“Rio Grande to Abandon Tracks in Aspen,” declared the Aspen Illustrated News on Aug. 8, 1968. “The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad has officially notified the Aspen city council that the ...

The Colorado Railroad Museum, Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, and Durango Railroad Historical Society have ...

There’s a pair of stories in this week’s Time Machine (that’s our “this week in local history” column, publishing on Monday) which explain more — but after the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad ...

Rides on a steam train pulled by Denver & Rio Grande Western No. 491 (Colorado’s largest operating coal-fired steam locomotive). The train this day will be a “Mixed Train” of coaches and freight cars, ...

Wikimedia Commons. William Henry Jackson took this photo of the railroad tracks snaking through the Royal Gorge in 1886, six years after the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad won its court battle and ...

The Denver & Rio Grande (reorganized into the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad in 1925) now had this oddball line that, in hindsight, long served its intended purpose.

In 1881, the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad was expanding in six different directions at once, transforming vast regions of Colorado and Utah. That was the year of explosive growth for the railroad.

Families can expect to see models and displays indoors showcasing life around the Western Slope as well as the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad as it was in the 1950s.

The museum also has one of my favorite locomotive designs, an EMD F9 in Denver & Rio Grande Western livery. If you think of a mid-20th century locomotive, this is probably what you're picturing.