On Saturday, January 29, Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Tyler Seeley, Tanner Seeley and Paul Brown enjoyed a great winter day (that means it was nice and warm) to continue work on the caboose generator project, and to do more prep work on Engine 103’s battery box. While Paul was busy removing the cruddy rusted bottom in the battery box, the rest of the crew were busy adding a couple of braces and finalizing the assembly of the generator platform on our Mo-Pac caboose. The major work is now complete, and we just need to attend to some details before we can do some wiring on the caboose to connect the generator output to our train set. Engine 103 needs a little welding completed and the replacement battery to get delivered, and we can wrap up these projects.

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

– Paul

Our three high-speed prototype vehicles, which we call our “Rocket Cars”, have been getting more attention lately. Authors and engineers from across the country have been contacting us regarding these historic artifacts. These unique vehicles were tested in the 1970s at what is now the Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI). Earlier this month, reporter Jon McMichael from KOAA-TV in Pueblo, came out to see our Rocket Cars, and to interview the Museum’s tour guide Ron Roach, and Pueblo Railway Foundation President Gerald Dandurand.

To see KOAA’s online article, click here.

To see KOAA’s YouTube video news report, click here.

Our Museum website has an entire section devoted to the history of the Rocket Cars – click here.

On Saturday, January 22, Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Kendall Crouch, Tyler Seeley, Tanner Seeley and Paul Brown concentrated on building the bracket for the generator on the Mo-Pac caboose. This generator is what we use to power things like our Pueblo Express Christmas train lights. Once we got started assembling the parts, we had to keep going to see how things would work out. With some careful measuring, finding the hardware in our tool room, and getting tools that worked, we were able to set the generator in place and check clearances, as well as start it for a noise check inside the caboose. We will need to do some fine tuning to the set up and paint the assembly before we call this project complete. Then we can set up the new wiring arrangement on each of the cabooses.

I have included a few pictures to show what the crew accomplished.

– Paul

On Saturday, January 15, nice weather returned to the Pueblo area, so a small group of volunteers came out to work on Engine 103 and our two cabooses. Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Tyler Seeley, Tanner Seeley and Paul Brown stayed busy removing some wiring from under the cabooses and planning a rack to put our generator on when it is needed for train lighting. We hope this will make the generator less noticeable during our events, and easier for the crew to set up when needed. We also did more work on Engine 103 to prepare the battery box for reinstalling the batteries. We removed part of an angle iron brace to give us more clearance for the cables. Next we will do work to repair the floor area of the compartment.

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

– Paul

On Saturday, January 8, a small crew consisting of Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Tyler Seeley, Tanner Seeley and Paul Brown did the work to remove batteries from the engineer’s side of locomotive 103. After lifting the batteries out, we found more of the floor than we expected, but it was very rusty. We worked to clean out a bunch of rust, and then determined what we should do about the remaining bottom of the battery compartment. The crew also added an external drain line, and cleaned up the cab of the locomotive, as the recent winds had deposited a thick layer of dust inside.

I have included a few pictures of the battery removal process.

– Paul

On Friday, December 31, a small crew came out to accomplish the task at hand. Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Kendall Crouch, Tyler Seeley, Tanner Seeley and Paul Brown set out to figure out why engine #103 would not crank even after replacing one of the batteries that failed. The group did a test to check one of the main cables connecting the batteries together, but this didn’t point us to the problem. On a suggestion from Museum Friend Mark Williams, the group did a simple load test on each battery, and discovered that we had another bad battery in the set of eight. Once that battery was isolated, we were able to hook up the battery charger to replenish the charge on the remaining batteries enough to attempt to start the engine.

While awaiting this charging time, Kendall, Colin, Tyler and Tanner were busy removing all of the Christmas lights from the train set. The group also looked at some ideas for improving the power generator and Christmas light arrangement for next years trains. Then after a quick lunch break, we made an attempt to start the locomotive with the bad battery cut out. We were lucky, and the engine started on it’s own, without a “jump”! We were able to run the engine to warm up and circulate fluids, as well as recharge the remaining good batteries. Plans are being made to purchase another battery, which will give us yet another project to complete at the Museum!

I have included a couple of pictures I was able to capture today.

– Paul

On Friday, December 24, the Pueblo Railway Museum wrapped up the successful 2021 Christmas season with our traditional Christmas Eve train rides. With just over 150 people taking rides, it was a good night, with folks taking rides throughout the evening. Ron Roach, John McDowell, Dave Dandurand, Dwight Maxey, Tyler Seeley, Tanner Seeley, Matt & Mary Winterrowd and daughters Sophie & Shelby, Colin Mellin and Paul Brown got the job done with safety in mind and leaving our patrons smiling!

More than half of the folks who rode our Pueblo Express train also took a tour through the inside of our full size Christmas display cars. Check out the pictures below from Shelby Seeley and Jerry Dandurand!

– Paul

On Friday, December 17, and Saturday, December 18, the Pueblo Railway Museum had an outstanding Christmas Train event. We hosted over 480 guests over the two evenings, with Saturday being the busier of the two. This event has broken all ridership records for any of our other events! Thanks to Reid Adams’ advertising efforts on Facebook, we are reaching an expanded audience! We also had a good push of flyers in the Pueblo area that helped bring people in.

Thanks to Ron Roach, Dee Applegate, John McDowell, Jerry Dandurand, Tyler Seeley, Tanner Seeley, Matt & Mary Winterrowd and their daughters Sophie & Shelby, Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Reid Adams, Kendall Crouch, Justin Cesar and Paul Brown for all their hard work before and during the event. It was hard for this group to keep up with all the visitors we had!

Our Pueblo Express event runs one final time, on Friday, December 24. Yes, we get people to come out and ride on Christmas Eve!! Some have made it a family tradition!

– Paul

Photos by Reid Adams, Paul Brown, Kendall Crouch, and Tyler Seeley

On the evening of Saturday, December 11, we had a very successful event at the Pueblo Railway Museum. The first run of our annual Pueblo Express Christmas Train attracted 400 riders! This is a single-day record for attendance at the Museum!

Thanks to Ron Roach, John McDowell, Dee Applegate, Matt & Mary Winterrowd, Jerry Dandurand, Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Reid Adams, Tyler Seeley, Tanner Seeley and Paul Brown for their effort to pull the event off. Our visitors were coming in so fast that we could barely keep up – and each time the train came in, we were very busy getting folks off and loaded back on. The ticket office/gift shop was a whirlwind.

We hope everyone had a jolly good time.

I have included the few pictures I was able to take, and sorry if I missed recognizing anyone, it is probably because I didn’t see you.

– Paul

Our Christmastime Pueblo Express train is coming back this year! This multi-day event will take place behind the Pueblo Union Depot, located at Victoria Avenue and B Street, in historic downtown Pueblo. Come and visit us for a Christmas train ride between 4 and 8 PM on any of the following dates:

• Saturday, December 11
• Friday, December 17
• Saturday, December 18
• Friday, December 24

Some of our attractions are free of charge, including Christmas cookies in our diner car, our flatcar full of holiday inflatables, and our Christmas-themed model train layout, which is always a big hit with our fans! Rides on our full-size train are $15 for a locomotive ride, and $8 for a caboose ride. Children under three years old ride the train free. Cash or check only, please.

For this event, masks are not required for those who have been vaccinated. Our Museum team will be wearing masks in all of our “indoor” areas inside the train cars.

For more information about this special event, contact our Tour Guide, Ron Roach at 719-544-1773.

Help make our event a success by circulating our flyer! Click on the flyer below to download a high resolution PDF file, post it on your social media, and help spread the word!