Wyoming Railroad Museums (2026): A Complete Guide

Published: October 16, 2026

Wyoming’s railroad museums are Union Pacific buildings and one Burlington steam locomotive. The Cheyenne depot, completed in 1887, is a National Historic Landmark with a model railroad inside and no train of its own. Douglas keeps Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 4-8-4 No. 5633 beside an 1886 depot. Laramie’s 1924 depot is the last building from the railroad’s old shop town. Big Boy No. 4004 stands in a city park. The operating Big Boy is a different engine.

Union Pacific’s station in Cheyenne, Wyoming, circa 1984. Richardsonian Romanesque, 1880s, sandstone quarried near Fort Collins, Colorado. Now home to the Cheyenne Depot Museum. Mike Bledsoe photo. American-Rails.com collection.

Wyoming has no full-size tourist railroad on the 2026 calendar. Public trips for No. 4014, when Union Pacific posts them, are on the Wyoming scenic-train guide. American-Rails does not sell tickets.

On this page: At a glance · Wyoming railroads · Cheyenne · Douglas · Laramie · Evanston · Related reading

At a glance

Place	Town	What it is known for	Site
Cheyenne Depot Museum	Cheyenne	Union Pacific depot completed in November 1887. Richardsonian Romanesque. National Historic Landmark. Harry W. Brunk’s model railroad	cheyennedepotmuseum.org · Cheyenne depot
Holliday Park	Cheyenne	Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4004, Alco, September 1941, on outdoor display since 1963	Big Boy
Douglas Railroad Interpretive Center	Douglas	1886 Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley depot. Burlington 4-8-4 No. 5633. Opened as a museum in 1995	City of Douglas
Laramie Railroad Depot	Laramie	Union Pacific depot opened October 6, 1924. Tools and memorabilia. National Register, 1988	laramiedepot.org
Evanston roundhouse	Evanston	Union Pacific roundhouse of 1912, restored as a public complex. The 1900 depot is a community building	City of Evanston

Wyoming railroads

The first railroad in Wyoming Territory was the Union Pacific, building west to meet the Central Pacific. Track reached Cheyenne on November 14, 1867. The state page quotes the Chicago Tribune of November 16, which reported that the day before, at five in the afternoon, the track gangs had finished into the city. That was the first 43 miles. The two companies met at Promontory Summit on May 10, 1869. The story of that meeting is on the transcontinental railroad page. Wyoming became a state on July 10, 1890.

Cheyenne is still where the Union Pacific’s eastern mains come together. Sherman Hill is the climb west of town, toward Laramie. The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy built the other through route, and BNSF holds it now. The Chicago & North Western’s Cowboy Line ran west to Lander and was abandoned in the early 1990s. Union Pacific and BNSF share the Powder River Basin coal line. The Colorado & Wyoming and the Bighorn Divide & Wyoming are the short industrial names. Amtrak does not stop in the state. The state account is the Wyoming railroads page. Neighbors with their own museum pages are Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Utah.

Cheyenne

The Cheyenne Depot Museum occupies the Union Pacific depot at 121 West 15th Street. Van Brunt & Howe of Boston, with Henry Van Brunt, designed it in the Richardsonian Romanesque. Work was under way in 1886, and the museum’s construction account says the building was finished, except for the clock, in November 1887. The four-face clock went into the tower in January 1890. A wing was added in 1922. The depot was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 29, 1973, and designated a National Historic Landmark on February 15, 2006. The museum calls it the last of the grand nineteenth-century depots on the transcontinental railroad.

Union Pacific gave the building to the City of Cheyenne and Laramie County in 1993. The museum is on the first floor. Upstairs are offices. The layout visitors come to see is Harry W. Brunk’s Union Central & Northern, a narrow-gauge model railroad. The building article on this site is the Cheyenne depot page. Hours and admission are the museum’s to post.

Big Boy No. 4004 is not inside the depot. It has stood outdoors at Holliday Park, at 17th Street and Morrie Avenue, since it was moved there on June 28, 1963. Alco built it in September 1941. It is one of the eight survivors. The roster and the other seven are on the Big Boy page. The operating engine, No. 4014, and 4-8-4 No. 844 are kept at the Cheyenne steam shop. Union Pacific describes that shop as an active railroad facility, not a place to walk into. The museum sometimes arranges a tour. No. 4014’s own article is 4014, and any public trip belongs on the scenic guide. In the summer of 2026 the city also placed restored passenger cars on display along 15th Street, beside the depot. That is an outdoor exhibit, separate from the museum floor.

Douglas

The Douglas Railroad Interpretive Center is the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley passenger depot at 121 Brownfield Road. The railroad reached the new town on August 26, 1886, and the wooden depot went up the same year, a standard building for a Chicago & North Western subsidiary at the end of the line. Passenger service ended around 1950. The city opened the depot as the interpretive center in 1995. It was listed on the National Register on August 3, 1994.

The locomotive on the grounds is Chicago, Burlington & Quincy No. 5633, a 4-8-4 built at the Burlington’s West Burlington shops in September 1940, class O-5A. It was retired in 1962, given to the State of Wyoming that year, and given to the city in 1993. It does not run. Passenger cars stand with it, and some of them are open to walk through when the museum is open. The consist and the hours are the city’s to post. This is a static collection on track that does not connect to a train ride.

Laramie

The Laramie Railroad Depot, at 600 South 1st Street, opened on October 6, 1924. It replaced the Union Pacific depot and hotel that burned in 1917, and the new site let the railroad straighten the main line and enlarge the yards. Union Pacific passengers used it until 1971. Amtrak’s San Francisco Zephyr used it until 1983. The Pioneer called again from June 17, 1991, until that train’s last runs in May 1997. In 1985 the railroad gave the building to the Laramie Plains Museum. The Laramie Railroad Depot Association has had it since 2009. It was added to the National Register in 1988. The museum inside is Union Pacific tools and memorabilia, with an emphasis on laying and welding rail. It is the remaining building from the shops that used to fill this side of town. Hours are the association’s to post.

Evanston

Evanston’s Union Pacific roundhouse was built in 1912 for the engines that worked between Green River and Ogden. It replaced an earlier house. The city calls it the last complete roundhouse on the old Union Pacific line between Omaha and Sacramento. The railroad complex, depot included, was listed on the National Register on February 26, 1985. The city has restored the roundhouse as offices, event rooms, and a place the public can walk. The turntable still moves. The brick passenger depot at Depot Square was built in 1900, replacing an 1869 station, and is now a community building rather than a staffed museum. A model-railroad club uses the railyards, and volunteers have a steam locomotive under restoration there. Confirm what is open before you go. This is not a second Cheyenne.

Sources

Cheyenne Depot Museum, museum history, construction, and exhibits pages, and the homepage note on Harry W. Brunk’s Union Central & Northern layout. Address 121 West 15th Street.
National Register of Historic Places, Cheyenne depot, listed January 29, 1973, and designated a National Historic Landmark on February 15, 2006. Douglas depot, listed August 3, 1994, reference 94000741. Evanston Union Pacific complex, listed February 26, 1985, reference 85000685.
City of Douglas, Railroad Interpretive Center page, and the city chronology for the 1886 depot, the 1995 opening, and No. 5633. Converse County Tourism, Douglas Railroad Museum page, for the same depot and locomotive.
Laramie Railroad Depot Association, history page: opened October 6, 1924; Union Pacific passengers through 1971; gift in 1985; association in 2009; National Register in 1988. The Pioneer’s 1991–1997 stop is from Trains, September 1991, and the station’s former-services table. The association page stops the Amtrak story at 1983.
Union Pacific, steam frequently asked questions: No. 4004 is the Big Boy on permanent display at Holliday Park, and the Cheyenne steam shop is not open for walk-in visits. American-Rails.com, Big Boy, for the September 1941 build and the Holliday Park display.
City of Evanston, railroad heritage brochure: 1900 depot at Depot Square, and the 1912 roundhouse.
American-Rails.com, Wyoming railroads, last revised September 7, 2024, for the November 14, 1867 arrival at Cheyenne. Ride notes stay on the scenic guide, last revised October 3, 2026.

Confirm hours and which locomotive is on the property before you travel.

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