On Saturday, August 9, the Pueblo Railway Museum hosted it’s first Railfan Event. This was an event catering to a group of hobbyists who specifically like to photograph trains in unique locations/situations. Volunteers Dwight, Colin, Reid, Kendall, Chris, Ben, Bryan, Dannis, Abel, Henry, Ron, Jackie, John, Petar, Shirley, Gary, and Paul pulled out all of the stops to give our Lucky 13 railfan guests a day to remember! All three of our GP7 engines were fired up, running two different trains which we were able to pose at different locations and with some BNSF or UP trains included in the pictures. We hope that we were able to let the railfans get the pictures they wanted, and experience rail equipment in an up close and personal way. We were also able to have an air horn demonstration with the sounding of several different models that we normally don’t get to hear.

With a hamburger lunch and plenty of cold refreshments available, we hope our visitors enjoyed the day. This event went well and we are already looking into doing another similar event in 2026.

I have included a few pictures taken today to give you an idea of what railfans do. If you don’t see the pictures, click here to go to our Blog Page.

– Paul

On Saturday, August 2, volunteers Dwight, Colin, Chris, Reid, Bryan, Dannis, Abel, David and Paul tackled a large list of projects to get things ready for our first Railfan Day next weekend. The crew worked on some track projects, cleaning out crossings, cleaning and lubricating track switches, power washing some equipment, mowing and clearing weeds from the site, starting and checking two of our GP7s and then setting them up for multiple unit operation, and attaching flag holders to Engine 103. We then had to test the GP7 operation and move some equipment around. This work kept everyone moving!

For all the work that did get done today, there were a few items on our list that we just ran out of time and couldn’t get completed. Hopefully nobody notices next week during the event. For information regarding our Railfan event on Saturday 8/9, click here.

If you don’t see the pictures below from today’s activity, go to our Blog Page.

– Paul

On Saturday, July 26, volunteers Dwight, Colin, Chris, Bryan and Paul picked up where we left off last week working on the stuck injector on Engine 103. Due to the persistent work last week, it didn’t take very long to get the injector to start breaking loose. Like the saying goes, don’t force it, get a bigger hammer, and that is what solved the issue. A little alcohol and a few smart taps with a couple-pound hammer got things working. Now don’t think we were just shade-tree mechanics doing this, we were following instructions in the 567 Engine repair manual! So now it was time to start this monster, and the new batteries rolled her right up. Of course everything has to checked after such a long down time, and things looked pretty good.

We took a lunch break to let the engine warm up, and after lunch we made sure the locomotive would move and operate correctly. Everything was fine after about another hour of exercise. Also, during the time spent working on the injector, Dwight was busy installing a new power supply for the in-cab radio. Some other small work was completed on the locomotive before we shut it down, and due to the heat – it reached 102 F – the crew called it a day and retreated to the air-conditioned break room!

Overall a good day as we restored Engine 103 to operation. The Museum once again has three operating 70+ year old GP7s!

If you don’t see the pictures that I was able to capture, go to our Blog Page.

– Paul

On Saturday, July 19, volunteers Dwight, Colin, Bryan, Dannis and Paul worked to finish the battery cable connections on Engine 103 that we didn’t complete last week. After rearranging a couple of the cables, we got that work done and made our first attempt to crank the engine. The crank with the cylinder cocks open went fine, but when we tried to fire it up, we found the fuel rack locked up. Well, time to scratch our heads and go eat lunch.

During lunch, we started reading through our 567 maintenance manual, and found that we might have stuck injectors. So after lunch, we head out to investigate further, and found that yes we do have two injectors that are stuck, which causes some other things to happen. In our manual, they mention that this is something that happens occasionally when a locomotive sits without running for a long time. So we disconnected the fuel rack linkage from the governor, and started working on the remedy mentioned in the maintenance manual. We did get one injector to free up and start working, but we could not get the second injector free yet. We will back next week! Also, Dannis did a good job cleaning up the cab of the locomotive, which after sitting unused for two years needed some work!

If you don’t see the photos below, go to our Blog Page.

– Paul

The Pueblo Railway Museum is cooking up something different for our August event! On Saturday, August 9, from 8am to 4pm, the Museum is having a special Railfan Day. Instead of our usual train rides, we will conduct special activities throughout the day, where folks can learn about our historic railroad artifacts, both indoor and outdoor. Our railfans that day can also ride our train, tour our unique Christmas-themed model train layout, and of course take lots of pictures!

Visitors to this event should arrive at our maintenance shop at 330 West D Street, about two blocks north of the Pueblo Union Depot. From the Pueblo Union Depot, take Victoria Avenue northeast to D Street, turn left, then two blocks northwest on the left. Click here for a map. Click here for Google Maps directions.

The cost for the event is $40 per person, regardless of age. Here’s what that includes:

• 8am-9am Tour of our Maintenance Shop
• 9am-11am Locomotive and caboose rides
• 11am-1pm Lunch next to our special “Photo Freight” train
• 1pm-3pm Tour of our railroad display inside the Heritage Museum (across from Union Depot)
• 3pm-4pm Slideshow and refreshments in the “Heritage Room” inside the Heritage Center building

Click here to pre-register for this event. If you pre-register, you can pay for the event in advance. Or you can pay by credit/debit card when you arrive.

Our mini train will also be on display, in cooperation with the Pueblo Downtown Association. Our gift shop will be open from 10am to 3pm for you to browse and purchase train-related merchandise. And as a special treat, our Christmas-themed Lionel model trains – normally open only during our Christmas events – will also be available for a free tour from 10am to 3pm.

Everyone at the Pueblo Railway Museum is very excited to offer this new experience for our railfans!

Our 2025 train ride 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, July 12, volunteers Dwight, Colin, Kendall, Chris, Dannis and Paul enjoyed a relatively cool day at the Museum and got busy installing the new batteries in Engine 103. This work required that we start Engine 104 to move the locomotives to a level spot to actually install the batteries. The crew got all eight batteries installed and made most of the cable connections, but did not make the final connection to start the locomotive. The actual start will wait for another week or two, when we can spend more time to check items on Engine 103.

The crew took a short lunch break and then cleaned up some parts from the battery install. We then did some work to our portable radios, checking batteries, installing new remote microphones, and making sure that they operated correctly. When the radios were taken care of, we did a few odds-and-ends jobs in the shop, organizing some electric cables and hanging a banner. It is always good to get multiple items done at the shop.

– Paul

On Friday, July 4, the Pueblo Railway Museum celebrated our Nation’s Birthday by hosting an event of train rides which attracted a good number of guests. Volunteers Ron, Jackie, John, Ben, Dwight, Colin, Bruce, Chris, Reid, Kendall, Nick, Doug, Bryan, Abel and Paul worked to get things ready, and stayed very busy through the event making sure our guests had a good time. There seemed to be a pretty steady flow of visitors through the day and it sure looked like everyone had a smile! The free ice cream and bottle of water with each ride sure made it better for all with the warm temperatures we had today.

The large crew worked well together, and everyone did their best to make sure we had a safe day and our guests enjoyed themselves. We also had a bunch of activity on the BNSF & UP lines right next to our running track. We always look forward to the 4th of July event, because we can showcase our locomotive, The Patriot in it’s bicentennial red, white & blue paint scheme. It sure looks good all cleaned up and having the bright sunshine reflect off of her!

– Paul

On Saturday, June 28, volunteers Dwight, Bruce, Chris, Kendall, Doug and Paul braved very warm and humid conditions to get our cabooses and Engine 102 further cleaned up for the upcoming 4th of July event next Friday. A vacuum was used and the window cleaner was sprayed, and in about an hour that work was done. The crew then headed over to the platform tracks near Union Depot to clean up some weeds that had blown in from the North. After some fast work to get this done, we headed back to the shop and were treated to a great hamburger lunch by Doug.

We spent the afternoon taking care of some small projects including checking the running condition of the Gang Car – we just can’t seem to take care of the little gremlins that have settled in on that machine!

– Paul

On Saturday, June 21, volunteers Dwight, Colin, Bruce, Abel, Chris, Reid and Paul braved high temps that broke into triple digits to bring out The Patriot for it’s annual bath, and to get it ready for the Summer season. After starting Engine 104 that was used to move The Patriot out into the sun and for other switching later in the day, we got busy washing, which took the remainder of the morning. It’s a good thing we had water spraying to help cool off while the sun was burning us up! With Engine 102 all cleaned up, it was time to break for lunch and head to the air conditioned break room.

After lunch, the crew split up to start moving equipment, and to get The Patriot started and checked over for use the remainder of the Summer. We used Engine 104 to switch out Engine 103 to another shop track for work coming in July. Our Halloween car was then parked back on the storage track. With the switching done, Engine 104 was parked, and The Patriot had a short test run to grab the cabooses and pull them back into the shop yard and ready for use at the next event.

Overall, the crew did great work in extreme heat to get lots of items completed while being safe. I have included a few pictures of today’s action.

– Paul

On Saturday, June 14, we had our annual Father’s Day Train Ride event – by far our most successful Father’s Day event ever – under a Pueblo-hot Spring day. The crowd started out slow, but ramped up to a continuous flow of visitors, with more than 130 taking the opportunity to ride our full size trains. Many families brought their Dads to enjoy our event. We had an overflow of locomotive cab rides, having to coordinate the large number of riders. A shout out to our Volunteers – Ron, Jackie, John, Michael, Nick V., Dwight, Bruce, Kendall, Nick W., and Colin – who all came out in the heat to assist our guests.

Our next event is coming soon! Be sure to visit us on Friday July 4, to celebrate America’s Birthday!