#Pikes peak cog railway plus#

That is an area known as Garden of the Gods. In the center of the photo you can make out three rock formations. Colorado Springs below as we clear the tree line Lake Moraine Windy Point – old steam engines replenished their boilers here Another view of Lake Moraineīelow is a view of Manitou Springs from the summit. That totals up to a three hour experience. There is a forty minute stop at the summit to enjoy the views and check out the new visitor center. The trip one way takes about an hour and ten minutes. Normal trains can not retain traction on the rails at grades steeper than 10%, so the railway needs to use a cog and rack system to help pull trains up the mountain and control the speed of the descent. The average grade of the line is 12% but tops out at 25%.

The rail line starts at a depot in the town of Manitou Springs, located at an elevation of 6,320 feet, and climbs 8.9 miles to the summit of Pikes Peak at an elevation of 14,115 feet. Pikes Peak from I-25 (the barren peak through all the power lines)

#Pikes peak cog railway plus#

Plus the railroad just recently re-opened after being closed since 2017 while undergoing a complete renovation. We rode the train a few years ago (OK, it was 30 years ago!) but don’t remember a great deal from that experience. Our first adventure was a ride up the cog railroad to the top of Pikes Peak. We looked at staying closer to Colorado Springs but had trouble finding a park. After about 60 miles we arrived at the Pueblo KOA, our base for some visits to nearby Colorado Springs. The highly anticipated grand reopening of the railway is appropriately planned for this year, 2021, the sesquicentennial year of Colorado Springs.Leaving South Fork we headed east on US 160 for about 120 miles to Salsenburg, CO where we turned north on I-25. Growth and modernization has continued until the railroad was closed in 2018 for a complete renovation of the entire program, including: new tracks, ties, switch and passing tracks, and equipment that is updated within the depot and support facilities. Newer switches and “passing tracks” allowed more trains to run each day and more people to enjoy the trip to the top of Pikes Peak. These cars resemble the smaller single cars but are joined by “bellows” in the middle, which allow for sharper curves on the tracks. In 1974 with a request for a train to carry over 200 people at a time, two “articulated” railcars were sent from Switzerland. A master craftsman, he is fondly remembered. Over the next 30 years, Frick modernized and expanded shop facilities, oversaw installation of new and modern switches throughout the yard and along the line, and even designed and built a snowplow with shop personnel. The railway also hired a young Swiss engineer, Martin Frick, from Swiss Locomotive Works. In 1964, representatives from the Broadmoor went to Switzerland and contracted with the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works to provide two self-contained diesel-electric train cars which were instant successes.

In 1938, a gasoline powered train car, produced by General Electric replaced the coal powered steam engines for the next 20 years. The boilers on the locomotives were tilted forward to be level while going up the 16% grade of the mountain. The first locomotives were steam powered and pushed the passenger care up the mountain. After losing money for a number of years, Simmons sold it in 1925 to Spencer Penrose, owner of the Broadmoor Hotel, for a reported $50,000. When it took two miserable days to scale the mountain by mule, Simmons decided to finance construction of the Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway, which opened in 1891. A New Yorker, he came to Colorado to examine telegraph insulators that he invented to carry telegraph wires to the Army Signal Station on top of Pikes Peak. Simmons, the inventor of the Simmons Beautyrest mattress. The Cog Railway, the highest in the world, was started in 1889 by Zalmon G.