The train was instituted by the railroad in 1940 and ran from Union Station in Denver, Colorado for to the ski resort town of Winter Park, Colorado. The train's scenic route left Union Station and traveled through northwest suburban Denver. At least during the early 1970s, the train made a stop in the Rocky Flats area east of the foothills before starting the mountain climb via a series of 29 tunnels - the "Tunnel District" - through the Plainview, Crescent, Wondervu and Gross Reservoir areas, then generally west along South Boulder Creek through Pinecliffe, Tolland and Rollinsville to the final mountain underpass, the long Moffat Tunnel under the Continental Divide. This is the highest railroad tunnel in the United States and the third longest, after the Cascade Tunnel in Washington state and the Flathead Tunnel in Montana.