The scene might be almost anywhere along the Denver & Rio Grande’s narrow gauge in the years before 1950. But on November 14, 1965, engine 346, the Cumbres, pauses to replenish its tender for another operating weekend at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, near Denver. The 1881 Baldwin-built C-19 is the oldest operating steam engine in the state, a relic of the years little 2-8-0s hauled coal, lumber and livestock through the mountains of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico.. Wrecked in 1936 runaway while on loan to Colorado & Southern, repaired in Burlington’s Denver shops, and sold to a small lumber road, the engine was set aside in 1950 when the late Robert W. Richardson bought her for display at his Narrow Gauge Motel in Alamosa. Richardson moved his collection to Golden, established the museum, and the 346 has been its centerpiece since her first run here in 1962.
