The Black Hills Central Railroad ran its first official train on August 18, 1957. The operation now known as the 1880 Train preserves a route built to serve mining in the Black Hills. Its surviving tracks between Hill City and Keystone follow a corridor developed by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy. The passenger ride makes a piece of industrial geography available at railway pace, with the hills and former mining communities providing the setting for the restored vehicles.
The heritage railroad had accumulated a varied collection of locomotives and cars by the late 1960s. Its later history includes the work of Robert and JoAnna Warder, who acquired it in 1990. Their period of ownership renewed the operation and helped bring additional historic equipment to the route. The railroad’s story thus spans the original industrial railway and the generations of people who found new work for tracks and engines that might otherwise have disappeared.
Steam locomotive No. 110 illustrates the effort involved in building that collection. Before coming to South Dakota, it had been displayed at the Wasatch Mountain Railway in Utah and sold to the Nevada State Railway Museum. Black Hills Central acquired it in 1999. The engine traveled from Nevada on four trailers. A large locomotive cannot simply be lifted and shipped like a display case, and such a move requires planning for its weight and the size of the separate loads.
Look for the relationship between the route and the terrain, especially where the railway must turn or climb to follow a usable course. A particular locomotive may be under maintenance or serving a different train. The 1880 Train is an operating railway attraction and has its own schedule, separate from any rail museum in Hill City. The trip connects the continuing work of operating heritage trains with the original demands of reaching mining districts through the Black Hills.
Visitor information
Researched November 2026.
Sources
More railroad museums in South Dakota
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