The Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway climbs the 8.9 miles to the 14,110-foot summit of Pikes Peak. The railway is the highest in North America and was built as a tourist attraction in the late nineteenth century.
"It was the late 1880s when a tourist named Zalmon Simmons,
inventor and founder of the Simmons Beautyrest Mattress Company, visited the
Pikes Peak Region. Wanting to check up on one of his inventions, an insulator
for the telegraph wires that ran to the Army Signal Station on the Summit, he
reached the top of Pikes Peak the only way back in those days: an arduous,
two-day trip on a mule.
Mr. Simmons was in awe of the scenery but determined that
the views should be experienced in a more civilized and comfortable manner, and
aren’t we all grateful for that? Word has it he was relaxing in one of Manitou
Springs’ mineral baths after his return, when the owner of his hotel mentioned
the idea of a railway to the top, and the rest, as they say, is history.
In 1889, the Manitou and Pikes Peak Railway Company was
founded and track construction began right away. This was the Age of Steam, and
in 1890, three locomotives from Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania were delivered. Service was limited in the early days to the Halfway
House Hotel. A total of six locomotives were in use during the steam era, and
while they are not in use at the moment, locomotive #2 can be seen on display
in downtown Manitou Springs. "
