By Justin Franz

DURANGO, Colo. — There’s an old adage that you should never take your work home with you. Well, no one told that to Kyle Colley, a Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge employee who took a 3-foot gauge Railway Post Office car home with him with after work a few weeks ago. On June 15, Colley moved former Denver & Rio Grande Western RPO 119 from its long-time home in the Durango yard to his backyard outside of town where he plans on restoring it.

Kyle Colley

Colley, 20, is a Durango native and has held almost every position on the narrow gauge railroad from Polar Express elf to fireman and conductor. He’s currently training to be an engineer. While Colley has plenty to work on at the D&SNG (during the offseason he works in the shop), he’s always wanted a project to call his own. A few years ago, he discovered RPO 119 sitting forgotten in the Durango rail yard and thought that it might just be the project he had been looking for. 

The car was built in 1882 for excursion service and was later rebuilt into a post office car for use on the famous San Juan Express from Alamosa to Durango, via Cumbres Pass. In 1924, the car was lengthened and rebuilt to strength standards set by the U.S. Postal Service (in the late 19th and early 20th century, railway mail clerks were frequently killed in accidents). The car remained in mail service until 1951 when the Rio Grande put it in work train service. The car later ended up in Durango and was part of the sale of the Rio Grande’s Silverton Branch that created the D&SNG in 1981. While other D&RGW RPO cars have been preserved over the years — some have been turned into concession cars and one has been restored as an RPO on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic — car 119 sat in obscurity. In recent years it was used for storage in the Durango yard and as a home for some stray cats. 

Earlier this year, Colley approached the D&SNG management about taking the car off the railroad’s hands. The railroad agreed to sell the car and in June it was trucked out of the Durango yard. Colley had initially planned on funding the project himself — “It’s my money pit, I don’t want it to be a burden on anyone else,” he joked — but when some people found out about the effort they wanted to make a donation so he has since set up a Go Fund Me page. Now that the car is at his house, he has been cleaning out rotten wood and debris. Once that’s done, he hopes to host regular work sessions as part of the restoration. “I’d really like to make this a group effort,” he said. Colley plans on restoring the car to its 1920s appearance. Once it’s road-worthy, he hopes to bring it back to the D&SNG or the C&TS. 

Colley has created a Facebook page to keep people up-to-date on his progress.