On Saturday, December 9, the Museum had a successful first event of this Christmas season with many volunteers helping. Volunteers Ron Roach, John McDowell, Anzlovar Jackie, Maureen King, Tea Brown, Demitris Brown, Michael Brown, Colin Mellin, Kendall Crouch, Bruce Davis, Justin Cesar, Polly Cotton, Dannis Hudson, Reid Adams and Paul Brown worked hard in the cold temps to greet and entertain well over 150 guests. Most of those guests arrived during the first 2 hours of the event so the train was rolling pretty steady! The Pueblo area received a good covering of snow the evening before, and we had one of the most snow covered events we’ve ever had. The Christmas spirit was running high at this event, as the visitors were all smiling and excited to check out the decorations and take a short train ride.

I have included a few pictures that I was able to capture while being on the move!

– Paul

The Pueblo Railway Museum is proud to have partnered with the Pueblo Downtown Association to operate their Pueblo Downtown Express Christmas train in this year’s Parade of Lights on November 25. Check out the photos below from our museum tour guide, Ron Roach, as Ron and museum volunteer John McDowell were working to get the train ready. To see a short video of the train in the parade, courtesy of our good friend and local businessman Gerry Montgomery, click here.

We hope to see you in December for our Pueblo Express Christmas train ride events, where you can ride our full-size train! See our Event Page for dates and times.

Follow our blog to get the latest updates on our events for Christmas, and for next year. Enter your email address on the bottom of this webpage, and click the “follow” button.

On Saturday, December 2, a group of volunteers once again braved less than ideal weather to get decorations done on our train set. Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Bruce Davis, Kendall Crouch, Dannis Hudson, Polly Cotton and Paul Brown were able to finish installing Christmas lights – provided by Reid Adams – on the locomotive and the rear of the Rio Grande caboose. The interiors of the cabooses also got a few more lights, and some decorations were added. We should be ready now for our event trains coming up on the next three weekends. Now, we keep our fingers crossed that our locomotive starts and we have nice conditions!

I have included a few photos to give you a view of the work done today. Hope to see you on our Christmas train rides!

– Paul

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

• Saturday, December 9
• Friday, December 15
• Saturday, December 16
• Sunday, 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 where the trains depart. Each train ride is approximately 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. There is no admission fee to attend the event itself. The charge is only for the train ride.

On Saturday, November 25, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Kendall Crouch, Bruce Davis and Paul Brown braved frigid temperatures and a bit of snowfall to continue installing Christmas lights on our trainset. The group was able to get the lights on the C&W caboose and one string on Engine 104. They also installed interior lighting in the Rio Grande caboose. The volunteers worked a shorter than normal day due to the cold temperature, with most of the day only being in the 20’s. We are one step closer to being ready for the Christmas train rides coming in a couple of weeks!

There are only three photos of the work today due to the camera battery dying in the cold!

– Paul

Don’t miss the Pueblo Parade of Lights on November 25, starting at 5:30 PM! The Pueblo Railway Museum is helping Santa ride in the parade on the Pueblo Downtown Express! For information on parking and the parade route, click here. Read the story below about how the Pueblo Downtown Association and the Pueblo Railway Museum are working together to bring this Christmas Train to the good citizens of Pueblo!

A few months ago, a gentleman named Mike came to visit us at the Pueblo Railway Museum’s D Street Shop, and asked if we knew the whereabouts of the so-called “Everett White” train. Mike Carlisle is with the Pueblo Downtown Association. I told Mike I knew where it was kept, and where Kathy White lived. Mike went to Kathy’s house east of Pueblo. The Association purchased the locomotive, the tender, and all the related train cars, and has named the train the “Pueblo Downtown Express”. An agreement has been made with the Pueblo Railway Foundation that we would store and operate the train and keep it running.

The locomotive is built on a 1942 airport tug and airport luggage cars. Our Museum volunteers have gone into this not being sure of what we were getting ourselves into! The locomotive and tender had sat for 12 years in a trailer without being moved or started. The last time any part of the train was out on display was at our Museum, for our “2912 days” in May of 2012.

When we went to get the locomotive and tender earlier this year, we found that Everett had taken mud and a paint brush and had put mud all over it for that Hillbilly Train display back in 2012. John washed the train twice with a power washer to get the mud off. We then found out that a lot of the paint had come off, so we got paint and painted the whole thing with black and silver. It looks great! The next big problem was to try to get that cranky engine running. That was a job and a half! We have had to change wiring, change oil, put in a new fuel pump, clean the fuel lines and the fuel tank, replace the back tires, and most of all learn to drive it! It was a three-month job, but we did it. Museum volunteer John McDowell and I have both worked very hard on this. After the repairs were done, it was time to roll it out for a test run. It ran like it should. It was then taken out behind the Union Depot for the Museum’s 4th of July train ride event, and then again in August, September, and Halloween with no problems. For Halloween, we took the Hillbilly Train and got it all made up as a haunted train that looked spooky!

Now it’s time for its next big project: Christmas. On Saturday, November 25, I will be driving this train in the Parade of Lights – the first time this train has been in the parade for twelve years. We’re working hard to get our train ready so that Santa and Mrs. Claus can ride it!

Ron Roach,
Pueblo Railway Museum Tour Guide

On Saturday, November 18, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Bruce Davis, Colin Mellin, Reid Adams, Dannis Hudson, Polly Cotton and Paul Brown gathered to work on Christmas lighting and decorations in preparation for our December events. Of course each work day at the Museum has to start with a little weed clean up. Dwight, Bruce and Paul spent about an hour picking up tumbleweeds that had blown in during the week. Colin and Reid joined in shortly after to start installing the Christmas lights that Reid had purchased. We are freshening up our caboose decorations this year with a different design and all LED lights to allow more lights to be installed.

After a quick lunch, Dannis and Polly joined the group and jumped in to help with the light install and interior decorations. We also planned to move the Haunted Railcar back to the shop yard, so Dwight and Paul got Engine 104 started and we did a bit of equipment switching. Bruce and Polly actually continued decorating while we were switching equipment. Of course they were doing the caboose interiors at that point! We tied up around 4:30, and that is just about when it starts to get dark these days.

We still have some more decorating to do, and we will continue that next weekend, so if you need to burn off some of the Thanksgiving dinner, consider joining us for the fun!

I have included some photos of today’s activities.

– Paul

Happy Veteran’s Day and thank you to all in this group who served our country!

On Saturday, November 11, the volunteers who worked today really covered a lot of ground on our projects. Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Kendall Crouch, Reid Adams, Gary Carter, Polly Cotton, Dannis Hudson and Paul Brown all just kept going to get work completed. Gary Carter swung by with his welder and repaired the hinges on the battery compartment doors on Engine 104. Kendall, Colin, Dannis and Paul tackled the work to upgrade how we can attach our decorations to our cabooses. They removed old wires used in the past, and designed and installed a more secure wire and attachment point to which we can improve the method of how the decorations attach to each car. Polly and Reid, with some help from Dannis, started work inside our cabooses, to redo and update the decorations for the upcoming Christmas events. Dwight could be found checking on the battery charging on Engine 104, as well as installing a different power supply for the cab radio.

Towards the end of the day, we were able to check the batteries on the locomotive and had an unsuccessful cranking. Everyone in the group pitched in to attach the jumper cables from the batteries on the ground, and we finally got a successful start on Engine 104. We let the engine run for about an hour to recharge the batteries (we hope), and to warm up and circulate oil and coolant in the engine. We will have to attempt to start the locomotive a few more times over the next week or so to know if we have gained ground on our battery issue.

Also, want to mention John McDowell, the guy who designed and decorated our excellent Haunted Railcar, who is installing the Christmas lighting and decorations over in the collection area by our Gift Shop behind the Union Depot on B Street. Every year, he spends many hours making sure that our rail cars have the Christmas spirit.

These pictures only give a glimpse of the amount of work done today at the Pueblo Railway Museum.

– Paul

On Saturday, November 4, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Bruce Davis, Bryan Tong, Richard Doell and Paul Brown stayed busy finishing the caboose power wiring project, by adding some attachment brackets to the cables, installing box covers, and performing another live test with the generator. All wiring and outlets tested good, and the crew then installed an exhaust extension on the generator, so it could be installed with the start controls facing the outside of the car. In the meantime, Colin was working to revamp our battery connections on our Hi Rail truck. This had to be done to stop a drain on the batteries while the vehicle sits for extended times.

After a short break for lunch, the crew reassembled to work on checking the batteries on Engine 104. The unitized batteries installed in the locomotive had all cells checked with a hydrometer to help determine the condition of the battery. We also worked on the set of batteries removed last month to be able to determine if we can use those for a back up “jump” battery. All these checks showed that we need to recharge both battery sets for an extended period, which we will try to have done during the week. Stay tuned for more work to be done with the batteries next week.

I was able to catch a few pictures of the action which are attached here.

– Paul

On Saturday, October 28, the Museum hosted our Halloween event, which attracted 66 caboose riders and 25 locomotive riders, and some smaller goblins who got to ride for free! Thanks to volunteers Ron Roach, Maureen King in the ticket office, John McDowell for creating another spooky and Haunted Railcar, and Dwight Maxey, Justin Cesar, Colin Mellin, Reid Adams, Tyler Seeley, Dannis Hudson, Bryan Tong, and Paul Brown, for getting the train set ready for operation, and keeping it on the rails for the event. All the folks riding the train were smiling, and there were a lot of people seen leaving the Haunted Railcar screaming!!

Earlier in the day, the crew was at the shop getting last minute work completed on the caboose set for power, and wrapping up the battery swap in Engine 104. Unfortunately, we could not get Engine 104 started in time, so our “Pumpkin” locomotive had to be left behind, while The Patriot, Engine 102 stepped in to keep everything moving. This work made for a long day that stretched a full 12 hours for many. It is fun though and most of the volunteers were happy to be doing something they love to do…play with BIG trains!

I have included a few pictures of the work done early in the day, and a rare photo of Engines 102 and 104 coupled together, as we had to move 104 out to another track to get it out of our way.

– Paul