Durango & Silverton - D&SNG Museums

81301 Durango, CO, United States of America (USA) (Colorado)

In Durango, tucked in the back of the rail yard, you’ll discover the 12,000-square-foot D&SNG Railroad Museum. The Museum was created in 1998 utilizing 8 stalls of the ‘new’ 15-stall roundhouse built in 1989. It is the only narrow gauge roundhouse built in the 20th century and was built after the tragic roundhouse fire of February 1989. The silver lining when the 1881 roundhouse burned was the opportunity to build an all-new facility with modern lighting, heat, and machine shop. The larger structure allowed the chance to open a Museum to share railroad memories with the world. Many families and old railroad workers have donated or provided artifacts that tell the history of railroading, especially on the D&RGW line.

An 800-square-foot model railroad was donated as a shell and brought to life by thousands of volunteer hours to depict the 1950s operations of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad including trains passing a Drive-In theater!

Permanent displays include lanterns, locks & keys, photographs, paintings and many of the tools of railroading. Steam locomotives, railroad cars and other equipment dating back to the 1880s are available to see up-close. 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.

Business car B-7, built in 1880 and beautifully restored in 2001 as the owners’ private family car, is usually on display to see what it was like to travel the rails in the 19th century.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Class 70 Engine No. 42

On display in the Durango and Silverton RR Museum, Engine 42 was one of 6 Class 70 2-8-0 locomotives built by Baldwin in 1887 for the D&RG. The engine weighs 35 tons and pulls with 17,100 lbs of tractive effort. It was originally numbered 420.
 

Baggage Car No. 127

Was originally flat car 6630. It was rebuilt in 1968 as a baggage car for the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. No. 127 was the third concession car built by the D&SNG. It saw limited service and acted as a backup concession car. No. 127 is now used as a movie theater in the museum.

 

Discovery Museum

On the one-year anniversary of the opening of Durango's newest museum, the "Discovery Museum", it was connected to the D&S Museum via the 19th century technology of the telegraph. It was a project the two museums had been working on for over a year. With donations from D&SNG owner Al Harper and the family of the late artist Russell Steel and with the experience of ham radio operator Capp Allen, it became a reality. Amos Cordova, whose career with the D&RGW & D&SNG spanned 36 years and included literally thousands of telegraph messages across the metal lines, eagerly sat at the table and clicked out the first train orders sent in Morse code in decades!

So that the adults and kids don't have to fight over who goes first, there are two telegraph stations set up in each museum. Besides the 19th century telegraph button, you can also type messages using a 1940s-type bug or on a modern-day keyboard that converts the signal into international Morse code and lets you read the message you are typing on a monitor. You can choose to hear your message in typical railroad telegraph clicks or in beeps as used in nautical transmissions. Messages can be sent and received at either the other telegraph station in the same museum or across the wires to the telegraph station at the Discovery Museum. Be a part of history and experience the reliable means of telecommunications crucial to safe railroading!

The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad winds through spectacular & breathtaking canyons in the remote wilderness of the two-million acre San Juan National Forest for an unforgettable year-round adventure. Experience the adventure of traveling by a coal-fired, steam-powered locomotive on the same tracks miners, cowboys and settlers of the Old West took over a century ago. Relive history with the sights and sounds of yesteryear for a truly spectacular journey on board the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.

D&SNG Yard Tours

Your chance to see the inner workings of the yard and shops with an experienced guide.

Take our one-hour tour of the D&SNG yard, machine shop, roundhouse, car shop, rolling stock, and museum with one of our tour guides. Hear the history and see the behind-the-scenes operation of the railroad.

Times:
10:30 AM and 2:30 PM Daily May through October

Fares:
Adult: $ 5.00 with train ticket $10.00 without ticket
Child: $ 2.50 with train ticket $ 5.00 without ticket

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