If you buy after clicking affiliate links on this site we might receive a commission from companies such as eBay, Amazon etc This does not affect the price you pay.
If you buy after clicking affiliate links on this site we might receive a commission from companies such as eBay, Amazon etc This does not affect the price you pay.
Click here to see similar items on eBay, and to buy.
RailroadTreasures offers the following item: Cripple Creek And Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad By Roger Appleton Soft Cover The Cripple Creek And Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad By Roger Appleton Soft Cover 1970 32 pagesThe great gold camp had died a long, painful death. The Cripple Creek District had itself been crippled through a span of fifty years by miner’s strikes, shifting national economic needs, flooding of most of the mines’ lower, richest levels, and other major ills. With days of full blooming glory lying haunting and remote in the past it was more an insult than a blow when the last train left Cripple Creek in 1949 and crews mournfully began tearing out the rails to Colorado Springs, city of gold mills. Only a handful of the District’s more than five hundred mines were still open and they were running on borrowed time. It appeared that the semi-ghost district would lie dormant forever, only a shell wheezing and clacking in high country winds. But there was a new tempo beginning to stir life back into the District.Several exceptional tourist attractions were starting to revive the spirit of the camp during its heyday. Each year during the late forties and the fifties brought more people to the high, old camp to savor the life of gold mining days. Then, in the summer of 1967, an eighteen year silence was broken by a shrill sound that spoke of former times.A train’s whistle reverberated down steep, eroded streets, through antique and gift shops that resided in gaunt, old buildings, and rolled out over the surrounding hills, echoing into silence. The sound was followed by the hissing and puffing of a narrow gauge steam engine that pulled passenger filled cars from a semi-ghost town and seemed to transport them into the past. The sounds emanated from a phenomenon called the Cripple Creek and Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad.The story of the CC&V is almost as fascinating as a ride on the train itself. It began many years ago when a Union Pacific train stopped several miles outside a small mid-western town and the engineer reached down and scooped his young son into the cab for a ride into town. Young John Birmingham was totally enthralled by the experience; he remembered it until he one day gave his own sons rides on his train. The memory did fade some as he became increasingly occupied with school and college, and then meeting and marrying Miriam. More years went by while the dream kept respectably in the background but then Birmingham heard of a chance to purchase a standard gauge steam engine. That was too much for him and his dream. It bobbed to the surface, Birmingham lost his normal restraint. He rounded up his resources, gave second thoughts to his dream, and bought the engine.Now that Birmingham owned an engine his dream of running his own train expanded through several more years of frustration. But no solutions arose. Then, in 1966, he found two “two-foot” gauge engines for sale at a lead, zinc, and copper mine owned by Climax Molybdenum of Colorado at Avalos Zacetacus, Mexico. He lost his restraint again and made a trip to inspect them.
All pictures are of the actual item. If this is a railroad item, this material is obsolete and no longer in use by the railroad. Please email with questions. Publishers of Train Shed Cyclopedias and Stephans Railroad Directories. Large inventory of railroad books and magazines. Thank you for buying from us.
Shipping chargesPostage rates quoted are for shipments to the US only. Ebay Global shipping charges are shown. These items are shipped to Kentucky and then ebay ships them to you. Ebay collects the shipping and customs / import fees. For direct postage rates to these countries, send me an email. Shipping to Canada and other countries varies by weight.
Payment options Payment must be received within 10 days. Paypal is accepted.
Terms and conditions All sales are final. Returns accepted if item is not as described. Contact us first. No warranty is stated or implied. Please e-mail us with any questions before bidding.
Thanks for looking at our items.
If you buy after clicking affiliate links on this site we might receive a commission from companies such as eBay, Amazon etc This does not affect the price you pay.
Click here to buy, and to see similar items on eBay
Category: Collectibles:Transportation:Railroadiana and Trains:Paper:Books:1900-Now
Location: Talbott, Tennessee