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.

On Saturday, May 11, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Kendall Crouch, Bruce Davis, Chris Pollard, Gary Carter, Reid Adams and Paul Brown dodged rain showers while first working to clean up our caboose fleet to get them ready for next week’s train ride event. Kendall and Reid took on the bulk of work sweeping, vacuuming, wiping down surfaces, and even mopping the floors. Meanwhile, Bruce and Chris started working on the Hi-Rail truck to try to finish removing rear wheels and to remove a hydraulic cylinder from the knuckle boom crane on the rear of the truck. This has been an ongoing battle with rusted lugs and bolts. One end of the crane cylinder was easy work, but the other end had bolts that just weren’t budging, so while those were soaked with penetrating oil, the gang turned to the wheel lugs.

Chris had an idea to weld an old lug nut to the stuck stud, and that’s when Gary showed up with his welder to help out. With help from the whole crew, and a bit of struggling, those stubborn lug nuts finally came loose and were removed. Now we can get the tires repaired and remounted on the truck so we can use it. Then we spent a little more time working on the crane cylinder and were able to get the two bolts out so the cylinder can now be taken to shop and repaired. We finished this work just as the rain started to come down steady.

The volunteers were also able to walk the track around the sharp curve leading into the shop area, to scope out a possible future project. Stay tuned for that one! All in all, a great day with a wide variety of work and a couple of successes in moving a couple of projects forward.

Here are a few photos of today’s work.

– Paul

On Saturday, May 4, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Kendall Crouch, Chris Pollard, Bruce Davis, Henry Falko, Abel Erber, Dannis Hudson and Paul Brown were dealt a great weather hand, and good luck being able to get The Patriot, Engine 102, out of the shop and given her annual washing. The crew worked to fire up Engine 104 so it could be used to pull Engine 102 out of the shop for later switching. While waiting for Engine 104 to warm up, Kendall, Chris, Bruce and Colin did some more work to remove the inner lug nuts off our Hi-Rail truck rear wheel. They were successful in loosening all but two of the lugs which are being very stubborn! They also did some shop cleaning, and cleaned up an oil leak where the Patriot spent the winter.

Once Engine 102 was outside, the cleaning began, lasting until about 3:00pm. Locomotives have a lot of surface area on all the sheet metal body, so it takes some time and effort to get one cleaned. Our younger members learned a thing or two about hard work, and that it takes more than a few squirts of water from the hose to do this job! I think our more mature volunteers showed a thing or two about working hard!!

After The Patriot was all cleaned up, it was time to start her and make sure systems were ready for the Summer operating season. She started right up, and we were able to run her around a bit at the end of the day. A great day with good volunteers accomplishing a bunch of work that needed to get done!

I have included some photos of today’s work. Also included are some photos from volunteer Bruce Davis, who continues to do valuable cleanup work around the museum grounds!

– Paul

Photos by Paul Brown and Bruce Davis

On Saturday, April 20, Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Bruce Davis, Chris Pollard, Polly Cotton, Dannis Hudson, Henry Falko, Abel Erber and Paul Brown learned how to change plans on the fly! Our original goal was to work on our Hi-Rail truck and remove the rear wheels to check on a flat tire. Well, we had all the tools ready, the air compressor fired up and supplying air for the impact wrench, and found out the socket we have is a 12 point and it slipped on the lug nut! Just more of the PRF luck hard at work!

So, change of plans goes into action. Dannis, Henry and Abel were reassigned to spike patrol out on our main running track. They grabbed spike mauls and spent some quality time checking and driving down loose spikes. This is a chore that needs to get done, so it was worth their effort.

Bruce, Chris and Polly jumped on the most important work at the Museum…cleaning up weeds! While this was happening, Dwight and Paul found some Elm tree sprouts and were digging those out. The team got near our fence and found an area of the old fence that needed repaired, so the crew transitioned to that task. While this was happening, Colin was checking some tool stores for a proper wheel lug socket, with no luck. He returned and began doing some equipment maintenance, and assisting with the fence. The fence repair ran well into the afternoon, and resulted in a late lunch break.

After lunch, the crew did some clean up work and looked at a track issue that has developed at the back door to the shop. More on that in the future.

I have included a few pictures of the work that was accomplished today.

– Paul

On Saturday, April 13, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Kendall Crouch, Bruce Davis, Chris Pollard, Colin Mellin, Abel Erber and Paul Brown braved the great weather and accomplished a lot of little tasks. Bruce, Kendall and Abel worked on the D&RGW caboose windows and interior trim, to get things buttoned up on that project. They also worked on installing a crossing sign on our Wig Wag signal. Meanwhile, Chris and Dwight worked on some upgrades to our battery charger cables. After a quick lunch, the entire crew helped work on the Wig Wag signal operations, with some new wires being installed to the magnets inside, and adjusting the bell. There was also some more clean up work done around the yard.

I have included a few pictures of the action today, along with some pictures of some yard cleanup work performed by Bruce Davis on Thursday the 11th. Keep an eye out for more Museum activity in the coming months as we’ll have some larger projects get started, and of course our event schedule grows larger in summer months.

– Paul

Photos by Paul Brown and Bruce Davis