ANTOINETTE GIBBONS
Antoinette Gibbons not only tells the fascinating story of how the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad was born. She actually lived through most of the modern adventure.
“As a 9 year old girl, I rode on the Cumbres & Toltec when it first started out. By the time I was 14, I was drummed into Engine 463’s “boiler maker corps” working alongside my dad and three other guys, forever losing my heart to that little engine. I remember the blisters and aching muscles, the heartache and joy. It is my hope that a piece of that has been captured and this train will go to future generations forever being, “The Little Train That Would Not Die.”
The book brings the reader right into all the action, adventure and passion that made these events truly historical. You will get a glimpse into the lives of innovative citizen and soldier, General William J Palmer, legendary lawman Bat Masterman and even singer Gene Autry who all shared integral parts in this story of courage over adversity. Plus you will learn about the author’s family, friends and fellow advocates for the historic railroad that has graced the mountains between Colorado and New Mexico since 1880.
It begins with an obscure but important Indian battle high in the Colorado rockies, the “1848 Battle of Cumbres Pass.” From there, readers will follow the steady but toilsome progress as a great railroad was built to bring prosperity to this remote region of America.
We are then brought into the 20th
century, when the heroic works of ordinary men accomplished the
impossible in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Antoinette’s dad, Bob Burggraaf said, “They were
the most enthusiastic, unbusiness-
Gibbons was actively involved in the restoration process. At 9 years old, she rode in an open car gondola the first time they fired up Engine 483 under its new name as the C&TS Railroad. She spent summers riding the rails, clearing sage brush and playing in the high mountains of Colorado. Later, she worked alongside men as a boilermaker apprentice, learning to weld, using a cutting torch and drill and set rivets.
“I got paid a dollar an hour and the work didn’t last long, but for that moment I had a chance to touch and change history,” Gibbons writes.
Her own writing career began when she joined the Longmont writer’s Club in Longmount, Colorado in 1991. With an encouraging and nurturing community, she became the club’s president in two years. Gibbons has worked for the Berthoud Colorado Recorder and as a field interviewer and manager with the University of Michigan’s Social Research Institution. The creation of “The Little Train That Would Not Die” was five years in the making and a true labor of love.
“In 1994, I met Engine 463 again and found myself on a whole new journey of discovery, searching for both the triumphs and the tragedies that surrounded the years of the CT&S, resulting in this current book. My father died three years ago after the first publishing of a portion of the tsory. The rewriting of the story has helped me to find the heart behind the stories, the dreams, the disappointments and the truth of life.”
You can order a copy of “The Little Train That
Would Die” through Authorhouse at their book
order hotline, 1-
