Mile-high historic trains at the Colorado Railroad Museum

The entrance to the Colorado Railroad Museum is a replica of a small-town railroad depot from the late 1800s. 

Check out our full tour at Rails in the Rockies: A tour around the Colorado Railroad Museum.

Exit the main museum building, and you've got this beautiful locomotive built by Brooks Locomotive Works. The 2-8-0 design, which was popular in the late 1800s, meant there were two lead wheels, eight driven wheels and no trailing wheels.

You can even go inside to see the boiler and and ring the bell, which of course I did.

Behind the engine is a kitchen car. 

It looks similar to kitchens you'd find in homes of the era.

Transporting mail was a huge part of the success of early railroads.

The US Postal Service realized that sorting the mail aboard the train was extremely efficient. This example, RPO car #254, was built in 1922.

This stubby engine is an 0-4-2T from the Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway in Colorado.

This EMD SW900 locomotive, one of 371 built, is powered by an 8-cylinder, two-stroke diesel engine with 900 horsepower.

Inside the cab of this SW900 is a simple control panel. 

This is one of several cabooses at the museum. 

This caboose served on the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad; it's been updated with tables, chairs, and electricity. It can be rented out for private events.

The Denver Garden Railway Society maintains the museum's garden railway and often runs G scale trains much to the delight of... well, everyone. They let me put a camera on one of the trains as it went around. Check it out.

This caboose was part of the last freight train to run on the Rio Grande Southern Railroad in Colorado.

One of my favorite train designs, the EMD F9, was part of EMD's legendary F-unit locomotive series built from 1939 to 1960. They were the first successful diesel locomotive in main line service and were used on many of the nation's most famous long-distance routes, including the Super Chief, El Capitan, California Zephyr and Empire Builder. They also were featured in numerous movies from the era. 

This fearsome beast is a rotary snowplow. This unit, #99201, served on the Colorado and Southern Railway, and was built by Cooke Locomotive Works in 1900.

The 9-foot diameter blades can rapidly clear snow far faster than the older wedge-shaped plows.

Despite looking like a locomotive, the steam engine was used only to power the blades.

This 0-6-0 locomotive was built in 1920 by the Lima Locomotive Works. 

It was used as a switcher engine at Denver Union Terminal. This means it connected and disconnected, as well as moved, other train cars around the station.

This stainless steel observation and sleeper car traveled on the Super Chief line between Los Angeles and Chicago. The museum is looking for funds to completely restore it.

This is the front of the observation car on the Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway.

Built in 1946, it was powered by two Cummins diesels.

Every rail yard deserves a cool roundhouse. This one's more than just a cool building: It's also where staff repairs and maintains the locomotives. 

The museum restoration efforts are a big reason why so many of the locomotives can still move under their own power, a rarity for train museums.

This tiny railyard switcher locomotive was part of the Golden City & San Juan Railroad.

This 55-ton switcher built by GE saw service in Pennsylvania before eventually making its way to the museum.

This is a Baldwin 2-8-0 Consolidation-type locomotive.

The turntable lets the museum move locomotives and train cars in and out of service, and into any of the roundhouses bays. Even though it can hold a massive steam locomotive it's so well balanced that even kids can spin it.

I've always felt this EMD SD40T-2, in its original Denver & Rio Grande livery, is a serious-looking machine.

This tank holds 4,000 gallons of diesel for the 3,000hp V-16.

This Baldwin 2-8-0, #683, is the only surviving standard-gauge steam engine from the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. It was built in 1890.

This 2,250 horsepower locomotive is an EMD GP30.

This caboose is sort of famous. It's what they used for the model in the Ant-Man movie during the toy train fight.

I don't think I've ever been inside a legit caboose before. They're adorable. This is how I want to travel from now on.

Nope, there's nothing to see here.

This 2-8-0 is the oldest steam locomotive in Colorado, built by Baldwin in 1880.

This 4-8-4 O-5B class is one of the last of the big steam locomotives and the largest at the museum. In its short service life it hauled passengers and freight.

Learn more about the museum and our tour at Rails in the Rockies: A tour around the Colorado Railroad Museum.