Colorado Railroad Museum
WHAT: RMGA MEETING – COLORADO RAILROAD MUSEUM
WHEN: Monday June 10, 2013. The networking 6:30 – 7:00 pm followed by the program at 7:00 – 8:00 pm with a short business meeting 8:00 – 8:20pm.
WHERE: Colorado Railroad Museum, 17155 W. 44th Avenue, Golden, CO 80403
PROGRAM: We will meet on mezzanine level behind the museum store. CEO, Donald Tallman, will provide opening remarks on the history of the Colorado Railroad Museum at 7:00 pm. The gift shop has a wonderful collection of historical train books.
PARKING: There is a very large parking lot.
Guide Line Review
Colorado Railroad Museum
We met in the mezzanine portion of the main building behind the museum store. Don Tallman (Executive Director) and Carla Ahrenholtz (Education Manager) arranged for us to use this room. Don has been with the museum for almost seven years. Carla has been at the museum a little more than one year. In 2006 there were approximately 50,000 visitors to the museum. In 2012 there were approximately 100,000 visitors! Great growth. The museum has about 300 volunteers who provide approximately 39,000 volunteer hours/year. There is a large parking lot and plenty of room for coach parking. Entry prices are very reasonable and the General Store has lots of great books and information on the history of Colorado’s railroads.
The museum opened in 1959 by Robert Richardson and Cornelius Hauck. The museum is dedicated to preserving Colorado’s railroad history. The originators were interested in narrow gauge railroads. The non-profit was organized in 1964 and now the museum has over 100 rail cars, locomotives, passenger cars, freight cars, cabooses and snow plow car!
Around the walls on the mezzanine level are displays with train models and two displays with railroad uniforms worn by porters in the 1930s era. The displays are meant to show the development of first-class passenger service and uniforms of porters on various trains. On the lower level is a display featuring people who worked on the railroads. Outside the main building on the west walkway are twenty interpretive signs that tell the story of the railroad experience.
Also in this area there is an 11-minute video looping with information about the museum and its staff as well as information about upcoming summer events at the museum. This video is changed out about every two-three months so it will be current whenever you visit. Don gave each of us a copy of the Iron Horse, the museum’s seasonal magazine. The magazine is issued three times a year to members. There is lots of information in each issue of the magazine to explain what you might have seen on your tour and general information about railroads – such as rail vocabulary and definitions. The Telegrapher is an email sent monthly to members. There is a link on the museum’s website to get to the video magazine. Information regarding prices, times, special events and special train rides are also listed on the website.
The library has about 75,000 slides and about 31,000 of these have been curated so far.
Another well attended event at the museum are the “Rails and Cocktails” events – there have been five so far, another is planned for August featuring Rollins Pass and the building of the Moffat Tunnel – “Stones and Steel at the Top of the World”. This is a lecture series on the railroads. The capacity is 50 people and each has been a sellout.
After the sign-in and general networking, Don invited all to ride on the Galloping Goose– an exciting trip around the yard. Six of the original seven Galloping Geese can be found at the Museum. Created from a freight box mounted on an automobile frame, the Geese were less costly to build and operate than traditional steam passenger trains. Designed to self-balance on uneven mountain track, the swaying back half of these cars look like geese waddling down the line; hence their popular name. There are Galloping Goose train rides every Saturday.
We visited car #264 - built in 1881. It is equipped now with electric lights though the original lamps wee kerosene and later converted. Car #264 was the last car on a mixed (both freight and passenger cars) train so that a caboose was not needed. There are ticket holders on the walls between the rows of seats. The seats do lean back and can flip so that the car can face in either direction. This car was used on the Chili Line which went south from Durango to Santa Fe so signage is in English and Spanish. There are two lines on this route still in use – the Durango to Silverton and the Toltec line.
We went to engine #5629 – a “northern” class locomotive. When this type locomotive was used in the Southern US it was named for southern generals. It hauled both passengers and freight. The wheel designation is a 4-8-4, i.e., four small wheels (2 on each side), then eight large wheels (4 on each side) and then another 4 small wheels. Be sure to check each locomotive to see if you can determine what the wheel sizes are.
We than #29 - a standard gauge car with an observation deck. Originally built in 1887 by Pullman Palace Car Company for the Colorado Midland railroad. It is a first-class luxury car. It is to be moved to the roundhouse soon for additional restoration. Teddy Roosevelt traveled on the Colorado Midland line to Aspen to dedicate the white river National Forest.
There is a garden railroad track here too. It celebrates 29 years this year and has booth diesel and steam engines. The steam line is elevated so that repair does not require stooping. Both lines were running and there were several families having a great time watching these trains.
Then on to car #254 - a railroad Post Office. This car was placed just behind the locomotive and tender and had a permanent staff. Letters could actually be mailed in a slot on the side of the car. The PO employees all wore guns. Mail was picked up “on the fly” from outside the car. This car was used from 1922 – 1967 and was on the route from Billings, Montana to Fort Worth, Texas. Because the PO employees could not see what was happening around them, they were generally not prepared for sudden stops or slowing. As a result, the PO cars had more injuries than any other cars.
Locomotive #683 from the Denver & Rio Grande Western line was built in 1891. The wheels have white-walls. This locomotive was originally built with a wooden cab that was changed to steel in the 1940s. There are three domes on this locomotive. The one in the middle was used for steam which was injected into the steam boxes and this steam pressure moved the wheels. The other two domes were used for sand to give traction on slick rails. The wheel configuration on this locomotive is 2-8-0. Most locomotives have this configuration. Trivia – the Big Boy at the Forney Museum has a wheel configuration of 4-4-8-4.
Our last stop was car #96, a private parlor car from the Chicago Burlington line. It has crew quarters, galley, and staterooms. The owner traveled with a cook, a male secretary and a porter.
We returned to the mezzanine where we were introduced to the first female Board President – Sharon McGee (only three women have been on the Board over the past 50 years). We also met Larry Dorsey another member of the Board, Ray Johnson in the library, Al Blount, Vice President of the Board and Gary Muse, who is a volunteer. Matt Isaacs the Multimedia Coordinator was also on hand to answer questions.
The importance of the railroads to Colorado is immense – if Moffat and others had not built the track to Cheyenne there might have been little development here. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show was moved from place to place by rail – making him and his legacy important to Colorado. And, remember our FAM to Greeley – vegetables and other produce from Colorado were all shipped by rail. There are still over 40 freight/coal trains/day that pass through Denver. So, get out to Golden and see this museum and take a mental trip back to the last century.
-- Nancy Brueggeman
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