The Grand Canyon Railway, which starts in the Route 66 town of Williams, Ariz., and takes tourists to the canyon’s South Rim, has been sold to a Colorado firm that runs concessions in the canyon, reports the Phoenix Business Journal.

Xanterra Parks and Resorts hopes to formally close the deal by next month. Max and Thelma Biegert own the historic railway, which they revived in 1988 after a 20-year hiatus. It remains a popular way for families to go to the Grand Canyon.

Dave “Willy” Willman, who alerted me to this story, said on the Route 66 forum that he has a friend who works for Xanterra and that he doesn’t anticipate any major changes with the railway once the sale is completed.

The New Mexico Tourism Department has given out $473,000 in grants through the Federal Highway Administration’s Scenic Byways program for the fiscal year. Here are the grants that affect Route 66, according to Travel Daily News:

• Historic Route 66 Bike and Pedestrian Path Construction in Gallup ($50,000): This joint-use path along the Route 66 Scenic Byway will be Phase One of a larger project. It begins at Toltec Avenue near exit 26 of Interstate 40 and continues west along Route 66 for approximately four miles, terminating near the historic El Rancho Hotel.
• Acoma Sky City Turnouts, Interpretive and Directional Signage ($54,900): The project is located along the two routes (I-40 Exit 102 and I-40 Exit 108), used to access Acoma Sky City from Route 66. Specific turnout locations are Route 66 and Exit 102, the Sky City Scenic Overlook and Enchanted Mesa.

Occasionally, I run into someone who says he was “born on Route 66.” This isn’t meant to be literal; it means the house or hospital where he first breathed life was adjacent to the Mother Road.

But now, there’s now one child in New Mexico who can truly make that “born on 66″ claim.

KOB-TV in Albuquerque reports that a pregnant woman in Edgewood, a small Route 66 town east of the Duke City, went into labor. A sister-in-law was driving her to an Albuquerque hospital when the contractions started to get serious in Tijeras Canyon.

A 911 operator on the driver’s cell phone instructed her to pull off the road. She did — at Tramway and Central Avenue, aka Route 66. A few minutes later, paramedics showed up to help deliver the baby right there in the car.

It turned out well. The mother and baby reportedly are resting and healthy at an Albuquerque hospital. And they’re both going to have one cool story to tell.

One of the best (and funniest) Web sites is Roadside America. Inspired and created by the same people who wrote the classic 1992 book of the same name, it’s a huge Web site about kitschy roadside attractions and is updated regularly.

Roadside America filed recent field reports about two stops on Route 66.  One is about Stewart’s Petrified Wood in Holbrook, Ariz., and the other is Fantastic Caverns in Springfield, Mo. They’re always worth a read.

Two Bureau of Land Management-California employees were honored at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington last week for public land photography, according to the bureau’s newsletter.

One of them was Steve Razo (left in above photo), whose photo of Roy’s in Amboy was one of the recognized images.

Razo’s photo is of a well-preserved section of Route 66 that still provides travelers the experience of the “Mother Road” as it was in the 20’s and 30’s. Roy’s Café was one of the quintessential Route 66 roadside stops in the Mojave Desert.

For a slideshow of the images, go here.