A genuine coal-burning steam locomotive will haul costumed kids and their families around a historic railyard in Golden this weekend, as the Colorado Railroad Museum stages its annual Harvest Haunt Express on Saturday and Sunday. The Halloween-themed steam-up event runs October 17 and October 18, with museum grounds open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the haunted-themed activities running from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day.
According to the Denver Gazette, guests are encouraged to wear costumes for trick-or-treating and can ride what the museum calls the Olde Railroaders Silly Graveyard and “not-so-spooky” haunted railcars. A Colorado steam locomotive pulls the trains using authentic coal-burning power, and the event also features a hay bale maze and a pumpkin patch cart set up for photos. Treats and lunch are available for purchase on-site, though the event charges regular admission and train ride pricing rather than a separate Halloween fee.
The museum itself sits on a 15-acre railyard at 17155 West 44th Avenue, wedged between North Table Mountain and Clear Creek roughly 10 miles west of downtown Denver, according to Spotatrain. The site sits in Golden’s Clear Creek Valley, and the loop track used for Harvest Haunt Express rides stretches one-third of a mile around the property, anchored by the Cornelius W. Hauck Restoration Facility and its working 90-foot Armstrong turntable. An observation gallery there lets visitors watch active restoration work on historic rail equipment while they wait for their ride.
A Nonprofit Built to Save a Vanishing Rail Culture
The museum was founded in 1959 by Robert W. Richardson and Cornelius W. Hauck to preserve the history of Colorado’s narrow-gauge mountain lines, many of which were shutting down at the time, and it was transferred to the nonprofit Colorado Railroad Historical Foundation in 1964, per the museum’s own account of its history. Its main depot building, designed to replicate an 1880s train station, stands on grounds that display over 100 historic locomotives and railcars, while the Robert W. Richardson Library houses more than 10,000 historic photographs, according to American-Rails.com. That collection focuses heavily on the 3-foot narrow-gauge lines that once threaded through Colorado’s mountains…