News & Events REFRESH THIS PAGE IN YOUR BROWSER

 Upcoming Train Ride Events

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2 (10-4:30 p.m.) | Depot Daze

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17 & 24 (4-7 p.m.) | and SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11 and 18 (2-7p.m.) | Pueblo Express Enjoy a train ride then enjoy hot chocolate and cookies. Travel to the next car with Santa giving out a bag of candy with a bell.

Caboose rides: $3 each; Locomotive Rides: $10 each | Please call RON 719-251-5024

PICNICS AND TRAIN RIDES

Would you like to have a 'special' location for your family reunion, class reunion or just a fun day, how about a picnic and train ride at the Pueblo Railway Museum? You could bring your grill and cook hamburgers, etc.and after lunch you can have a train ride in one of our 'vintage' cabooses or in the cab of a GP-7 locomotive. For any information call Ron at 719-251-5024.

 


2010 SCHEDULE OF PUBLIC EVENTS INCLUDING TRAIN RIDES:
Rides will feature a GP-7 locomotive and authentic cabooses traveling from the museum
on B Street just west of the Depot to the Black Hills Power Plant near the Riverwalk and return.  
               
Proceeds from train rides help us pay the cost of maintaining the museum and its equipment. 
Currently we do not charge admission to the outdoor museum.
For further information on scheduled and unscheduled events please call:
Ron at 719-251-5024 or Dee at 719-250-7576
 
 
HISTORIC LOCOMOTIVE "RECREATED"
  
 PRF PHOTO

 GP-7  #102  "The Patriot"

The long awaited project to recreate the artwork on a GP-7 locomotive of the Colorado & Wyoming Railway done in 1975 to celebrate the bicentennial of the founding of our nation is completed. The locomotive is named "The Patriot" as was the original.  The Colorado & Wyoming was the "company railroad" of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company
(CF&I) and hauled both coal and iron ore to its mills.
 
There were a number of bicententennial painted locomotives - the Patriot was probably the most original and beautiful of them all.  The engine originally painted in this scheme was C&W #101 which was renumbered #200 in honor of the 200 years.  At the time of the original painting, the engine had a high front hood (the short hood in front of cab) which is how all GP-7's were originally delivered.  The GP-7 was the first of a long line of successful road switchers.  When the original 4 GP-7's purchased by the C&W in 1951 were taken out of mine service and transferred to yard duty at the CF&I steel mill, the restroom and steam generator were removed and the front hood lowered for better visibility.  After the bicentennial, the #200 was repainted in the standard C&W red and white and eventually was sold to a shortline in Sidney, Nebraska.  It is now believed to be out of service.  We repainted our GP-7 #102 originally belonging to the C&W in the Patriot scheme which includes 50 stars on each side to represent the states of the union.  C&W GP-7's
#103 and #104, in the standard red and white C&W livery are also in our collection.  We sincerely appreciate the fine work done on the painting by the C&W Shops and by Jill Moring and Cork Hayden, Life Members who are active, talented museum volunteers.

BIG STEAM COMES TO PUEBLO !

 
Union Pacific Northern #844 pulled the first Colorado State Fair Express of vintage passenger equipment from Denver Union Station to Pueblo Union Station on Sat. August 25th.  The 3985 Challenger was originally scheduled as motive power for this trip, but has been undergoing repairs and was not be finished in time to make the trip.  Included in the consist was the "heritage" locomotive painted for the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad.  New locomotives were recently painted and lettered to reflect the image of the original lines which have come together by merger to form the present enormous Union Pacific.  There were tours of the Depot and surrounding area until riders were bused to the Fair.  The train was to return to Denver late in the same afternoon.

It is hoped that this trip will become a regular event such as the annual steam special from Denver to Cheyenne Frontier Days.  
  SCHOOL AND GROUP TOURS
Tours of the museum from a number of schools throughout the area are increasingly popular.  Other organizations have also been scheduling tour groups.  With sufficient advance notice, a tour can be scheduled to include a train ride. 
There is a $150.00 fee to cover the cost of train operation.
 
Tours can be scheduled by calling Ron at 719-251-5024

STEAM VETERAN PUBLISHED -
Hugo Lackmann, our steam historian and expert advisor and honorary life member had an article published on his experiences as an engineer on Missouri Pacific "ten wheeler" steam locomotives.  The article entitled "The Ten Wheeler
That Could" appeared in the Summer 2007 issue of Classic Trains by Kalmbach Publishing Co. 
Hugo for years worked on steam with a total of 56 years in engine service until his retirement from railroading.  After retirement, he has run trains and repaired locomotives at Steamtown in Pennsylvania and the Georgetown Loop in Colorado.  Hugo has provided much help in identifying parts, planning for the restoration and finding data on our ATSF Northern #2912 and its various components.  He is also sharing his memories of the "golden years" of railroading.
  
MUSUEM EXPANSION -  
We have a project to install connecting tracks from our rail yard museum behind the depot to our Restoraton Center
at 330 "D" Street and also to the storage/loading tracks behind the Heritage Center freight house where special exhibits of full-sized equipment can be displayed.
 
Our members continue to volunteer in the upgrade the restoration building so that it can soon be used to store and display high value assets and even provide a training facility for various skills.  Just organizing, cleaning and maintaining the grounds of the facility has been an ongoing challenge being well met by our enthusiastic members.
 
With all of our ongoing and proposed activities we are really in need of a new members.  Even if you cannot volunteer due to distance, disability or personal reasons, if you would like to build our museum, we urge you to contact us about becoming a Member.  Members support the organization financially, gain a feeling of really belonging to the organization, are kept up-to-date through the newsletter, can attend regular monthly meetings, volunteer for permanent positions and can vote in the election of Board Members. Having certain skills is helpful, but we also need people to act as guides, do general cleanup and assist with large public events.  Please contact Ron at 719-251-5024 or Dee at 719-250-7576 if you are interested.
 
RESTORATION OF C&S CABOOSE -  
Restoration work on the 100 year old wood Colorado & Southern RR caboose # 10538 began in the summer of 2006 and consisted of replacing the siding, roof and repainting.  The restoration work was partly funded by a grant received from the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS).  The grant was matched by generous donations of volunteer labor, money and materials. The cupola has been stabilized for now, but our workers found that more extensive work was needed.  Funding has now been obtained from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation towards additional work on the cupola which was completed this summer.  We are greatly indebted to the NRHS and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation for helping us preserve this valuable asset from our historical collection.  Also, thank you to the volunteers who have toiled on this project. 

The interior of the C&S Caboose is already pristine and original with only the addition of 12 volt electric lighting following World War II.  The way car utilized kerosene lanterns for marker lamps and a coal burning stove throughout its service life, most of which was behind steam power.  The C&S was one of the last railroads to totally dieselize its motive power and operated very old equipment alongside state of the art equipment. 
 
The Colorado & Southern is very significant to Colorado history.  Although it was a subsidiary of the Burlington since 1908, the C&S was Colorado based and managed.  The railroad was formed by various mergers and consolidations of several historic Colorado roads such as the Denver, South Park & Pacific, the Colorado Central (famous for the "Georgetown Loop") and the Denver & New Orleans.  The Denver & New Orleans standard gauge line never ran further than Pueblo.  It was later abandoned and the C&S negotiated trackage rights south through Pueblo on the D&RGW and Sante Fe "joint line".  For years the C&S by itself was the only Class I railroad based in Colorado.  The C&S and its Texas sister company, Denver & Fort Worth were finally absorbed into the Burlington Northern when it was created by mergers in 1971.
 
 

PUEBLO RAILWAY FOUNDATION
For Information/Tours:  719-251-5024
©Copyright 2007 Pueblo Railway Museum