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

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 the Pueblo Railway Museum for our special American Discovery Trail Relay Train Rides on Saturday, September 12, and welcome the relay participants to Pueblo! Train rides will be available from Noon to 4PM behind the Pueblo Union Depot. Train ride tickets are $15 for a ride in the engine, and $10 for a ride in one of our three cabooses. Children under 3 ride the train free! Cash or check preferred, but credit cards accepted. Train ride tickets can only be purchased during the event. Purchase your tickets at our Gift Shop, a converted caboose behind the Depot, near the passenger boarding area. Trains depart every 20 minutes, so there will be multiple opportunities during the event to ride the train.

Bring your used train ride tickets to the Pueblo Heritage Museum, across the street from the Pueblo Union Depot, for half-price admission!

NOTE: There is still time to sign up to participate in the relay! If interested, contact Kim Arline, Chairperson of PACE (Pueblo Active Community Environments) at 719-671-6077.

Our mini-train will be on display, in cooperation with the Pueblo Downtown Association. There is no admission fee to attend the event itself. The charge is only for the train ride.

Our train ride event schedule for 2026 can be found on our Events Page. To receive updates about our upcoming events, follow our blog. Enter your email address on the bottom of this web page and click the “follow” button.

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

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

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

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

On Saturday, August 15, volunteers Dwight, Bruce, Reid, Abel, Jasper and Paul enjoyed some slightly cooler weather and really dug in to replace two ties and insert three extra ties in a stretch of our main running track to help hold the gauge on a slight curve. The ties that we have been replacing lately are around 80 years old and they are starting to show that age. The three ties that were added into the track are in an area where we have long switch ties that we don’t have replacements for, so we are helping them out with the extra ties to help keep the rail from moving when our trains pass over them.

This project took all day, with only a short lunch break, but it needed to be done. The crew did great work in some high humidity conditions.

Make sure you plan to attend the Rail Fan Day next Saturday 8/22, an all-day event where we will have two locomotives operating and some freight cars moving around that are normally stored away. It’s only $40 for an entire day of trains!

I have included a few photos of today’s work.

– Paul

On Saturday, August 8, volunteers Dwight, Colin, Bruce, Kendall, Ben, Ron, Dianne, Teia, Michael, John, Jerod, Dannis, Abel and Paul got things rolling to host our guests for some train rides before heading into the new school year. We had quite a few people coming out to ride despite the high temps, and they were having fun! Everything was going smoothly until around 12:30 when on one of our trips we suffered a minor derailment when Engine 102 dropped a couple of wheels off the track.

Now we had our work cut out for us at the hottest part of the day! So out comes the tools and the sweat and a little effort to get the engine back on the rails and the track fixed enough to be able to operate over it to get the train back to our shop yard. Now we get to look forward to more track repair work!

I have included a few pictures of the fun part of the day, and one by Bruce showing the 102 back up on the rails and the intrepid crew making some track repairs.

– Paul

Photos by Paul and Bruce

On Saturday, August 1, volunteers Dwight, Jarod, Ben, Dannis, Nick, Jasper and Paul worked in what may have been the hottest, humid conditions we have had all summer to replace four more ties on our main running track. After dealing with some minor equipment issues first thing, the gang headed out and jumped into the task. The ties that were removed were in very well-used condition and the new ties should keep our track stable for many years.

Lunch came a little late, but everyone was ready to cool off and relax a bit. After lunch, the crew cleaned up the equipment and got things stored back where they belong. There was some minor clean up work that got done, and the high rail equipment truck got a bit of attention before we tied up.

I have included a few photos of the morning tie replacement work.

– Paul