Rio Grande Southern 4-6-0 20 is scheduled to travel to the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad in early 2026. The journey from the locomotive’s home base at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden to southwest Colorado will be a kind of homecoming for the locomotive that once operated in that part of the state.
Locomotive 20 was built by the Schenectady Locomotive Works in 1899 for the Florence & Cripple Creek Railroad. It was sold to the Rio Grande Southern — which operated between Durango and Ridgeway — in 1916 and ran until 1951. The locomotive was briefly displayed before being moved to the Colorado Railroad Museum in 1959. It returned to service in 2020, and since then has operated at CRM and traveled to the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic.
RGS 20 is expected to travel to Durango later this year and will operate on several excursions in January and February before returning home next spring, where it will participate in a Florence & Cripple Creek Reunion in May. During that event, the locomotive will be joined by another F&CC veteran, Denver & Rio Grande Western 2-8-0 315, which is owned by the Durango Railroad Historical Society and can normally be found on the C&TS. Locomotive 315 will be in Golden later this year to lead Polar Express excursions.
The Colorado Railroad Museum and Durango & Silverton are working together to restore a Rio Grande Southern caboose ahead of RGS 20’s visit this winter.
“With the economic ups and downs of 19th and 20th-century railroading, it was common for one locomotive over time to work for different railroads,” said Paul Hammond, executive director of the Colorado Railroad Museum. “Today, with Colorado’s unparalleled scenic and tourist and museum railroads partnering together for the future, it makes sense to travel some of the most iconic locomotives around the state from time to time. For the Colorado Railroad Museum, the benefit is exposing new audiences to the history and magic of riding trains pulled by these amazing, transformative, and historic machines.”
Tickets are now on sale, via the D&SNG website, for the trips behind 20.
Meanwhile, CRM is fast-tracking the restoration of a home-built RGS caboose in hopes that it will be ready to join locomotive 20 during this winter’s upcoming excursions. The caboose, 0404, is currently at the D&SNG where it is being restored with the help of a $40,000 challenge grant from the Narrow Gauge Preservation Foundation.
—Justin Franz