On Saturday, January 25, volunteers Dwight Maxey, John McDowell, Chris Pollard, Ben Pollard, Gary Carter, Dannis Hudson, Henry Falko, Nick Walker and Paul Brown braved very cold temperatures – and more than the predicted “trace” of snow – to do the work required to return the truck back under our Haunted Railcar. Using the pneumatic jacks we have, of course requires compressed air, and as usual, our compressor was very cold, requiring a jump start, and some finessing to get started. Once the compressor warmed up, it was a simple matter to raise the jacks, and roll the truck under the car.

While you would think that rail cars having very large parts wouldn’t need to be adjusted by fractions of an inch to be assembled, our job required just that! For some reason, the bolster was just a bit off center, and required some frustrating work to finally get lined up. And remember, it was very cold and frustration makes it even colder! Persistence paid off in the end though, and we were able to finish the reassembly work and put the tools away before running to the break room to thaw out!!

Many thanks to our volunteers today for sticking with it and completing the job.

I have included a few pictures here to hopefully give you an idea of the work done.

– Paul

Our 2025 train ride schedule has been posted on our Events Page. Train ride tickets are $15 for a ride in the engine, and $10 for a ride in one of the cabooses. Children under 3 ride the train free! Cash or check only, please. Train ride tickets can only be purchased during the events. Purchase your tickets at our Gift Shop, a converted caboose behind the Depot, near our passenger loading area. Trains depart every 20 minutes, so there will be multiple opportunities during each event to ride the train.

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

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, January 11, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Kendall Crouch, Chris Pollard, Bruce Davis, Reid Adams, Petar Sredojevic, Shirley Sredojevic and Paul Brown started the day by cleaning up the inside of the D Street Shop getting ready for some guests next weekend, and then headed over to the Heritage Center Museum to work on an inventory of display items that the Pueblo Railway Foundation has at that location.

The inventory work took a bit to get going as we decided what would be the most effective way to do the work, but once that was figured out, the actual work took less time than expected. The PRF has had a very nice display at the Heritage Center and our crew is looking forward to slightly expanding the display, and fine tuning some of the signal lights displayed there.

If you are interested in viewing our display at the Heritage Center Museum, note that they are closed until February 5 as they work through their inventory process.

I have attached some pictures to show the work done today.

– Paul

Photos by Paul Brown and Chris Pollard

On Saturday, January 4, 2025, enthusiastic volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Kendall Crouch, Chris Pollard, Ben Pollard, Justin Cesar, Bryan Tong, Reid Adams, Chris Traficante, Dannis Hudson, Nick Walker, John McDowell, Gary Carter and Paul Brown overcame very cold temperatures and uncooperative equipment to complete a large variety of tasks. The day started by moving three “speeders” out of the shop, and then switching some railcars around on our shop track to get one of our passenger cars in place to be jacked up. Once the passenger car was in place, it was then a study of excellent team work to jack the car up with a pair of 50 ton jacks to remove one of the trucks. The removed truck was placed inside the shop for an upcoming seminar in a couple of weeks.

Then, when we were done with all that work, and it was thought everyone was tired of the cold, the volunteers decided to jump into another project, and removed the dirt crossings across the shop lead tracks! It was thought that the heavy labor of this work would warm everyone after being cold all day. I think it worked! Overall a very good day to start the New Year 2025!

I am including some pictures of today’s work.

– Paul

On Saturday, December 28, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Bruce Davis, Kendall Crouch, Chris Pollard, Ben Pollard, Polly Cotton and Paul Brown spent the morning removing Christmas decorations and cleaning up our cabooses and Engine 104. We neatly stored the decorations in storage containers, and put them away for safe keeping until next year’s festivities. That work took us up to lunch and taking about an hour break.

After lunch, we did some work to get things ready for a project coming in January, found a broken window frame in the Mo-Pac Caboose, we had a bit of time to do some discovery on our GE 25 Ton locomotive, and did some other work to the doors on the Rohr high speed test vehicle. We even had time to host a visitor to the Museum who liked the tour so much, they gave us a nice donation!

As we head into 2025, watch here for more exciting work to be done at the Museum where the fun never ends! I have included a few pictures of today’s activities.

– Paul

On Tuesday, December 24, the Museum had a very good Christmas Train event with about 150 visitors coming out to enjoy what has become a tradition in Pueblo, ride the Pueblo Express Christmas Train every Christmas Eve! Thanks to volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Ben Pollard, Bryan Tong, Polly Cotton, Dannis Hudson, Abel Erber, Nick Walker, Paul Brown, Ron Roach, Dave Dandurand, John McDowell, Jackie Anzlovar, Diana Garrison, Michael Brown, Teia Brown and Demetrius Brown for working very hard last night to spread a little Christmas cheer down on the railroad!

Many of the folks riding our big train also came in to marvel at our tiny trains shown in the photo below. Many museum volunteers spent many hours over many years building this display, which is only open during our Christmas train events.

Our Events Page will be updated soon with our tentative 2025 train schedule. Follow our blog to receive the latest updates. Thanks, Merry Christmas, and we look forward to seeing you next year!

– Paul

On Saturday, December 21, we survived our 3rd Christmas event last night, with a very good turn out of guests enjoying a ride on our train set. We had over 300 people enjoy some Christmas cheer, and maybe visit with Santa, who was able to drop in for a bit since his elves were all behaving and getting ready for the big night, December 24th! Volunteers Ron Roach, John McDowell, Jackie Anzlovar, Diana Garrison, Michael Brown, Teia Brown, Demetrius Brown, Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Kendall Crouch, Bryan Tong, Chris Pollard, Ben Pollard, Bruce Davis, Polly Cotton, Dannis Hudson, Henry Falco, Nick Walker, Justin Cesar, and Paul Brown worked hard to assure that our guests all had a good time. The nice weather conditions probably helped a bit also.

I have included some photos of the event activities provided by Chris Pollard and me. We will have the final Christmas event on Tuesday 12/24, Christmas Eve, which attracts a number of repeat customers who have made it a tradition to ride the Pueblo Railway Museum “Pueblo Express” each Christmas with their families. Hope to see you there!

– Paul

Photos by Paul Brown and Chris Pollard

On Friday December 13 and Saturday December 14, the Museum hosted the first couple of Pueblo Express Christmas train ride events. Friday’s event was a bit slow (the day and date couldn’t have anything to do with that!) but Saturday’s event really picked up with guests coming in fast and furious! Everyone sure looked like they enjoyed the train rides and the atmosphere of the displays! The Museum members and volunteers did a great job getting things ready and hosting the event. I dare say we might be getting good at what we do!

Here is a long list of those that helped pull the event together for our guests, old friends and new! The volunteers who worked one or both evenings are Ron Roach, John McDowell, Diana Garrison, Michael Brown, Teia Brown, Demetrius Brown, Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Kendall Crouch, Reid Adams, Bryan Tong, Dannis Hudson, Henry Falko, Polly Cotton, Chris Pollard, Chris Traficante, Chris Fox and Paul Brown.

The photos included with today’s report were all taken by Chris Traficante. He did a great job capturing the spirit of the event!

Our Pueblo Express trains run on two more dates, Saturday December 21, and our popular and traditional Christmas Eve run on Tuesday December 24, 4-8pm both dates. Hope to see you there!

– Paul

The Pueblo Railway Museum is celebrating the holidays with our Pueblo Express Christmas trains on the following dates:

• Friday, December 13
• Saturday, December 14
• Saturday, December 21
• Tuesday, December 24

Train rides will be available from 4PM to 8PM on each of the above dates behind the Pueblo Union Depot. Train ride tickets are $15 for a ride in the engine, and $10 for a ride in one of the cabooses. Children under 3 ride the train free! Cash or check only, please. Train ride tickets can only be purchased during the events. Purchase your tickets at our Gift Shop, a converted caboose behind the Depot, near our passenger loading area. Trains depart every 20 minutes, so there will be multiple opportunities during the event to ride the train.

Our Christmas-themed model trains will once again be open for viewing, free of charge. Enjoy cocoa and cookies in our Diner Car, also free of charge. There is no admission fee to attend the event itself. The charge is only for the train ride.

Our train ride event schedule for 2025 will be posted soon 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, December 7, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Bruce Davis, Chris Pollard, Ben Pollard, Polly Cotton, Dannis Hudson, Reid Adams and Paul Brown worked hard to get the train set lighted and decorated for the upcoming Christmas events. Bruce worked hard to clean up the inside of the C&W Caboose so it can be used at the events. Polly put her special touch on decorations in all the cabooses. Everyone jumped in to get interior lighting installed.

After a quick lunch break, we switched some equipment around to get the cabooses in order, and then tested the generator and the lighting to make sure everything worked. The sun was setting as we tied up work.

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

Make sure to mark your calendars for 12/13, 12/14, 12/21 and 12/24 and think about volunteering some time to help at the events which start at 4:00pm and run till 8:00pm.

– Paul

Photos by Paul Brown and Chris Pollard