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Colorado Railroad Museum

The Colorado Railroad Museum is a non-profit railroad museum. The museum is located on 15 acres (6.1 ha) at a point where Clear Creek flows between North and South Table Mountains in Golden, Colorado.

The museum was established in 1959 to preserve a record of Colorado's flamboyant railroad era, particularly the state's pioneering narrow-gauge mountain railroads.

Facilities

Main museum building
The Denver HO Model Railroad Club is located in the basement of the Colorado Railroad Museum.

The museum building is a replica of an 1880s-style railroad depot. Exhibits feature original photographs by pioneer photographers such as William Henry Jackson and Louis Charles McClure, as well as paintings by Howard L Fogg, Otto Kuhler, Ted Rose and other artists. Locomotives and railroad cars modeled in the one inch scale by Herb Votaw are also displayed. A bay window contains a reconstructed depot telegrapher's office, complete with a working telegraph sounder.

The lower level of the museum building contains an exhibition hall which features seasonal and traveling displays on railroading history. The lower level also contains the Denver HO Model Railroad Club's "Denver and Western" operating HO and HOn3 scale model train layout that represent Colorado's rail history in miniature.

The Robert W. Richardson Library houses over 10,000 rare historic photographs, along with other reference materials such as timetables, maps, employee records and engineering documents about Colorado railroads.

Colorado Railroad Museum Business Car next to Water Tower
Colorado Railroad Museum Business Car next to Water Tower

Collection

Steam locomotive D&RGW #683 at a mock-up train station.
Steam locomotive D&RGW #346 (originally numbered D&RG #406)on the turntable, built in 1881, and restored to its 20th-century appearance (Compare with photo below).
This early photo of a sister engine shows how D&RGW #346 (originally D&RG 406) appeared in the 1800s, with a diamond stack, decorative trim on the sand dome, box headlight and wooden pilot.
D&RG 406 (later D&RG 346) west of Chama, New Mexico, ca. 1910. (Colorado RR Museum collection)
D&RG 406 (later D&RG 346) at Marshall Pass, Colorado in the summer of 1881, when the engine was new.
Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Class 70 (C-19) Engines (numbers 400-411) as they were configured in the 1800s. D&RG 346 was originally D&RG 406 (and has been restored to include its 20th-century engineering modifications).
Denver, Leadville & Gunnison RR 191 (which later became Thunder Lake Lumber Co. 7) near the end of its service life in the 20th century (before restoration).
Denver, Leadville & Gunnison RR 191, after restoration. The engine is the oldest steam engine in Colorado. It's restoration included several of its 1800s engineering components such as a diamond stack, box headlight, and wooden pilot (cowcatcher).
Rio Grande Southern Railroad Galloping Goose No. 2.

The museum has a large collection of 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge rolling stock and provides narrow-gauge train rides on special event days known as "Steam Up days".

The museum also has ex-Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad No. 683, a coal-burning 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type steam locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1890, builders number 11207. It is the only surviving 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge steam locomotive from the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad.

All of the railroad equipment is displayed outdoors. Display tracks are complete with a rare three-way stub switch, dual gauge track and switches and century-old switch stands. These tracks hold over 100 historic narrow and standard gauge locomotives and cars. The 1⁄3 mile (0.54 km) oval of 3 ft (914 mm) gauge track is used by trains on operating days.

The museum's roster contains the following notable pieces of rolling stock:[1]

Steam locomotives

Diesel locomotives

Passenger cars

Special equipment

See also

References

  1. ^ Museum Guide. Golden, Colorado: Colorado Railroad Museum. c. 2015.
  2. ^ "No. 5629 Brochure" (pdf). Colorado Railroad Museum. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 Apr 2023. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  3. ^ "Thunder Lake Lumber Co".
  4. ^ Isaacks, Matt (2022-03-11). "Big Train Tours: D&RGW No. 683". Colorado Railroad Museum. Retrieved 2023-01-23.

External links

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39°46′19″N 105°11′35″W / 39.771875°N 105.192969444°W / 39.771875; -105.192969444