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!

On Saturday, November 27, we had a small crew come out to work on switches and replace a broken joint bar. Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Tyler Seeley, Tanner Seeley, and Paul Brown worked to clean and lubricate three more track switches. This is continuation of our work from a week ago to clean debris from – and then lube – the moving components of our switches, to make things easier on our crews. We then tackled replacement of a broken joint bar on our main running track. The bar was center-broke due to the condition of the tie under the joint. We did a quick fix with a larger tie plate – with a filler plate under that – to hold us over until we can come back and replace the tie. The gang learned how to remove joint bars that are rusted to the rails; it is hard work!

I have included a couple of pictures of our volunteers replacing the track joint bar. Watch here for information on our Christmas train runs December 11th, 17th, 18th, and 24th.

– Paul

On Saturday, November 20, the museum offered half-price train rides for those who brought a new toy donation. We had a good size crew of volunteers for what turned out to be one of our lightest turnouts in a while. Ron Roach, Dee Applegate, Colin Mellin, Dwight Maxey, Dan Reichenbach, Tyler Seeley, Tanner Seeley, Reid Adams and Paul Brown did their best to make it a fun event. After running for three hours we tied up the operations.

Decorations for the upcoming Christmas Train rides are already going up, and planning for increased advertising is well underway. We hope to have a successful Christmas season. Mark your calendars for Saturday, December 11, Friday and Saturday, December 17 and 18, and Friday, December 24, for Christmas train rides!

I caught a few of our volunteers in today’s pictures!

– Paul

On Saturday, November 13, a good group of volunteers came out to help get the scheduled work completed. Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Dan Reichenbach, Tyler Seeley, Tanner Seeley, John McDowell, Kendall Crouch, and Paul Brown started the day out moving equipment on the tracks behind the Pueblo Union Depot. The crew moved a newly arrived passenger car, a diner owned by one of our Museum members, that needed to be spotted for future work. We also had to move the 2912, our big Santa Fe 4-8-4, back to it’s display position after being moved for the diner delivery. We finished up the equipment move by getting our caboose consist back in regular order.

After a short lunch break, the crew headed out to do the scheduled track work. We needed to do some clean out and lubrication work to a number of our track switches. A little attention and some oil, and the crews have a way easier time throwing switches when we need to.

I have included a few pictures of the work completed.

– Paul

This year’s Toy Drive event, benefiting local police and fire departments, will take place on Saturday afternoon, November 20. This event will take place behind the Pueblo Union Depot (at Victoria Avenue and B Street), from 1pm to 4pm.

Every rider who brings a toy donation gets a train ride for half the usual price! That means only $8 for a locomotive ride, and only $4 for a caboose ride! Cash or check only, please.

For this event, masks are not required for those who have been vaccinated.

For a list of all of our planned 2021 events, click here.

On Saturday, October 30, we had an outstanding Halloween event that may have broken our attendance record for a single-day event. Many visitors came out to ride the Cemetery Express and to visit the Haunted Rail Car.

We had a great group of volunteers who worked hard to make the event successful. Ron Roach, Dee Applegate, Jerry Dandurand, Dwight Maxey, Kendall Crouch, Justin Cesar, Colin Mellin, Reid Adams, Tyler Seeley, Dan Reichenbach, and Paul Brown took care of business. And a special shout-out to John McDowell for his work putting together the Haunted Rail Car, which was the highlight of the event.

I have included a few pictures to show what things looked like.

– Paul

On Saturday, October 23, Dwight Maxey, Dan Reichenbach, Colin Mellin and Paul Brown got the work done at the Museum. First up was to get Engines 103 & 104 started. The crew successfully got 104 started on its own, but Engine 103 had to be jump-started due to battery issues. Even after several hours of running, the batteries on Engine 103 are not taking a charge, so we will have to continue to investigate the problem. We used Engine 104 to shuffle some equipment around, and get ready for upcoming events. While the engines were warming up, the crew had some time to add some journal oil to our Mo-Pac caboose, as this car still sports friction bearings.

I have included a few pictures of the work today.

– Paul

The Cemetery Express Halloween train event will take place on the day before Halloween, Saturday, October 30, from 4pm to 8pm. Our special Haunted Caboose promises to be even scarier than last year!

Train ride tickets are $15 for a ride in our GP7 locomotive, and $8 for a caboose ride.  Children under three years old ride the train free.  There is no “entrance fee” to attend the event.

Masks will be required at this event, since a ride in the train – or a trip through the Haunted Caboose – happens in a confined “indoor” space.

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

For a list of all of our planned 2021 events, click here.