Moffat Road Museum acquires West Side Shay No. 8

Black steam locomotive with silver smokebox

GRANBY, Colo. —  An iconic geared steam locomotive is relocating within Colorado. Former West Side Lumber Co. Shay No. 8 has been sold by the Royal Gorge Route Railroad in Cañon City to the Moffat Road Railroad Museum in Granby and will be moved this month. No. 8 has been on display at the Cañon […]

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Union Pacific Challengers as they appeared in service

Challenger locomotive hauling a freight train on the plains.

Union Pacific Challengers in service were one of the great sights of American railroading in the 1940s and 1950s, when they were near the pinnacle of super-powered steam. Please enjoy this digitized 8mm video originally take by Dick Wallin in 1959 east of Cheyenne, Wyo. Only from Classic Trains! […]

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‘California Zephyr’ route closed by Colorado mudslides

Man unloads luggage from Superliner car

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. — Massive mudslides have washed out Union Pacific’s former Denver & Rio Grande Western route through Glenwood Canyon, east of Glenwood Springs, while also blocking part of adjacent Interstate 70. The slides not only have disrupted Amtrak’s California Zephyrs, which normally pass in the area between crew change points in Denver and […]

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Western Pacific Railroad: A railroader’s history

Streamlined orange and black diesel locomotive meeting passenger train with traits of the Western Pacific Railroad

Western Pacific Railroad history The Western Pacific Railroad almost “had it all.” It ran passenger and freight trains, in mountain and desert scenery, behind vintage steam engines that survived World War II and hauled excursions, and then colorful diesels, from early green-and-yellow FTs through orange-and-silver Fs and Geeps to dark-green second-generation EMDs and GEs. It […]

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News photo: Rocky Mountainteer test run in Colorado

Two yellow locomotives leading blue, gold, and white passenger cars

ARVADA, Colo. — Two leased Union Pacific locomotives lead a Rocky Mountaineer trainset through Arvada on Tuesday as the train made the fourth of eight test trips for familiarizing crews and onboard employees before the launch of the company’s new “Rockies to Red Rocks” service between Denver and Moab, Utah. The locomotives have been leased […]

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News photos: BNSF passenger special on Raton line

Passenger train led by two black and orange locomotives

BNSF Railway ran a special passenger movement between Kansas City and Albuquerque, N.M., last week, via the Raton and Glorieta subdivisions, in anticipation of the return of a weekly freight movement over part of the line. Officially an engineering special, the movement saw CEO Katie Farmer and some of her staff were on board the […]

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