Necessity may be the mother of invention, but it took out-and-out desperation to hatch the Galloping Goose. Conceived during the Great Depression by the nearly bankrupt Rio Grande Southern Railroad, this strange bird paired an automobile’s engine and chassis with a locomotive’s drive mechanism. Slap a cow-catcher onto the front and a freight car onto the back, and voila!—a train.

Well, sort of.

The original Goose, built in 1931 by Rio Grande chief mechanic Jack Odenbaugh, seated up to eight passengers while carrying a few thousand pounds of mail and cargo. It ran on gasoline, eliminating the need for boilers, coal bins, and furnace tenders. With its low labor costs and high fuel efficiency, the Goose was far less expensive to run than a traditional steam-powered locomotive—so much so that in 1933, the year Galloping Goose #5 went into service, the Rio Grande Southern did away with conventional trains altogether. The railroad’s flock of Geese (seven in all) made for affordable shipping rates and flexible service, attracting new customers and keeping the line in business until the early 1950s.

Galloping Goose #5 sat in a town park in Dolores until 1994, when restoration efforts began. In 1998, after nearly half a century of idleness, it took to the rails once again—resuming its peculiar flight through Colorado history.