperloop, long before Elon Musk pushed the idea to the fore. Swartzwelter is still involved in keeping new transportation technology in the minds of developers, media and the government.

Renewed Success for the Express

Swartzwelter’s tenure as conductor was, of course, preceded by nearly 70 years of ski train history. From 1940 to 2009, sightseers and skiers rode the rails from Denver to Winter Park long before the interstate highway system was completed and before Berthoud Pass was improved. The ski train stopped running when plans were launched to remodel Union Station.

His passion to get passengers back on the ski train drove the return of the nostalgic Winter Park Ski Train in 2015, now known as Amtrak’s Winter Park Express.

An article published in 2014 by the Colorado Rail Passenger Association (ColoRail), a nonprofit passenger-rail advocacy group, mentioned the notion of bringing the ski train back and having Amtrak pay for it. It piqued Swartzwelter’s interest, and he thought, “Hey, I work at Amtrak! That’s a great idea!”

With the help of ColoRail, Swartzwelter orchestrated a tour of the newly designed Denver Union Station for Amtrak executives and the leaders of Winter Park Resort. He put together a business plan that gained the support and approval from all parties: Amtrak, Union Pacific Railway, Colorado Department of Transportation, City of Denver and the trade unions.

“Brad’s a real forward-thinking kind of guy,” attests Craig Meis, a former Winter Park Ski Train conductor, and the person that first brought Swartzwelter onboard as an Amtrak intern.

On March 17, 2015, Winter Park Express officials took a test run to gauge interest and see if they could manage the logistics of sharing the track with coal trains over the 56-mile route. Among the trip’s passengers was Swartzwelter’s father, who was fortunate to experience the fulfillment of his son’s dream just before he died.

The logistics worked out and the ever-popular Winter Park Express was back on track.

It’s scheduled to run again in the 2019-2020 season with plans for expanded food and beverage services.

Should you choose to take the day-long journey, you might get a glimpse of that childlike grin and hear a tale or two about the state’s storied past.

Lisa McIntyre is a recent graduate of Metropolitan State University of Denver with a Bachelor’s in Journalism and Social Documentary. She seeks to illuminate the human experience through oral, written and photographic storytelling.