A narrow gauge Denver & Rio Grande Western 2-8-0 that has spent the last 70 years at a California amusement park will run on “home rails” in early June following an extensive restoration at the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. After a brief series of trips into the Animas Canyon on the famed Silverton Branch, locomotive 340 will head home to Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, Calif.

Locomotive 340 was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1880 as Denver & Rio Grande Railway 400. The engine ran in Colorado until the early 1950s, when it was purchased by Walter Knott for his amusement park, along with another Colorado 2-8-0, Rio Grande Southern 41 (Baldwin, 1881).

In recent years, the D&SNG has contracted its locomotive repair services out, and recently completed a rebuild on RGS 41 in 2023. After that engine was rebuilt and sent back to California, Rio Grande 340 came east to Durango for its own rebuild. In early 2026, the rebuild was far enough along that the D&SNG announced it would be offering a series of excursions with the engine. On June 5 and 6, the engine will run to Cascade Canyon, and on June 7, it will lead a photographer’s special. For more information, visit DurangoTrain.com.

—Justin Franz