We made our way down to Pueblo Union Station and parked outside the Pueblo Railway Museum and started to explore.
Pueblo Railway Museum HistoryThe Pueblo Railway Foundation was formed in 2003 to continue and expand the collection and activities of the Pueblo Locomotive & Railroad Historical Society. The Pueblo Railway Museum is a program of the PRF. The mission of the Foundation is to operate, preserve and display railroad equipment and history. By displaying our historic artifacts to the public, our goal is to promote interest in railroading, and the preservation and study of its history, for the education and satisfaction of all. We make this history come alive by operating this rail equipment during public events behind the Pueblo Union Depot, where our visitors can come and ride our trains. In addition, the PRF works with local schools to provide special tours as a class activity, and with the Public Library on summer educational activities. The PRF is an all-volunteer organization, with no paid staff. Administrative and fundraising expenses are minimized in favor of our policy to concentrate on our mission of preserving and interpreting railroad history, and sharing it with others.
Pueblo, in southeastern Colorado, has been a major rail and steel center since the late 1800's. Rail, and other steel products manufactured in Pueblo, helped build the railroads which settled the west. The expansion of the railroads contributed to the growth of Pueblo into the largest industrial center west of the Mississippi from 1880 to about 1940. To help the war effort during WWII, new heavy industries, including some new steel mills, began to open in California and other western states. Today, all rail manufactured in the western U.S. originates in Pueblo, just as it did in 1881. For most of Pueblo’s history, the main industry was the steel mill at Colorado Fuel & Iron, founded in 1892, now known as Rocky Mountain Steel Mills.
The Colorado & Wyoming Railway (C&W) was formed in 1899 as a subsidiary of CF&I. This railroad transported iron ore from southeastern Wyoming, and coal from the southern Colorado mountains to the Pueblo steel mills until the 1980's. Today, the C&W still maintains a small operation on five miles of track within the steel mill itself. The Pueblo Railway Foundation is proud to maintain the only collection of C&W locomotives and cars in operating condition.
Pueblo is also home to the Transportation Technology Center, one of only a handful of railroad testing facilities in the world. The facility is a subsidiary of the Association of American Railroads. New locomotives and rolling stock, some from abroad, are tested here for performance and safety. In the 1970's, back when the facility was known as the High Speed Ground Test Center, our high-speed train prototypes were tested here.
Colorado and Wyoming GP7 102, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1950, painted in the red, white and blue "bicentennial" scheme of 1975-76 which was also on 101.
Santa Fe 4-8-4 2912, built by Baldwin in 1929. This was one of the last Santa Fe 4-8-4s shopped at the company's Albuquerque Shops before they were closed in March 1954. The locomotive hauled the last Santa Fe steam freight into Clovis, New Mexico from Slaton, New Mexico on the morning of August 4, 1954.
Colorado & Wyoming Railroad GP9 103 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1951.
VIA Rail coach 180, ex. Amtrak 6070, exx. Amtrak 5282, exxx. Penn Central 4060, nee Pennsylvania Railroad 4060, built by Budd in 1946.
Colorado and Wyoming caboose 3 built by Colorado and Wyoming from a locomotive tender and Denver and Rio Grande Western caboose 01432 built by the Denver and Rio Grande Western in 1944.
The cabooses and Santa Fe 2912.
VIA Rail buffet-lounge-observation car 1099 "Bedford", nee Canadian National 1099, built by Budd in 1954.
Colorado and Wyoming GP9 104 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1951.
Department of Transportation U30C 001, built by General Electric in 1971.
Museum views.
American Steel Foundries modified dorm-lunch counter-lounge 1965, ex. Chicago and Eastern Illinois 601, exx. C&EI 302, nee C&EI 90.
The three of us drove to Canõn City and our first train ride of this Colorado trip.
