Gene Clarke McKeever, who died April 25 at age 72, was a railway aficionado who rode trains, tramways and trolleys throughout the U.S., including the final run of the Denver Trolley.
The grandson of miners whose ox team arrived in Colorado for the 1861 gold rush, McKeever was born in the same Idaho Springs house where his mother was born. He grew up in Denver after his parents divorced and his mother remarried.
When McKeever was 16, authorities decided to close the Denver trolleys and trams that once laced together neighborhoods and business districts. McKeever made sure he was aboard Car 336 on Route No. 3 when it ran from Lower Downtown to Englewood on June 3, 1950.
McKeever, just old enough to appreciate that he witnessed an era’s end, became fascinated with railway transportation. He became such an enthusiast that he eventually co-authored books on Denver and Colorado railways. He took his little brother, Ray McAllister, on a trip – by train, of course – to Marietta, Ga., for a re-enactment of the Great Locomotive Chase.
The event marked the centennial of the April 12, 1862, hijacking of The General, the black-and-red Civil War locomotive stolen by Union agents. The plan to cripple Confederate rail lines from Marietta to Chattanooga, Tenn., backfired in what became one of Dixieland’s wartime triumphs, and inspired at least two movies.
“It was very cool, and that was only the beginning,” McAllister said.
The brothers joined local railroad clubs. McKeever became historian of the Intermountain chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. He co-authored “Mile High Trolleys,” along with other historical books on trains and Denver schools.
Several times in the 1960s, the brothers rode the Denver and Rio Grand narrow-gauge train that ran from Denver to Silverton before the line was broken into shorter tourist trips between Antonito and Chama, N.M., and Durango and Silverton.
Throughout their lives, the brothers rode nearly every active rail line and tramway in the U.S. They took the Portland Rose from Denver to Oregon, marveling at the raw beauty of the Columbia Gorge.
They rode the St. Charles streetcar in New Orleans, and the trolleys that ply San Francisco’s formidable hills. Every year or so, McKeever took the California Zephyr from Denver to Los Angeles to visit his father.
The brothers rode the predecessor to the Winter Park Ski Train, which took summer picnickers and hikers from Denver to Hot Sulphur Springs, counting the tunnels (then 50) between Denver and Winter Park.
Even at home, McKeever surrounded himself with trains and rail ephemera. He devoted one room to model trains and trolleys, with a layout that included Elitch Gardens, and a salvaged bus hand-pull that dangled from the ceiling.
He is survived by brother Ray McAllister of Denver.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-820-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
