Paul’s Blog – October 10, 2026

On Saturday, October 10, volunteers Dwight, Bruce, Colin, Jerod, Ben, Jasper and Paul started the day working to receive a load of railroad ties that the Museum recently purchased. These are good relay ties that we will be using to construct some new track coming into the Museum shop grounds. After the ties were unloaded, work shifted to cleaning a caboose stove that will be going into the C&W Caboose soon. The crew also did a cleaning job on the Trackmobile, in preparation to remove a hydraulic cylinder from the machine that will need to be rebuilt.

This work was interrupted by a lunch break, after which we kept working on the Trackmobile, and decided to clean the Bobcat tractor also. The Bobcat really needed to be cleaned after being used hard all summer! To end the day, the crew repaired a ladder that accesses our Semaphore Signal. All in all, a very productive day getting a lot of little work done that always catches up to us when we are busy with events and big projects!

I have included a few pictures taken of today’s work.

– Paul

Photos by Paul and Bruce

A successful Oktoberfest train ride event!

On Saturday, October 3, volunteers Dwight, Colin, Bruce, Jerod, Kendall, Reid, Nick, Dannis, Jasper, Reilly, Ron, Dianna, John, Michael and Paul put together some train rides to attract folks attending the Oktoberfest at Union Depot, and anyone else who felt like a train ride would fit into their afternoon entertainment. Their was a steady stream of visitors taking rides, and quite a number of them wanted to ride in the locomotive. We even had some Oktoberfest revelers join us for a ride! At the end of the event we even had a tiny little Porsche sports car face off with Engine 104!! Jasper was able to capture a photo of that.

Fall is in the air, and we will have plenty of events in the next few months. Watch for announcements and plan to join us for the Halloween Train Rides which will be on Halloween this year!

I have included a few photos from the days activities.

– Paul

Come visit the Pueblo Union Depot on Saturday, October 3 for Oktoberfest, and take a train ride!

Paul’s Blog – September 19, 2026

On Saturday, September 19, volunteers Dwight, Colin, Bruce, Jerod, Dannis, Nick and Paul negotiated all the road blocks set up for the Chile Fest, and got to the Museum to get the work done! Today, it was time to switch some equipment around to put cars used during the summer away, and dig out the cars needed for Halloween and the fall events. After getting Engine 103 fired up and ready, the crew made their plans for how to get the work done in the best way. The crane and its flat were set aside, and then the Haunted Railcar was switched out. A couple other cars were placed back on a dead end track for long-term storage.

After a lunch break, the crew finished switching the stored cars, and then assembled our caboose train to be ready for the October events. This was also a great training session for some of the crew, as we don’t often get a chance to reshuffle a number of cars like this. It allows the crew to practice using hand signals and to improve the radio communications too.

I have included a few pictures I was able to take to give you an idea of the action.

– Paul

Paul’s Blog – September 12, 2026

On Saturday, September 12, volunteers Ron, Dianna, John, Michael, Dwight, Colin, Kendall, Reid, Ben, Dannis, Nick, Reilly, Jerod and Paul hosted the event in conjunction with the American Discovery 250 Relay, that provided another day for people to discover and enjoy the fun of riding a train. After getting things ready to go for the afternoon, we had a slow, steady, but light turnout for this event. With the cooler temperatures, it made for a nice day and there were a few genuine train fans who rode, and a few people were from out of state!

This event featured our red, white and blue locomotive, The Patriot, which will be it’s last outing for 2026. If you missed seeing it this year, you will have to make plans to watch for its appearance sometime in 2027! Overall we had a good day at the Museum, and it is always great to share our love of railroad history with others!

I have included a few pictures from today’s activity. Watch for announcements of our upcoming events through the fall.

– Paul

Join us for train rides on Saturday September 12, and welcome the American Discovery Trail relay to Pueblo!

Paul’s Blog – September 5, 2026

On Saturday, September 5, volunteers Dwight, Bruce, Jerod, Ben, Nick and Paul took the opportunity to celebrate Labor Day weekend by doing some real labor. And replacing ties the old manual way, in hot, humid conditions is real labor! The crew got started a bit earlier to beat a little of the heat, and moved out to our main running track to replace 4 ties, all before lunch. The crew also did a little weed clean-up along the tracks before the break.

After a long lunch to cool down, the crew did some quick work to re-secure a switch stand to the ties, and then clean up the tools from the day’s work before heading out.

I have included a few photos taken during the morning work replacing the ties. There is sweat dripping from under those hard hats!!

– Paul

Paul’s Blog – August 29, 2026

On Saturday, August 29, volunteers Dwight, Bruce, Ben, Jerod, Dannis, Jasper and Paul jumped in to do some work on our main running track. First we did some exploratory work to find if one end of our crossing will have enough room for a gauge rod. This will help to maintain this area, since ties are almost impossible to change out in this area. We also cleaned out several of our switches that had debris collect in the moving parts from recent rain and wind. To finish out the morning, we inspected a stretch of track that runs over towards the power plant for some future maintenance work.

After a long lunch to cool down, we worked to repair the coupler knuckle pin puller on Engine 103. Sometime in the recent past, we did some damage to the front coupler pin puller and found that we needed to change it out. Luckily, we found a spare part on our 44 Ton GE locomotive that allowed to complete the repair without needing to wait to buy a part and get it shipped in.

Another fun day doing the work that needs to get done at the Museum. I have included some photos of the work being done today.

– Paul

Pueblo Downtown Express train at the State Fair Parade on August 29!

The Pueblo Downtown Express “mini train” will be in the State Fair Parade on Saturday, August 29. The train is operated by the Pueblo Railway Museum in cooperation with the Pueblo Downtown Association. The parade begins at 10am in Downtown Pueblo. The parade will begin at Union Avenue and Abriendo Avenue, proceed down Union to City Center Drive, east one block to Main Street, then north on Main to 9th Street.

The Pueblo Railway Museum’s tour guide Ron Roach will be driving the train, which was originally built in 1942 as an airport tug and luggage cars. Ron and Museum volunteer John McDowell brought this train back to life following its acquisition by the Pueblo Downtown Association in 2023. The Pueblo Railway Museum stores and operates the train. The train can often be found during our Museum’s train ride events as a “static” display for our train-riding guests to enjoy, but the Colorado State Fair parade is one of the few times when you can see this train in action! The train has a variety of different cars with different themes. For the Colorado State Fair, you’ll see what we call the “Circus Train”!

For more information about the Parade, and the Colorado State Fair in general, click here.

– Dave

A look back at the Museum’s third Railfan event

On Saturday, August 22, the Pueblo Railway Museum hosted it’s 3rd Rail-fan Day Event. This is an event that caters to folks who like to photograph trains and explore the mechanical and operational side of the railroad world. Volunteers Reid, Dannis, Abel, Nick, Bruce, Jasper and Paul worked to move equipment with Engines 103 & 104 and assemble a couple of trains to showcase our collection and give our visitors some different set-ups to photograph and watch as we moved around. We were also able to bring Engine 102, The Patriot, out for some photo opportunities, and we gave a demonstration of our Hi Rail Maintenance truck and how it operates on the rails.

This being an all day event, lunch was provided, which gave everyone a break and the chance to have a discussion about their hobby, trains. The afternoon was filled with additional equipment moves and rearrangement of the train consists before we started to put the trains away and barely beat a rain downpour right when we were shutting down the locomotives!

Thanks to all who made it out to the event! Included are a few pictures two of us managed to capture, to give an idea of what was available at the event.

Paul

Photos by Paul and Jasper