Experience The Railroads Colorful History - In the D&SNGRR Museum
by Greg Picard & Andrea Seid

A ride on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is spectacular in itself, but a visit to the museum is the perfect way to complete your experience. The 12,000 square foot museum houses an impressive variety of exhibits including an 800-square foot scale model railroad depicting the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad as it would operate in the 1950s; a large library selection of railroad history books; exhibit cases with a large selection of railroad tool displays, photographs; paintings; lanterns, locks and keys; two steam locomotives, and a 1916 American La France fire engine.

Adults and kids alike will enjoy the chance to explore the cab of a locomotive, see the view from the fireman and engineer's seats, and handle the levers and gauges they have only seen from afar. A converted luggage car is now a movie theatre showing videos on the railroad's history and also on the maintenance and reconstruction of a steam locomotive.

The museum was created in 1998 by utilizing a portion of an engine storage facility, which had been built after the roundhouse fire in 1989 as an eight-stall addition to the roundhouse. When current railroad owners Allen and Carol Harper bought the railroad, the museum was set up with exhibits and staffed to allow a real museum experience.

In addition to the D&SNG museum, a small satellite museum operates in the Silverton freight yard building with its exhibits focused on the mining industry in Silverton and the Denver & Rio Grande's and Otto Mear's three railroads out of Silverton serving those mines.

Admission to both museums is included with the price of a train ticket, so be sure to visit! The Silverton museum is open May - October and the Durango museum is open year-round with the exception of early November. Please check with the ticket office for exact dates and times. We look forward to sharing our history with you.

Ask us about our behind-the-scenes yard tours.