The Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway (also known as the Pikes Peak Cog Railway) is a cog railway that climbs one of the most iconic mountains in the United States, Pikes Peak in Colorado. The base station is in Manitou Springs, near Colorado Springs.
Construction on the line was started in 1889 and the first train reached the summit on June 30, 1891. Cog railways are common in Switzerland and found in other parts of the world (totaling about 50 lines), but this is one of only three such lines remaining in the United States, the others being the older Mount Washington Cog Railway in New Hampshire, and the short Quincy and Torch Lake Cog Railway.
Originally powered by steam locomotives, the line later switched over to diesel-powered locomotives and self-propelled railcars. The railway was closed between October 29, 2017 and May 20, 2021, for a complete refurbishment that saw the replacement of the track infrastructure, the rebuild of older railcars and the purchase of three new trainsets.
History
The idea for the railroad came in 1888, after a trip to the summit by inventor Zalmon G. Simmons, who had founded previously the Simmons Bedding Company. Simmons had designed a wooden telegraph insulator while on the board of directors of Western Union, and was surveying Englemann Canyon for telegraph lines to the top of Pikes Peak. It was a miserable two-day trip on a mule and after his return, Simmons was convinced that there needed to be a more "civilized" mode of travel to the summit of Pikes Peak and decided to fund the construction of a railway.
The line would start at a depot in the town of Manitou Springs, located at an elevation of , and climb to the summit of Pikes Peak at an elevation of . The average grade of the line would be 12% but would top out at 25%. Normal trains can not retain traction on the rails at grades steeper than 10%, so the railway would need to use a cog and rack system to help pull trains up the mountain and control the speed of the descent.
Construction was started in 1889, being built by Italian laborers using only pickaxes and assisted by donkeys. The line was built as a standard-gauge railway with an Abt rack system and wooden ties. Limited service was started in 1890 on the first segment of the line from Manitou Springs to the Halfway House Hotel. On June 30, 1891, the first train reached the summit.
Three steam locomotives were built for the line by the Baldwin Locomotive Works that each featured boilers offset by 16 degrees to keep them level on the steeply inclined grades. While most locomotives pull rail cars, these steam engines would push the line's wooden passenger cars up the mountain, decreasing the chance of a runaway car.
A fourth steam locomotive was added to the fleet in 1892 (which was built as a Vauclain compound), which proved to be more efficient and cut the cost of operating on a steep incline. The locomotive was so successful that the original locomotives were rebuilt as Vauclain compounds in 1893. Over time, the Vauclain compound technology made the locomotives notoriously difficult to maintain. An additional locomotive was added to the fleet in 1901 and again in 1906. All six steam locomotives were rebuilt in 1912 to similar specifications and would burn slightly under 1 ton of coal per trip.
Just before the start of the Great Depression, Spencer Penrose purchased a stake in the line. Penrose was the owner of The Broadmoor, a well-known hotel in Colorado Springs.
Under the control of Penrose, there was an effort to find more economical ways to operate the line. To that end, gasoline-powered railcar #7 was constructed in 1938. The railcar was intended to be a cheaper alternative to operating steam locomotives during quieter times of the year. The railcar was a huge success, and led the railroad to purchase five 'streamlined' diesel locomotives from General Electric, which were equipped with matching passenger cars, acquired from 1939 onward.
The diesel locomotives slowly supplanted the steam locomotives, though some steam operations persisted until the 1960s as backup power and to operate the snow-clearing train (where their greater weight meant they were less likely to derail).