D&SNG Museums

Experience the Railroad’s Colorful History in the D&SNGRR Museums

A ride on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is spectacular in itself, but a visit to either of the D&SNG museums is the perfect way to complete your experience. 

In Durango, the 12,000 square foot museum houses an impressive variety of exhibits including an 800-square foot HO & HOn3 scale model railroad depicting the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad as it would operate in the 1950s; a large library selection of railroad history books; exhibit cases with a large selection of railroad tool displays, photographs; paintings; lanterns, locks and keys; steam locomotives, vintage railroad cars and a 1916 American La France fire engine. Adults and kids alike will enjoy the chance to explore the cab of a locomotive, see the view from the fireman and engineer’s seats, and handle the levers and gauges they have only seen from afar. A luggage car built as a prop for the movie “Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid” is now a movie theatre showing videos on the railroad’s history and also on the maintenance and reconstruction of a steam locomotive. 

The museum was created in 1998 by utilizing a portion of an engine storage facility which had been built after the roundhouse fire in 1989 as an eight-stall addition to the roundhouse. When current railroad owners Allen and Carol Harper bought the railroad, the museum was set up with exhibits and staffed to allow a real museum experience.

In addition to the D&SNG museum, a small satellite museum operates in the Silverton Depot with its exhibits focused on the mining industry in Silverton and the Denver & Rio Grande’s and Otto Mear’s three railroads out of Silverton serving those mines.

Admission to both museums is free to the public, so be sure to visit! The Silverton museum is open May – October and the Durango museum is open year-round with the exception of early November. Please check with the ticket office for exact dates and times. We look forward to sharing our history with you.

DURANGO MUSEUM:
Winter: Open 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. on dates the train is running.
Summer Train Season: Open daily 7 a.m - 7 p.m. peak season and 7 a.m. - 6 p.m. May, early June and October.

SILVERTON MUSEUM:
Summer Train Season: open daily 10:30 a.m. until last train leaves Silverton
Closed November - early May (until train returns service to Silverton).

Click here to go to Summer Train Season schedule.
Click here to go to Winter Cascade Canyon schedule.

Be sure to ask about our behind-the-scenes tours of the Durango yard and shops!
Click here to go to our Yard Tour page!

Here is what some visitors wrote on Trip Advisor:
"Free Museum is fun for train lovers as well as casual tourists" Reviewed August 24, 2011. We didn't go on the train ride as we took a driving tour of the the San Juan Loop instead, but the museum was a wonderful slice of history. Not only is there info on the various trains/railways in the area, but the working round table is fun to watch in action. The museum has artifacts from the past, maps, mini train displays, full size train displays, newspapers, and more. ...It was definitely worth a stop to see.
Visited August 2011 from Dallas, Texas

If you enjoy history, please visit other Museums in the Durango area:

Be sure to visit the Animas Museum!  www.animasmuseum.org  Show your D&S train ticket to receive $1.00 off Adult Admission, $.50 off child admission and  $5.00 off an annual Membership! 

Visit Durango's Discovery Museum at www.durangodiscovery.org

In Silverton visit San Juan Historical Society Museum in Silverton CO

At Mesa Verde visit the Anasazi Heritage Center