Cheyenne Depot and Harry Brunk

We have had a visit to the Railroad Depot in Cheyenne Wyoming on our bucket list for quite some time now. We finally took the time to go.

This former Union Pacific railroad station has been lovingly restored and now is the home of a great railroad museum and a wonderful model railroad built by Harry Brunk. It is the latter we most wished to see. 

Harry Brunk is a man of many talents. He is a commercial artist, historian, model builder and writer. He has used these skills to research the Colorado and Southern narrow gauge railroad and write 160 articles about its history for the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette as well as build models of each of the articles for use on his model railroad. This railroad was built in a 12' x 65' Detroiter mobile home over a thirty year period. He called his model railroad the Union Central and Northern RR - UC&N RR.

Eventually the mobile home severely deteriorated and the layout was at risk for being lost. A home was found in the second floor baggage loft of the Cheyenne Depot, the mobile home was transported from Nebraska and the layout moved into position.

The railroad museum on the main floor documents the history of the Union  Pacific railroad

I especially enjoyed reading about the gas turbine engines.

They have highly detailed models of steam engines built of various types of wood

Nice model of the depot

Lots of great art work on display 

Harry Brunk's model railroad is on the second floor in a former attic space

Various parts of the railroad are explained in detail.

The engines Harry built are now display items. The ones operating on the railroad are commercially available units from Blackstone. They wear out every five years or so due to constant operation.

This structure was a dance pavilion the C&S railroad transported passengers to for entertainment 

This is how the layout was arranged when in the mobile home

Harry made patterns and cast most of the details for the layout.

I especially like his treatment of water.

He has modeled the Georgetown loop 

The railroad is fitted among the rafters of the attic.

Volunteers maintain the railroad and serve as docents telling the history and running trains

I enjoyed seeing the railroad.

This glass enclosed area is equipped with comfortable chairs to enable hours of weather proof train watching of the UP rail yards, a rail fans delight.

More interesting art work

This is an example of the interior finish of the depot. They have a train show here during "Depot Days" and this area is full of model railroad suppliers.

Giant boots are found all over town. I think they were used as fund raisers.

It was a bit windy the day we were there - don't miss it when travelling thru.

Running around the Mountains

 We spent some time in various Colorado towns checking out the latest and greatest. This is what we found.

Cimmaron is the location of a nice narrow gauge display and if you travel back into the canyon a bit you'll find one of the few remaining narrow gauge bridges. This is normally a base for the narrow gauge train located on top, but while the train engine and cars were out being refurbished they found the bridge needed some attention also. It appears the repair work is now complete as the bridge looks pretty good.

While in Ouray we checked out the Hot Springs Pool. The pool has been upgraded with all kinds of new features including a water slide.

The fire department was getting ready for July 4th in the park

We found all kinds of new (to us) things in Ridgeway. We wanted to find the railroad rights of way coming into Ridgeway from the North for both the D&RGW and the Rio Grande Southern. Turns out the D&RGW ROW is now a walking/bike trail and is well marked.

Portions of this bridge are link and pin construction

The railroad museum in Ridgway is moving a little further north and has constructed a sizable loop of track to allow operation. I assume this is primarily for their recreated motor car. Nice to see the efforts they are putting into the museum.

Good sized loop of track

Lake City has their Arts Center where we were able to enjoy a melodrama about how Dracula dealt with the mid life crisis of turning 400 years old.