Locomotive #30 (Class 2-8-0) was built in 1898 by Brooks Locomotive Works of Dunkirk, NY and delivered to Colorado and Northwestern Railroad (C&N). At the time, they were among the heaviest narrow gauge locomotives. It worked the Climax Mine in Leadville where is operated from 1898 to 1909. That year the C&N line went bankrupt and #30 was acquired by Denver, Boulder & Western Railroad (DB&W) to serve a Colorado based mountain tourism line, called the “Switzerland Trail of America.”
This engine had many lives, marked by derailments and loss of life. In 1901 #30 was swept off the mountain tracks by an avalanche around Frances, Colorado taking a 400-foot fall which killed two crewmen. It was rebuilt in Denver and in 1915 the tender derailed in Fourmile Canyon in Boulder County, killing a fireman.
The engine was destined to be scrapped in 1952 and was purchased by the residents of Boulder, Colorado, which raised the $6,000 to purchase and display the engine, tender and a caboose in Boulder park. In 2012 the city of Boulder performed a cosmetic restoration thanks to a grant and when work on the engine was completed it was moved to the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden.
