Ridgway Railroad Museum

The Ridgway Railroad Museum is dedicated to the preservation of the history of railroading in Ouray County and surrounding areas.

Open daily June-September, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Open daily in May and October, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Railroad Museum Events

September 21 – 24 : Ouray County Railroad Days

Work week is a one-week long work session where volunteers put in four eight-hour days working on museum projects, followed by a one-day field trip. Anyone can help. We do everything from serious carpentry to painting to archival research to laying track. The outside work can get pretty physical. We typically have about 12 people, about half are local, half come from as far away as California and Texas. Other railroad museums and organizations have similar programs, notably the Cumbres & Toltec in Chama, NM and Antonito, CO - they have three work sessions with a one-week break; our week is timed to fall into that break, so some of our workers work in Chama, then come here, then go back to Chama. With a good crew and four eight-hour days, with all materials and tools on hand, we get a tremendous amount done in a short period of time. All of our members worldwide know about these dates, but we welcome locals, and would like to see more local participation, not just at work week but at the museum in general - we also have work sessions every Tuesday morning, except during winter. We provide free lunches, drinks and snacks each day. So it's not a big event where we try to pull in hundreds of people, but more local participation from people who want to dive in and do some serious work (and make good friends in the process) would definitely be welcome.