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February 18, 2021
ARAPAHOE COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
EnglewoodHerald.net
VOLUME 100 | ISSUE 52
‘Wayfinding’ plan would boost city’s visibility City aims to ‘define Englewood’s character,’ help residents get around BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
walls painted with backdrops of cities, freight yards and mountains, sprawled Cook’s colossal Lionel train display. The culmination of more than 30 years of planning and building, and a lifetime of collecting, Cook called it his “great opus.” “Actually, a friend called it that, and I had to look up the word ‘opus,’ but I’d say it fits,” said Cook, a retired attorney. Standing at the control module of the freight yard, Cook’s hands began to work the buttons, switches and dials with the dexterity of
Take a drive on South Broadway from Denver — or cruise east on U.S. Highway 285 underneath the Santa Fe Drive bridge — and if you aren’t paying attention, you might not notice you’re in Englewood. Nestled right against Denver, the look and feel of Englewood’s neighborhoods and parts of its Broadway corridor might fool some visitors into thinking they’re still in Colorado’s capital city. What’s more, Englewood faces what a city planning document calls “notable mobility and local connectivity challenges” in its downtown district, the area near Broadway and Hampden Avenue. The street network follows a grid pattern, but deviations along Englewood Parkway near the Englewood city hall and a large interchange at Broadway and U.S. Highway 285 make east-west connectivity challenging for people walking and cycling, according to the Englewood Downtown Plan. That’s a recent framework that aims to economically boost Englewood’s CityCenter shopping development, its traditional
SEE TRAINS, P8
SEE PLAN, P6
Lionel trains were once the must-have toy for any American kid, said Ken Cook, who built a massive model train layout in his PHOTOS BY DAVID GILBERT basement.
Love by the model trainload Retired attorney learned the depths of a parent’s love with model railroading BY DAVID GILBERT DGILBERT@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Ken Cook says he hopes his model train layout fills children with the same magic it brings to him.
“Do you believe in magic?” With the wave of a magic wand and an “abracadabra,” Ken Cook walked through the secret entrance — one he asked us not to divulge — to his model train room. In the basement of the tidy Columbine Valley home, against
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 11
TAKE A TOUR
Options abound for exploring cool places in the metro area P14