Cheyenne Depot Museum

Come down to the Museum to see the newly rebuilt Walschaerts Steam Engine exhibition! The panel describes the Walschaerts Valve Gear process. It's more complicated than this but basically, in the boiler water is converted into high-pressure steam. This steam then pushes the pistons attached to the locomotive wheels, giving them power to move. It's also interactive! Turn the crank and watch the mechanics of how the wheels turn.

Unsure of when this photo was taken, but it had to be before 1956 when the Spanish-Colonial style building on the left was torn down. That building, originally the Colorado & Southern/Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Depot, was constructed in 1929 after the Warren Emporium was demolished. The branch line that served this small depot was moved to the west side of Cheyenne in 1956 and became the BNSF yard.

In 1908 the gigantic Chicago, Burlington & Quincy bought a controlling interest in the Colorado & Southern. These two railroads were later absorbed into the Burlington Northern Railroad, which then acquired the Atchinson, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway and formed the BNSF.

But, aside from the BNSF history lesson, I bet someone can date this photo by the cars in the parking lot.

Sketch for "Up Clear Creek" Part 120, by Harry W. Brunk. Harry spent over 30 years handcrafting everything from the scenery to the rolling stock for the UC&N model railroad. He created amazing drawings, like this one, during the making of the UC&N HOn3 model.

Based on the historic Colorado & Southern (C&S) Railroad, Brunk modeled the towns seen along the route from photographs, maps, plans, and other documents from the late 1920s and early 1930s. Visitors often comment on specific scratch-built buildings along the route and how they are still identifiable today.

The layout begins in Golden, CO - added by the volunteers as a turnaround point - when the UC&N was installed. Running up through Clear Creek Canyon, past the Argo Mill, through Idaho Springs and then around the Georgetown Loop to Silver Plume, the views along the way are breathtaking.

Brunk said that "(t)he UC&N would not be a scale replica of the (Colorado & Southern's) Clear Creek line exactly - it would represent elements of the prototype Clear Creek line, but it would be named the Clear Creek Division of Union Central & Northern - thus even though my locomotives and cars were strictly based on C&S prototypes, they would be lettered for UC&N."

The UC&N's development has been chronicled in over 150 magazine articles over the years starting in 1980. Those articles are collected in two books, Up Clear Creek and More Up Clear Creek. The articles detail every aspect of the model from the beginning, starting with the Forks Creek section.

Through the generosity of Mr. Brunk and Mr. Rick Steele, owner of LaBelle Woodworking, the UC&N was donated to the Cheyenne Depot Museum for the enjoyment of history buffs, families, and model railroaders. Come down to the Depot and see the UC&N in person!

Photo from the lobby in 2004, when the first boots were brought in for the start of the Big Boot project! The boots are sitting on the floor where the map is now, it was installed in 2008.

Cheyenne Depot, March 22, 1887. The second Cheyenne Union Pacific Depot was constructed between March 1886 and November 1887. The primary material was polychrome sandstone that was quarried from west of Fort Collins, Colorado, and delivered to the depot site on flatcars. The work began on March 15, 1886, but within three days, the workers went on strike to agitate for a wage of $2 per day. The strike was resolved quickly.

By the time UP began building the depot, Cheyenne had grown in size and importance. The Army established Fort D.A. Russell and a supply depot, Camp Carlin. Cheyenne had been chosen as the seat of the territorial legislature and would remain the capitol as the territory became a state. However, the largest contributors to Cheyenne's success were the cattle ranchers and the railroad.

The summer of 1886 was incredibly dry and the winter that followed was the worst since settlers had arrived. Thousands of cattle died, with some ranchers losing up to 85% of their herds. The cattle industry that had shone so brightly in Cheyenne was snuffed out and many ranchers took what remained of their fortunes and abandoned the city. If construction had not been well on its way to completion, it is unlikely that UP would have built Cheyenne's grand depot. (Courtesy of Wyoming State Archives)

Stereograph card of Lime Kiln Cut, Granite Canon, circa 1868. Photo by Andrew Joseph Russell, official photographer of the Union Pacific in the Wyoming and Utah territories in 1868. Granite Canon (also Granite Canyon) is in Laramie County, west of Cheyenne.

Union Pacific Depot and Hotel in approximately 1880. This is the second hotel built, the first was destroyed by fire on December 12, 1871. This building burned down in 1886. Sparks and embers from steam locomotives frequently ignited wood structures along the route.

Come down to the Depot and check out the train on the back patio! James Overstreet did a great job repainting it!

This is Myrtle Peterson Forney handing orders to a conductor as the train speeds by Sherman Station, between Cheyenne and Laramie, circa 1943-1945. Instead of stopping the train to receive orders, they were clipped to a hoop, or in this case, a "Y" shaped stick so that they could be caught by someone on the moving train.

If a crew member missed the catch, the train had to stop so that a crew member could walk back to the station to pick up the paperwork. (Photo courtesy of the Life Between the Rails Oral History Project, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.)

The Museum has a new exhibition about Working on the Railroad! Come down to check it out and listen to stories from the many different people that helped shape the railroad into what it is today! Thank you to the Wyoming Humanities for a Spark Grant and to the GFWC Women's Civic League of Cheyenne for a Community Grant that made this exhibition possible.