SPEAKER

Smoky Hill was pleased to welcome Donald Tallman, Director of the Colorado Railroad Museum to be our speaker Monday. Donald is in his 10th year with the museum. He describes himself as the first "non-train enthusiast" to hold the position. Some highlights of his talk:

*The Museum is located in Golden, having been founded in 1958. At that time, many railroads, partuclarly the narrow gauge ones, were going out of business and much of the history associated with them was disappearing.
*From its modes beginnings, the museums npw has more than 100 cars, a 1/3 mile track, and turntable, roundhouse, and library full of original railroad documents.
*Through the library, the museum self publishes its own pamphlets and books. They recently did a cookbook and a small monograph on Colorado water tanks. The library has an extensive collections of vintage maps dating back to the 1880's.
*The museum does extensive restoration on cars, engines, etc. This is an expensive process since many parts have to be manufactured.
*The museum makes extensive use of volunteers. Last year, volunteers contributed more than 30,000 hours.
*The museum's special events include the Bunny Express at Easter, a Wild West Days (including, of course, a train robbery), the Dinosaur Train, and the Polar Express Train at Christmas.

Great program!