On Thursday, July 4th, volunteers Ron Roach, Jackie Anslovar, John McDowell, Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Reid Adams, Kendall Crouch, Bruce Davis, Chris Pollard, Chris Traficante, Dannis Hudson and Paul Brown broke out the Patriot, threw a few decorations on her, and brought her around to show off to what we believe was a record breaking turnout of guests for a Fourth of July event. We showed up to a waiting crowd at the loading area, and ran back and forth for the next four hours non-stop. Cabooses were stuffed full on each run, and at one point, eight people squeezed in for a cab ride. It is always funny when folks load into the locomotive cab and ask “where are the seats?” like they are loading onto a passenger car!!

The crew stayed on point and made sure the everyone had an enjoyable, safe ride. The weather stayed very comfortable also, which made things a bit more pleasant as we are old school…no air conditioning. It is great to see people enjoy riding a train and having an experience that is not available everywhere!

I have included a few pictures I was able to take while in between runs. Enjoy!

– Paul

Photos by Paul Brown and Petar Sredojevic

On Saturday, June 22, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Kendall Crouch, Bruce Davis, Chris Pollard, Chris Traficante, Dannis Hudson, Henry Falko and Paul Brown got busy and reinstalled the hydraulic piston for the crane on the Hi-Rail truck. After attaching the fluid lines, the group tested the operation and made some adjustments to keep the fluid lines out of harm’s way. Then we loaded up and took the truck out for a spin on our main running track. During this run, we found out that the rail brakes on the rig were not all working, so as so often happens at the PRF, another repair project was born! Bruce Davis also did some repair work to the window frames in the Mo-Pac caboose, and repaired some more interior trim wood in the Rio Grande caboose.

The crew took a good lunch break and then decided that we need to clean up the Hi-Rail truck by power washing some of the accumulated grime off the truck. We now have another useful tool in our arsenal to keep the Museum operating.

See the attached pictures for some of today’s action.

– Paul

On Saturday, June 15, volunteers Ron Roach, John McDowell, Jackie Anzlovar, Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Kendall Crouch, Bruce Davis, Chris Pollard, Christopher Traficante, Abel Erber, Henry Falko, Dannis Hudson and Paul Brown spent the day out in the hot sun entertaining visitors with some Fathers Day fun! Most of the fathers we saw had big smiles as their families were treating them to something a bit different with a ride on a real railroad caboose or in the locomotive.

The nice weather also brought out some interesting trains on the mainline next to our museum tracks. One of those trains included a group of 737 fuselages heading from Kansas to their final assembly in Washington. It is definitely a treat for our visitors to see another train roll by from the vantage point of our train set!

I have included a few pictures of today’s fun.

– Paul

Join the Pueblo Railway Museum for our special Father’s Day train ride event on Saturday, June 15, to kick off Colorado Railroad Heritage Week. Train rides will be available from 10AM to 2PM 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 only, please. 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.

There is no admission fee to attend the event itself. The charge is only for the train ride.

Free refreshments will be available!

The latest event schedule 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, June 8, a great volunteer crew consisting of Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Bruce Davis, Chris Pollard, Ben Pollard, Dannis Hudson and Paul Brown worked to upgrade the security of our rail gate today at the Museum. In typical Pueblo Railway Museum fashion, we scrounged up material and did a bit of backyard engineering to install some blockades between the rails and under one of the gates that secures our shop yard. This project rose to the top after a young man was viewed exiting the yard by sliding under the gate
a couple of Sundays back. Just trying to protect the few assets we have at the Museum.

After an extended lunch break to cool down from the hot conditions, the crew did some more clean up work around the shop yard. When we find an empty dumpster…we fill it up! Remember that next Saturday is our Father’s Day event. We will have the trains out running and will need all the help we can get.

Here are a few pictures of the work under the gate.

– Paul

We should do tie replacement more often at the Museum, because we had 10 volunteers come out today, Saturday, June 1, for their beginning-of-the-season workout! Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Kendall Crouch, Gary Carter, Bruce Davis, Chris Pollard, Christopher Traficante, Abel Erber, Reid Adams and Paul Brown got busy and replaced 6 cross ties in our main running track. This was enough people that we had one gang removing the old ties and another gang putting in the replacements. Just about everyone took their turn swinging the spike maul driving in those spikes. Maybe we can have this kind of turn out again when we do another round of tie replacement!!

The crew took a quick lunch break, and then did some clean up work around the shop yard. Nobody was complaining about this work, as the morning activity used up most of our energy!

Here a few pictures of the track action today.

– Paul

On Saturday, May 25, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Chris Pollard, Bruce Davis, Reid Adams and Paul Brown got a lot of little projects wrapped up so we can look at other work as we head into summer. First item was to check out the lift cage that new member Bruce built during the week. Our old lift cage was getting a little beat up and weathered, so a new one was in order. There is a picture included showing it in use. Thanks Bruce for making us safer while working up high!

The crew then reinstalled the tires on the Hi-Rail truck, so we are one step closer to getting it back into use. This just leaves us with getting the hydraulic piston installed back on the crane on the rear of the truck. Next up, we did some more wood repairs in the Rio Grande and Mo-Pac cabooses. The Rio Grande got a piece of trim replaced that had broken, and the Mo-Pac has some strips that hold window glass in the frame being replaced. We are trying to keep up with maintenance!

Then we got our jump batteries moved to be close enough to Engine 104 if needed. Then we used the cage to access the door top rollers on the door that keeps The Patriot safe, so the door is easier to operate. We did the same thing to the doors on a piece of our high speed equipment. After the “Hidden America” broadcast on the Discovery Channel on May 8 that featured our Rocket Cars, we have seen an increase in visitors wanting to see them.

We finished up the day by moving some stacked rail to a location to be closer to future work. Now that we have these items done, we are ready for some summer projects.

I have included some pictures here.

– Paul

On Saturday, May 18, the Museum ran our caboose train for no other reason than to just ride the train. We had great weather and a good group of guests who seemed to enjoy themselves. We even had free food to help stave off the munchies. Volunteers Ron Roach, Jackie Anzlovar, Ben Bevel, John McDowell, Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Kendall Crouch, Chris Pollard, Bruce Davis, Dannis Hudson, Abel Erber, Henry Falko, Reid Adams and Paul Brown made sure that everyone had a ticket to ride, a seat to ride on, and were able to enjoy a train ride, and maybe learn a bit about railroad history and our museum.

We had a pretty good turn out with nearly 100 guests taking a ride. We even had a few people express an interest in volunteering at the museum. We hope they find their way back in the future. Keep an eye on our Facebook page and the website for future train ride events. Next up will be June 15th for Fathers Day and then the 4th of July where The Patriot, Engine 102 really shows off!

I have included some pictures from today’s event, enjoy.

– Paul

The Pueblo Railway Museum will host its next public train ride event on Saturday, May 18. Train rides will be available from 10AM to 2PM 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 2 ride the train free! Cash or check only, please. 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.

There is no admission fee to attend the event itself. The charge is only for the train ride.