Colorado Model Railroad Museum

About

The Mission of the Colorado Model Railroad Museum is to provide a model railroading experience that educates, inspires, and brings joy to all ages.

The Vision for the future of the museum is to use model railroading as an avenue for human creativity.

Story

Colorado Model Railroad Museum, formerly known as Greeley Freight Station Museum, houses America's largest HO Scale prototypical model train layout.

The building has 9,500 square feet on the main floor and another 2,000 feet in mezzanine, storage and break room space. The featured element, a 5,500 sq. foot HO gauge model railroad layout, has ten separate wiring systems, 20+ scale miles of mainline track, hundreds of buildings (many of which have been scratch built), thousands of hand made trees and scenery never before attempted on a model railroad. The layout is configured so that it might operate automatically in a “show” mode (called docent mode), and in manual “operational” mode for train running sessions. The wharf areas feature ships that are fully operational “in the field”, along with a full-scale model of the 729 foot ore carrier, Edmund Fitzgerald.

The museum displays over 1,100 railroad artifacts from across the United States. Signals, signs, keys, locks, photos, tools, towels, passes, timetables, lanterns, etc. The largest “artifact” is the last wooden caboose from the Colorado and Southern railroad to be operated on that railroad's system: C&S caboose 10583, which was retired in 1974. The caboose is fully furnished inside and out and is open for public inspection when the museum is open.

The museum is located between two actual railroad properties: the Union Pacific on the east and the Great Western on the west, so visitors can also “train watch” during their visit to the museum.