Durango Colorado USA - In a town literally built around a railroad, it's fitting to celebrate the iron horse that still is an economic engine for the city, and every year for the last 16 years, True West Railfest has done just that in Durango.
 
Themed "Gold Diggers and Dance Halls," this weekend's train festival is dedicated to the miners who endured the rugged mountains, but also for how they blew off their steam.
 
The festival began Thursday and will burn coal through today.
 
Trips were available in Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge luxury cars, with entertainment and a lunch stop at Cascade Canyon, or a one-hour short trip on the Galloping Goose, a single railcar built from 1930's automobiles and designed as mail, surplus, and passenger cars.
 
In the Grange Hall at the train depot in Durango, locomotive buffs wandered in and out of the museum and browsed through relics of railroads past.
 
Forty vendors of memorabilia mostly sold collectables as they visited with other enthusiasts from all over.
 
You could buy passes from the Chicago/Rock Island Pacific Railroad or keys and padlocks from the Rio Grande Southern Railroad.
 
There were old photographs, maps, receipts of purchases, and iron tools. Lanterns, lamps, china, tablecloths and towels lined the tables.
 
"It's all about the history and how easily it's forgotten," said Steve Rush of The Mine Shop.
 
A former geotechnical engineer, he now collects and sells mining and railroad artifacts from his shop in Montrose.
 
"These shows really kind of bring it all back."
 
He had hundred-year-old documents in pristine condition, alongside mining tools used underground a century ago.
 
It was easy to spot train lovers, they dressed the part, in overalls and striped blue shirts.
 
Debra VerStraete and her husband run Southwest Spirit Antiques in Ridgway, specializing in narrow-gauge railroad memorabilia but dealing in all things train. She said everyone has a special interest.
 
"Some people collect keys and some locks, and some go for everything," she said.
 
"Some of these pieces are pretty hard to find, and you can demand good prices, but that's not why these guys do it. They just love it, and they live it."
 
Doug Summer coordinates the swap meet.
 
An aficionado of railroads since age 7, he said it's the romance and allure of the Old West.
 
"It's all about our history for people," Summer said.
 
"Maybe it's a memory they had, or a family member who worked for a railroad. Some people like the cowboys and Indian part of it, and some people like the mining part of it, and some just like the railroad, which played a big part in all of that," he said.
 
Summer, from Pueblo, said for many, it's an annual tradition.
 
"We've seen some people that are here every year," he said.
 
"For me, I've loved it since I was a kid, and that's why I'm here."
 
Brandon Mathis.