On Saturday, August 19, Dwight Maxey, Bryan Tong and Paul Brown spent the day mowing, trimming and pulling weeds. The rain we received in the late spring and early summer did us no favors and sprouted a near bumper crop on the Museum property. While fighting a few equipment problems, we were able to clear up a couple of areas with thick growth near our tracks. This work took the entire day to do.

I have included a few pictures to give you an idea of the scope of the issue.

– Paul

On Saturday, August 12, Dwight Maxey, Ron Roach, John McDowell, Colin Mellin, Tyler Seeley, Reid Adams, Chris Jagodzinski, and Paul Brown all worked hard to give our guests some nice train rides down by the Depot. Between riding Engine 102, one of our cabooses, or the little speeder car, we gave 114 people a ride and a smile! And we did this while getting on-and-off rain showers for about two thirds of our event time. Quite a few people really enjoyed getting to experience a ride on one of our speeders, something we haven’t offered in a few years. We might just have to do it again soon.

Despite being very busy giving people rides, I was able to take a few photos to share. I have included them here.

Remember, we have Museum work days nearly every Saturday, so think about coming out to help. We have plenty of projects that need attention.

– Paul

Enjoy a train ride with a twist! In addition to train rides on our usual “big train”, with our red, white, and blue “Patriot” engine, the Pueblo Railway Museum will also offer rides on our little speeder cars! This event is Saturday, August 12, from 9AM to 1PM behind the Pueblo Union Depot. Train ride tickets are $15 for a ride in the engine, $10 for a ride in one of our three cabooses, or $10 for a ride on our speeder car. Children under 3 ride 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 where the trains depart. Each train ride is approximately 20 minutes, so there will be multiple opportunities during the four-hour event to ride the trains.

Steel City Café will be catering this event, providing tasty food choices for our visitors. The food cost is extra and is not included in the train ticket price.

There is no admission fee to attend the event itself. Charges are only for the train rides, or for purchases from Steel City Café.”

On Saturday, August 5, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Bryan Tong, Kendall Crouch, and Paul Brown got busy on several projects to get things ready for next week’s event. First, we had to get Engine 104 started, so we could use it to move Engine 103 and the Santa Fe caboose back, to make room to pull out a couple of our speeders. Next, we had to get the fuel system put back together on the Santa Fe speeder, and then juggle the all of the speeders around to get better access. The big orange Gang Car needed some attention too, so it can make some runs next week. We even had time to pick up some trash from our shop yard in between all the other tasks. There was enough trash to pretty much fill up a 30 yard open top container!

I have included a few pictures of today’s action so you can see what was done.

Remember next Saturday is our event, Train Rides at the Depot. Clear your calendar and come on down!

– Paul

Photos by Paul Brown and Kendall Crouch

On Saturday, July 29th, the Museum had volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Bryan Tong, David Hunter and Paul Brown replacing a couple more ties in our main running track in the morning. During a previous inspection, this spot was marked for work, and it’s a good thing we did it, as the ties we pulled out were basically piles of sawdust! And, even though the ties we put in were used, the replacements were solid wood, and will help support the rails as we give visitors rides on the trains.

After a quick lunch break, Bryan went on weed patrol, mowing and pulling weeds along some of our tracks while Dwight, Colin, and Paul did some more work to our track speeders, to prepare them for possible use at a future event. We finished working a bit early, because the heat and humidity were rising as the day went on.

I have included pictures of the morning’s work on the track, because this is one of our most important chores, and we remember to take pictures!!

– Paul

On Saturday, July 22, Dwight Maxey and Paul Brown braved a warm and humid day to keep some projects advancing at the Museum. Despite the small crew size, we were able to get a number of things done. First thing in the morning, we headed out to identify ties we will be replacing, since we didn’t have enough volunteers to actually replace ties today. While marking the ties, we were able to pull a good number of weeds, and watch a few trains roll by on both the BNSF and UP! Before heading to lunch, we emptied all the trash cans in the platform area and with all the rain soaking the accumulated trash it made for an aromatic experience!!

We took a long lunch break to cool down before we started to investigate our Gang Car and what it would take to get it back in operation. After sitting for something like 4 years, we had to drain the fuel and do some minor repairs before starting the engine. The engine in this car is very old and has babbit rod bearings in the engine, which may need some work as there is a slight knock while running. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking around the shop for some additional project ideas.

At the very end of our work, we had a group of visitors swing by the shop. They were with the Inter-mountain Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. It’s always nice to have visitors who have as much interest in trains as we do! It’s too bad we couldn’t recruit them to volunteer with us!

– Paul

On Saturday, July 15, Dwight Maxey, Kendall Crouch, Bryan Tong, Colin Mellin and Paul Brown came out and jumped right into the work. The first item of work was reinstalling the repaired rear tire on our Case tractor. This tractor is our main weed mower and we have agood crop of those this year! Next, we fired up the MOW (Maintenance Of Way) Truck and grabbed a couple of ties to head out and replace one in our main running track. We also reset some rail braces in the same area. You can see in one of the photos the reason you need to come out to work at the Museum, as you never know what will roll by on the mainline right next door!

After a lunch break, we got busy mowing, pulling and cleaning up some of the weed growth around the shop yard. With all of the rain this year, and even after spraying to control them, the weeds are just about taking over! No pictures of this mundane but very important work are included.

Please mark your calendars for our next Train Ride event coming in a few weeks on Saturday August 12. It will just be a train ride by the Depot to highlight our trains.

– Paul

On Saturday, July 8, Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Bryan Tong, Kendall Crouch and Paul Brown accomplished quite a lot of work despite the very humid conditions. We started out by removing the 4th of July decorations from the cabooses and storing them away. Then we gathered some tools and supplies, and headed out to replace two cross-ties in our main running track. We found one old tie completely disintegrated, and the second only about half there, so it’s a good thing we did the work today. After setting the spikes and cleaning up, we headed to the shop for a well deserved lunch break.

After lunch, we removed one of the drive tires off of the Case Tractor so it can be repaired, and then we decided to work on placing sticks of rail up next to the base of our perimeter fence. This is heavy rail and should help protect the base of the fence. After breaking a pretty good sweat, the crew decided it was time to tie up. The humidity was just getting to be a bit much.

Please check out the photos to see the two big activities from today.

– Paul

The museum hosted a successful 4th of July train ride event, with a total of around 150 happy folks taking a ride on the train, and enjoying the festivities around the 2912 steam engine. Volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Ron Roach, John McDowell, Reid Adams, Tony and Roberta Gherna, Bryan Tong and Paul Brown made sure the trains ran, and visitors had a good time. Our friends with Steel City Cafe made sure that good food was available for all.

Here are a few pictures of today’s activities.

– Paul

On Saturday, July 1, Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Reid Adams, Bryan Tong, Franklin & Roberta Gherna and Paul Brown reported to the Museum shop area to do some clean up work on our cabooses, and to remove some weed growth from around the tracks that has started to grow out of control thanks to all the recent rains. The cabooses all needed a good wipe down to get rid of dust and dirt inside, and the windows all needed washed. You can now view our fine right of way scenery without the slight haze that had accumulated on the glass. The group also did a bit of decorating for the upcoming 4th of July event on Tuesday.

Part of the group was working to get equipment running so we could attack the weed growth. A lot of our equipment doesn’t get any TLC through the week so when we show up on Saturdays we may or may not have working equipment. Volunteer Bryan Tong ran back to his home to get some equipment that we could use to at least make a dent. Then after a lunch break, the crew was able to get the Case Tractor running which allowed for a faster mowing job. There was also plenty of hand weed pulling! Always fun work at the Pueblo Railway Museum.

I am including some pictures of the caboose cleaning and decorating so you can see the work that was done.

– Paul