04/19/26

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today's image is of locomotive 683 at the Colorado Railroad Museum.  It is a Consolidation type 2-8-0 wheel arrangement and was built in 1890.  It is a special locomotive as it is the only remaining standard gauge locomotive from the Denver and Rio Grande Western.  They were converting their mainline over to standard gauge so this locomotive was one of the first to be purchased.  It operated there until 1955 and then was acquired by the museum in 1963.  All the other standard gauge locomotives from the D&RGW were scrapped.

04/12/26

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today's image is of another Shay locomotive they have at the Colorado Railroad Museum.  Shay No 14 is a former Westside Lumber locomotive and is a 3 cylinder locomotive.  It used to operate on the grounds of the museum before being fully retired and put on display.  It was originally built in 1916 by the Lima Locomotive Works.

04/05/26

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the blog!  Today's steam locomotive is Denver & Rio Grande Western #318.  It is a C-18 locomotive with a 2-8-0 wheel arrangement also known as a Consolidation.  It was built by Baldwin in 1896 and it began it's life on the Florence & Cripple Creek Railway.  The Rio Grande bought it in 1917 where it ran out of Salida, Durango and Montrose Colorado.

03/29/26

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today's image is of Burlington Route locomotive 5629 at the Colorado Railroad Museum.  This locomotive was built in 1940 in Burlington Iowa and is a 4-8-4 wheel arrangement which means it was built for speed.  It began it's career running freight from Chicago to Denver and then between Lincoln Nebraska and Denver.  In 1961 in was converted to oil and was stored in Lincoln where it's boiler was used for heat during a renovation of the Lincoln train station.  On August 30, 1963 it was presented to the Colorado Railroad Museum by the CB&Q Vice President JJ Alms.  The move was rather complicated due to the size of the locomotive and more can be read about it HERE if interested.  

03/22/26

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today's image is of Number 20.  Number 20 has been very visible lately on YouTube because it has been out running special excursions at the Durango & Silverton.  It's a 4-6-0 Ten Wheeler that was built in 1899 for the Schenectady Locomotive Works.  It started life on the Florence and Cripple Creek RR like the one I shared last week.  It moved to the Rio Grande Southern in 1915 and was used until 1951.  The Rocky Mountain Railroad Club purchased it and then later was displayed at the CO RR Museum.  It underwent a 14 year restoration 2006 to 2020 and now operates excursions at the museum.  It will be returning to the museum sometime soon if it is not back already by the time this posts.

03/15/26

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today's image once again comes from the Colorado Railroad Museum near Golden Colorado.  This is locomotive 318 is a 2-8-0 Consolidation type.  It was Built by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1896.  It began it's career on the Florence and Cripple Creek RR.  The Rio Grande bought it in 1917 and used it on various lines until it's retirement in 1954.  A Cornelius Hauck purchased it and moved it to the CO RR Museum where it operated on the grounds until 1982.  It was then put on static display where it remains today.

03/08/26

  It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today's image comes from the Colorado Railroad Museum near Golden once again.  It's a great place to visit and the museum is housed in this beautiful depot.  It is a 2-8-0 wheel arrangement, also known as a Consolidation.  It was built in 1898 by Brooks Locomotive Works and had a long and varied career and was retired in 1953.  It was purchased then by the city of Boulder and put on display.  It stayed there for about 50 years and then was loaned and moved to the museum.  You can ring the bell of this locomotive.

03/01/26

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  It's also the first day of March!  The year is moving along.  Today's image is another from the Colorado Railroad Museum and is one I felt worked well in Black & White.  This is locomotive 4455 a Union Pacific switch engine with a 0-6-0 wheel arrangement.  It was built in 1920 by the Lima Locomotive Works.  It had a long career and retired in 1970.  In 1949 it was sold from the UP to the Monolith Portland Midwest Co in Wyoming.  It was donated from there to the Museum.

02/22/26

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today's image is from my trip to Colorado and the Colorado Railroad Museum.  This locomotive was on display when I was there in July but has since been moved back home to California after 40 years.  It is now at the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine RR in Fish Camp.  They are going to restore it back to operating condition which is really cool news.  Glad I was able to see it before it left.  Look forward to someday seeing it in California.  The locomotive was built in 1926 for the Swayne Lumber Co.  It then went to Westside Lumber until 1961.  In the 1980s it ran there until 2004 when it went to the Colorado RR Museum.  The boiler is in working order but there are other things on the locomotive that will have to be brought to working order.

12/21/25

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today's image is of the 3rd and last incredibly detailed model built by Herbert Votaw at the Colorado Railroad Museum.  The 3 models are all 1 inch scale.  This one was built between 1955 and 1958 and took 1850 hours to build.  It is a Rio Grande Challenger type locomotive and took 6160 handmade pieces to build.  it is 123 inches long.  Amazing detailed and beautiful work.

12/14/25

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today's image is another of the beautifully detailed models that were at the Colorado Railroad Museum built by Herbert Votaw.  This is of a Big Boy, number 4019.  The coal in it's tender is from an actual Big Boy as is the sand in it's sand dome.  It was built between 1958 and 1962 and took 2050 hours of work!  It is 133 inches long and weighs 410 lbs.

12/07/25

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  While I was in Colorado this summer I was able to see this beautiful model at the Colorado Railroad Museum.  This is a model of Union Pacific locomotive 844.  It is a very accurate model and was built by Herbert Votaw between 1958 and 1961 and required 1,848 hours of work and was the 3rd locomotive that he had built.  The model consists of 6,720 pieces which were all handmade and is 116 inches long and about 17 inches high and about 11 inches wide.  He had crawled all over the actual locomotive to collect information needed.  It was really amazing to see.

09/21/25

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  We go back to the Colorado RR Museum today and look at Denver and Rio Grande Western locomotive 683.  This Consolidation type 2-8-0 was built in 1890 by Baldwin as Narrow gauge #583.  It was later converted to Standard Gauge built for the first standard gauge line between Denver and Salt Lake City.  It served until the mid 1950s when it was sold to the San Luis Valley Southern Rwy which allowed it to escape the D&RGW scrapping plan.  #683 is the only standard gauge locomotive that remains from the D&RGW.  It's looking pretty good but will need some cosmetic work soon due to be stored out on the elements.  It would be nice if the museum could get more equipment under cover.  They are slowly working on it which is good.

09/14/25

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today's image goes back to the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden.  This is Shay No. 12.  It was built in 1927 for the Swayne Lumber Co and was later purchased by the Westside Lumber Co. in 1940.  In 1986 it was sold to the Georgetown Loop RR.  In 2011 to 2014 it operated on the loop of track at the museum where it is still currently stored but is not owned by them.  A Shay locomotive is great for steep railroads due to their gearing which is for traction rather than speed.  The Shay locomotives in West Virginia can climb 9% grades where a normal grade would be, at most, 3%.

08/31/25

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today's image is from the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden.  This is the first Cog Railway locomotive that was used at Pikes Peak.  It was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1890 and made it's first trip to the summit in 1891.  It was retired in 1941 and put on display at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.  The CRRM acquired it in 1979.

08/24/25

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  While I was in Colorado, I visited the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden once again.  Things had changed quite a bit from the last time I was there including having a fully operating Roundhouse.  Inside was Locomotive No 20 getting some work done.  It was originally built in 1899 and was owned by the Rio Grande Southern Rwy.  The museum acquired it in 2006.  After a restoration in Strasburg PA it was returned to service and can occasionally be seen pulling trains at the museum.    Unfortunately it was not running the day I was there but I was glad to see it.

12/10/23

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today's image goes back several years to a visit I made to the Colorado Railroad Museum.  I need to get back there as they have changed things quite a bit.  Anyway, this is Chicago, Burlington and Quincy locomotive 5629.  It was built in 1940 and was used in heavy freight and passenger service until the early 1960s.  It is a 4-8-4 wheel arrangement, also known as a Northern, and is the heaviest steam locomotive at the museum.  It was moved to the museum in 1963.

5/7/23

 It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog!  Today's image goes way back in the archives to an early visit I made to the Colorado RR Museum.  This is Rio Grande Southern #20 built in 1899.  It originally operated on the Florence and Cripple Creek line.  After floods destroyed much of that line it was sold to the RGS in 1916.  It operated on that line until 1951 when it was sent to a hotel in Alamosa where it sat until the museum opened and it was donated to it in 2006.  The 20 had undergone a major 14 year restoration at the Strasburg RR in Pennsylvania and is now back in at the museum and operating which is wonderful that it was brought back to life.

1/31/21

 This is an image I took quite some time ago at my first visit to the Colorado Railroad Museum.  This is a scan from a print so had to be around 1990.  This is Denver, Leadville & Gunnison RR 2-8-0 Consolidation type locomotive built in the 1880s.  It is the oldest locomotive in the museum collection and they did a feature on it recently during their virtual tours.  The video can be found on Youtube here.