On Saturday, October 5, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Reid Adams, Bruce Davis, Chris Pollard, Chris Traficante, Russ Lippincott, Dannis Hudson, Abel Erber, Doug Milsom and Paul Brown did a variety of work.

First on the list was to wash Engine 104. She had lots of dirt and cobwebs that needed to be removed. At the same time, a small crew were doing some work on the interior of C&W Caboose #3. Then we did a bit of work on the track to the streetcar stall. A pair of flag brackets were installed on the cab of engine 104, and then we moved the Haunted Rail Car from the shop yard to the depot tracks so it can be prepped for the event coming at the end of October. It’s always good when we can get a bunch of little projects done at the Museum!

I have included some photos of the action today.

– Paul

Photos by Paul Brown and Bruce Davis

On Saturday, September 28, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Bruce Davis, Chris Pollard, Dannis Hudson and Paul Brown spent the morning working to install an entire set of new cranking batteries in Engine 104. After a quick removal of the old batteries, the crew worked to bolt on connecting cables and set the eight new batteries into the locomotive. Dannis did some work cleaning the cab of Engine 104. Meanwhile, Dwight worked on connecting rails to the streetcar stall.

After a quick lunch break, it was time to start Engine 104 to make sure there were no issues. It sure was nice cranking an engine with new batteries and not having to spend time setting up jumper cables! We left the engine to run for a couple of hours to give the batteries a good charge and let fluids circulate in the engine. We did some other work to fix a loose seat in the cab of the engine, and work on adjusting a few things to get ready for the remainder of this years events.

Before ending work for the day, we reconnected some rails in our middle shop stall and completed the connection work on the streetcar stall rails. Overall, a great day at the Museum. I have included a few pictures of the work completed.

– Paul

On Saturday, September 14, volunteers Ron Roach, Jackie Anzlovar, John McDowell, Michael Brown, Dwight Maxey, Reid Adams, Colin Mellin, Chris Pollard, Russ Lippincott, Doug Milsom, Polly Cotton, Dannis Hudson, Henry Falko, and Paul Brown entertained a large group of guests to celebrate the return to school with the chance to take a short train ride. We saw many people smiling and enjoying the great weather, while experiencing our unique rides and the opportunity to learn some history regarding Pueblo’s railroads. We have also added some new members that got their first exposure to what we do at our events, preparing them for our busiest events at Halloween and Christmas.

After finishing with our train ride event, the crew had some extra work to do by switching around some equipment at the Museum shop to get ready for our fall season. We decided to do a couple of moves that tested our skills and the capability of our older equipment. The Trackmobile and operator Dwight Maxey showed once again that they are up to the task, even if it does take longer than expected!

I was able to catch a few pictures of our event and the work done at the end of our day.

– Paul

Photos by Paul Brown and Petar Sredojevic

On Saturday, September 7, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Chris Pollard, Russ Lippencott and Paul Brown did some overdue housekeeping at the Museum Shop. Like any good railroad museum, items are brought to us and we always think we will find a use for those items. Then you start working on projects, and the items just end up sitting around gathering multiple inches of dust!! Well, today we did some work to decide what needed to be thrown out and what needed to stay. When an item is going to stay, it must find a place to hang out different from where it has been for the last year or two! We managed to throw out enough stuff to fill a 4 yard trash dumpster, and rearrange the junk that is staying until the next clean up!

Today’s work took care of some display cabinets, stored some light bulbs, moved a table and desk, and cleaned up some actual trash. We also managed to check out the batteries that are waiting for installation in the U.S. Army Crane, and we replaced one of the security lights on the outside of the shop building. Overall, a great day that saw a lot of little work get accomplished.

I have included a few photos to give you an idea of the work done. Be sure to come out for our next train ride event next Saturday, September 14!

– Paul

All aboard our Back to School Train at the Pueblo Railway Museum on Saturday, September 14! Train rides will be available from 11AM to 3PM 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 3 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. Free refreshments will be available!

Our 2024 train ride event schedule can be found 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, August 24, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Kendall Crouch, Bruce Davis, Chris Pollard, Dannis Hudson, Russ Lippincott and Paul Brown broke a sweat working at the Museum! The group continued work building the track that will lead out of the stall where our streetcar is stored. We finished some dirt work required, and then picked out some ties which were then positioned to support the rails. Before a break for lunch, a couple of rails were located in our stock and brought over to the project area.

The crew took lunch in the shade of a couple of large trees out front of the shop before heading back to place the rails on the ties laid down earlier. The rails were placed but not secured, as we will have to go back to make adjustments to the grade under the track, and get some things ready to make connection to the rails already under the streetcar. Stay tuned for more work on this project as there is still a lot to do, and we will be spreading the work out into the fall.

The crew then gathered in our break room to discuss projects we will be working on for the rest of the year, and set some priorities for which will get done the soonest.

Included are a few photos of the track construction.

– Paul

Photos by Paul Brown and Bruce Davis

On Saturday, August 17, volunteers Ron Roach, John McDowell, Polly Cotton, Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Reid Adams, Kendall Crouch, Bruce Davis, Chris Pollard, Ben Pollard, Dannis Hudson, Henry Falko, Abel Erber and Paul Brown all braved the heat (only 100!) and brought out our regular train set, as well as a little motor car treat for our visitors to ride. After a nice cool start, and getting the equipment ready to roll out, we were greeted by a fairly steady crowd of visitors as the event started a little before 10:00am. A few folks opted to jump on the motor car and take a very open air trip around on our main running track. It seemed like most of our visitors were really wanting to ride in the locomotive, because the cab was stuffed on almost every trip!

Our visitors were also able to grab a hotdog or a snow cone thanks to John’s expertise behind the snack stand. Our Gift Shop reported a little over 100 tickets sold, making for a very busy day. I am including a few pictures I was able to take while working. A very good day for running the train at the Pueblo Railway Museum!

– Paul

On Saturday, August 10, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Chris Pollard, Ben Pollard, Christopher Traficante, Dannis Hudson and Paul Brown worked to clean and check equipment in anticipation of our train ride event next Saturday, 8/17. The crew started by getting a couple of “speeders” out of the shop and giving them a bath. You can’t expect anyone to ride on equipment that has a year’s worth of dust on it!! After washing this equipment off, we did a once through of the cabooses, cleaning windows, wiping clean seats, and sweeping the floors.

Then it was time to move the cabooses out of the way with the Trackmobile, and take the “speeders” out for a test run. After a few trips on the main running track, the crew returned to the shop for a lunch break.

After lunch, the crew did some weed removal/clean-up, and then enjoyed some more time on the “speeders” before putting the equipment back to its normal storage spots. Now we are ready to host our event next weekend. Check your calendar and see if you might be able to attend next Saturday, 8/17.

Here are a few pictures of the action today.

– Paul

On Saturday, August 3, volunteers Dwight Maxey, Colin Mellin, Kendall Crouch, Bruce Davis, Chris Pollard, Ben Pollard, Dannis Hudson, Henry Falko, Abel Erber, Polly Cotton and Paul Brown continued work on the construction of a track that will access our street car stall. The crew started the day by finishing cutting the asphalt to be removed, and then lifting that out with our Bobcat tractor. Then we had to remove three old sections of rail that have been in the ground under the asphalt for at least fifty years and were laid down over 100 years ago! This took a bit of work cutting the joint bars on the rail to allow us to break the rail apart into manageable sections. Also during the morning, part of the crew was doing some work with our large string trimmer to start the process to remove the dead weeds we had sprayed a month ago.

After a lunch break and a bit of time to cool off, we were back at it removing some dirt from the area our track will be installed so that it will be level and match the rail laid in the shop under the street car. Now this is not normal dirt, as it has much debris in it from previous structures on site, and debris from the Arkansas River flood almost 100 years ago, so it is a bit of a challenge to get this done. We finished the day by placing a couple of cross ties into the excavation, to check the line up with the existing track in the shop. Overall a good day with a bunch of work completed!

– Paul