Welcome to another Big Train Tour at the Colorado Railroad Museum! This month, we’ll be taking a look at a standard gauge locomotive built in 1920 for the Union Pacific Railroad. After spending its final 20-plus years operating in Wyoming, this railroad workhorse was donated to the Museum in 1972. Restored today to its pre-World War II appearance, and displayed at the Museum in Golden, Union Pacific steam switcher number 4455 is a Colorado classic.
Our subject today was one of nearly 200 similar steam locomotives built to switch freight and passenger cars around Union Pacific’s many yards and terminals systemwide. For over a decade, it was assigned to switching duties in Denver, including Denver Union Station. Then, it was sold off to a Wyoming cement-plant railroad, where it spent another two decades hauling trainloads of rock before coming to the Colorado Railroad Museum.
Join Executive Director, Paul Hammond as we explore the history of this seemingly unremarkable yet important locomotive.
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Watch Big Train Tour: Snow Fighting on the Railroad
Music by Hyce!
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