Eureka! It’s 146 Year Old Engines across The Cumbres (Glenbrook too!)

Did you know that time machines are real? Well, we found the Eureka and Glenbrook, two 146-year-old (at the time) steam locomotives that look right off the Baldwin factory floor in Philadelphia.

Join us as we go back to August of 2021 on the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad as the delayed Victorian Iron Horse Roundup, a celebration of pre-1900 locomotion was underway at the famed ex-Denver and Rio Grande Western line.

Both locomotives featured in this video stand out from the newer, but still historic coal and oil burners that were also part of the VIHR and C&TS daily operations, but easily set apart by their ornate scroll work and pin striping that adorne these beasts.

The Eureka was built for the Eureka and Palisade Railroad of, well, Palisade and Eureka Nevada, a line built to service the mines of the area. It would eventually become cast off and part of a lumber operation in California before becoming the property of Warner Brothers Studios and staring alongside actors such as John Wayne, and Ricardo Montalban (KHAN!). Eventually, the locomotive would be cast off to a theme park, "Old Vegas", outside the "New" Las Vegas (Las Vegas New Mexico is much MUCH older). The locomotive sat in repose until a catastrophic fire wiped out much of the park, including damaging the locomotive. Saved by Las Vegas based attorney Dan Markoff, the Eureka made her debut in restoration in the early 1990's and is now in its historic paint scheme (though now with air brakes).

The Glenbrook was built for the Carson & Tahoe Lumber & Fluming Company (double ampersands was legit apparently) and its operation on the eastern shores of Lake Tahoe (The Ponderosa? What a Bonanza) where it served hauling lumber for the mines served by the Virgina and Truckee Railroad near Carson City in Virgina City. After the lumber harvest ceased, the lcoomtovie moved to the opposing shore, hauling tourists from the Southern Pacific mainline at Truckee to the shores of Tahoe. Once that narrow gauge line was converted to Standard Gauge, the engine served as a parts source to sister Tahoe at the Nevada County Narrow Gauge in Califorina. After the abandonment of the NCNG, the locomotive eventually made its way to the Nevada State Railroad Musuem where she's been recently returned to operation.

Both locomotives ran on the Cumbres and Toltec on the eastern flank of Cumbres Pass, and never going past Big Horn while I was in initial attendance.