Aspen Railway Crossing

Jason and Bill Thornhill pitched Aspen Railway Crossing in season 7, episode 3, a train-themed tourist stop out on the prairie near Mossleigh, Alberta.

Their proposal put $450,000 on the table in exchange for 20 percent of the company. Run the arithmetic and the founders were valuing the whole venture at about $2.25 million.

The business itself is very much alive. When we looked in July 2026 the operation, now branded Aspen Crossing, was booking train excursions, campground stays and dining experiences through its own site.

The tell on this one is the valuation the founders were comfortable naming. Asking $450,000 for a fifth of the business puts the whole prairie railway at $2.25 million, which is a real operating number, not a napkin sketch, and it reads like a business that already had traffic through the gate.

Tourist railways are capital-heavy in a way most Den pitches are not: the rolling stock, the track and the land are the balance sheet, so a $450,000 raise reads as expansion money for a going concern rather than a bet on an idea. More than a decade on, the attraction runs under the Aspen Crossing name, selling train excursions, campground stays and dining experiences through its own booking system. Very few pitches from that era are still taking reservations.