Colorado Railroad Museum — Attraction in Four Corners States

All Aboard!! At the Colorado Train Museum! If you love western history and trains, this is a must see! A perfect place to bring the kids! If you do, you must bring quarters!! Warning! If you're a big train enthusiast, you may never want to leave! Wonderful, knowledgeable staff, very professional, very clean, and a perfect day trip to learn and explore and even research in their library! I will be going back!

They have a beautiful and very well preserved indoor museum, displaying period era clothes, letters, luggage, and technology such as a early 20th century camera; pieces of time that otherwise would be a faded memory. This area of the museum envelopes you in a atmosphere only found in the early days of the west. They also have a very large (to say it fills the room is an understatement) working model scale display of historical Colorado and of course, running model trains! Working they're way through tunnels, across bridges, and into towns, these model trains are quarter activated, so be sure and bring quarters!!

The train yard has 2 centuries worth of trains and rail cars that you can get up close and explore! A true wonderland for a train enthusiast to play and enjoy. Walk through the ages the steel and industry and the mighty horses that drove them and the cars that carried it through. Everything from famous steam engines, snowblowers, to diesel driven express trains that carried passengers east to west.

I have been a train enthusiast all my life and think I know all when it comes to trains. However, I learned so much about the movement west and how trains were the heart of everything that is west of the Cumberland Gap and the Mississippi River. This museum gave a lot of gravity to the hardships that were met, yet overcome to produce the western United States as we see it today. And stopping at the rail crossing with a modern day train running through, the railroad being just across the street from the museum, they are still building the west today.

I want to thank all those that have made this museum possible and running today! I remember watching a national geographic on trains as a child and found many of those exact trains from the movie here in the heart of Colorado at your museum. I cannot express what that means to me. Thank you for your love and care of our beloved trains and...

Colorado Railroad museum

The museum is dilapidated. Creaky stairs and steps. Must be extremely careful with kids. It does not give me the impression of a railroad museum, but rather a hobby shop turned into a museum at best. Getting into some of the rail car exhibits is a chore. Slippery surfaces in the junk yard . Yes, the place looks like a rail junkyard. One of the Union Pacific cars smells like mould. Signboard shows a simulation for Coors switcher - we make our way all the way to it through the snow and mud puddles only to realize it doesn’t work .

They also get a one star for attitude towards American Express customers . If they don’t take AMEX - they should say so clearly outside on the DOOR AND THE WEBSITE .

If they got funding and support to display their museum prominently on the highway exits , it means they must be considerate to all customers . What’s more irritating is the cashier at the counter telling me that “nobody accepts American Express “. That kind of statement by is hyperbolic and a total lie. American Express is one of the most widely accepted credit cards and its clientele tend to be those who spend way more than the average customer . How do I know ? I run several businesses as well. Blocking Amex customers just because their merchant fees are 0.25 % high is nothing but a “penny wise pound foolish decision “. So that they are aware : the Denver Aquarium accepts AMEX, the Denver Zoo accepts AMEX - and I can go on an on . I am glad their coin machines accepts American currency in quarters. Furthermore- there is nothing more irritating to show up at a place and realize nothing can be bought from their store because of this . So, I didn’t even bother checking their store out . Took my kid to the Lego store after visiting the museum and got a lot of fun train stuff - oh, they accept American Express. funding/ donation is an important aspect of running this particular business- there are donation boxes everywhere. So now that is not going to come from me either . I am a model railroad enthusiast and own an extensive collection of models from LGB, Marklin, Aster, OS Live steam ( when they used to be in business ) and have supported many clubs over the years for live steam. This unfortunately did not...

There is a certain attraction to trains that I can’t put my finger on. They are huge, sometimes noisy and span incredible distances with specialized infrastructure required to let them run. The Colorado Railroad museum appeals to all the hidden magnetic properties of railway systems and the incredible variety of locomotives, rail cars and uses they encompass.

We arrived as it opened at 9:00 AM holding reservations for a 10:00 AM train ride. I was teased that I would likely be surrounded by a sea of young children but laughed when I realized the early arrivals were mostly people of a certain age (older). The children arrived by the bus load around 11:00 after we had a chance to poke around to see displays and refocus our attention on the delight of all the little people.

Our first stop was the basement of the main building. There is an incredible HO scale train setup that will bring a smile to people of all ages. Mountains, small towns, industrial settings and action scenes catch your attention and admiration for their incredible detail.

We ambled outside and were impressed with the knowledge of a volunteer that was available to answer any questions we had and capture our imaginations with tales of early railroading.

Our 10:00 AM train ride was waiting with more volunteers ready to help people board and ask questions. We ended up sitting in a 140 year old passenger car that was beautifully restored.

The ride itself consisted of three slow circles of the park. Yet another volunteer explained everything we saw with new information on each of the three passes. It gave us a good opportunity to plan which areas we wanted to visit first when we disembarked.

I realize that I’ve mentioned the volunteers frequently so far. There is a good reason. There were a lot of them. They were all very patient with questions and extremely knowledgeable. I believe I heard that they have about 350 total and 250 were considered very active. Their love of trains and railroading is infectious.

The Colorado Railroad Museum is a wonderful activity for people...