The COG Train - Manitou to Pikes Peak

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. "

The COG rails.  (4 separate Cog wheels power up and down on this center track)

the brand new winter snow plow just arrived

The standard two outer rails and a center COG rail.

The old steam engine downtown Manitou Springs, Co.

It was very cold up top.  As you reach the treeline the cold wind picks up.

above the treeline where the wind can howl.

cars on the roadway near the peak

The warming lodge for the rail workers

sitting on a siding to let another car go down

My biggest dissapointment was that we only got 40 minutes at the top before our train went back down.  With oxygen so scarce up at the peak I was limited on how much "running around" I could accomplish.  The views were so staggering I really needed two or three hours to get the photos I wanted.  It was a great day and fabulous adventure.  My cost $58 for the ticket.  (in the 1890's the cost was $5. = $140 in todays dollars.)  

Killer views!       -Skip

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ps.  I saw three guys climbing up at the peak and asked them 'where did you come from?'  They had hiked for two days, up from downtown Manitou, sleeping in a hut on the mountain.  Wow.  (now imagine the Marathon coming over the weekend where the runners RUN up the mountain in two hours over the same trail.)