Colorado Railroad Museum

17155 W 44th Ave, Golden, CO 80403, USA

If you’re into trains (or your kids are) this museum is a ferroequinologist’s (a person who studies trains) paradise. This museum houses over 100 steam and diesel locomotives, passenger cars, and cabooses as well as a G-scale model railroad in its 15-acre rail yard. There is also a restoration facility and working round table that will wow curious minds and train fans.

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On the Railroad

If you’re into trains (or your kids are) this museum is a ferroequinologist’s (a person who studies trains) paradise. This museum houses over 100 steam and diesel locomotives, passenger cars, and cabooses as well as a G-scale model railroad in its 15-acre rail yard. There is also a restoration facility and working round table that will wow curious minds and train fans.

Colorado Railway Museum

Just outside of Golden, CO, this museum is a good time whether you’re a ferroequinologist (read: iron horse enthusiast) or not. The strength of the collection is in the fine antique engines, from flashy yellow Art Deco passenger engines to early steam engines to a tiny cog railway engine to massive Diesel engines to the (frankly sort of alarming) red snow-blower engine to the (utterly bizarre) truck-like creations known as the “galloping geese” for the way they waddle down the track. The interior of the museum isn’t much to see, and some of their non-engine cars need additional restoration work, but the exterior grounds -- including a huge, working roundhouse -- more than make it worth the trip. Plus, I learned what kinds of cocktails they served in the post-prohibition dining car and the origin of the phrase “putting the squeeze on.” (It comes from using water, not steam, in a locomotive boiler in order to check for leaks.)

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