Pike's Peak Cog Railway, Manitou Springs, Colorado
August 26
And here we are, in Loveland. Still. The air con meant we slept like logs all night, and so woke refreshed and delighted to see another fine sunny day outside. We pack the cases, I mean the final pack, other than an overnight plastic carrier bag, ready for the flight on Sunday.
Downstairs for breakfast, to find there is a queue for the waffle machine. I like waffles, but not enough to queue for them as you have to make them yourself. In fact, apart from cereal, and coffee, we don’t eat much, somehow the sausage tastes the same whether is in in links or in a patty.
I have been friends online with someone from the Denver area since 2001 when I first went into the digital world. Over the years I have read Dawn’s mails and blog posts about her life, trials and tribulations, her marriage fall aprt and then she bring her three children up on her own. We have never met, and flying in/out of Denver I hoped it would be possible to meet up.
And it did.
Aurora was an hour’s drive from Loveland, braving Denver’s interstates and motorways, and marvelling as drivers ignored speed limits, and all other rules of the road. I take us along at the speed limit, following the instructions from the sat nav, along the busy main road to downtown before heading east. Traffic calmed down at least, and by the time we pulled off the interstate, it was almost rural with ploughed fields and dead grass abound.
Dawn lives in a trailer park, at the back of it, with views over the farmland. We drive round the park to find her waiting for us, waving like crazy. One of my best friends, and yet the first time we had ever met. It is the modern way.
We park the car round back, get out and hug like crazy. What a wonderful meeting it was, a first time meeting and yet best friends, best friends who knew so much about each other thanks to the words we both write.
Her fiance had driven over from Iowa to meet us too, and Doug was a fine gentleman for sure, and we greeted him with warm handshakes too.
They had planned a day out for us, up in the mountains and the words “cog railway” was mentioned. I was excited, but had no idea what to expect.
We got in Doug’s car, and we set off for Colorado Springs, along another interstate sandwiched between two railroads, and I was very happy as both lines were busy with long freight trains. The land began to rise quickly, and soon we were back in the mountains, the rusty red Jurassic rock contrasting well with the blue skies above.
From Colorado Springs, we drive to Manitou Springs, where despite it being the height of f the tourist season, the local council seemed to be digging up every road in the picturesque town centre. We drive along and find a car park, so for five dollar, we park until ten at night, if we wanted.
Manitou Springs is a thriving town, lots of ftny independant arty shops, restaurants and bars, we walk along the main street and decide it was lunch time. So go into a place beside the river, although they didn’t seem too keen on serving us at first, but we get a table outside under the awning, and the menu is splendid, I could have had it all, but have a sausage taster platter, four local bangers, different meats and spices, with some pickled onion rings.
The we did some more wandering, window shopping, until the ex-armourer suggested that we might go into a bar to try some of the local craft ales. All agreed and then had to keep up with me as we searched for a bar with an empty table. Three pints of IPA were ordered, and an orange juice for Jools, as down in the deep valley, no air was moving, and it were mighty warm. So a cool frosty beer was just what was needed.
After drinking up, it was time to go back to the car for the short drive to the cog railway, where Doug had reserved us places on the quarter to three train up the mountain.
The car parked, tickets collected, we wait on the short platform fo the train to come down, disgorge passengers so we could climb on board. Jools and I were entranced by two hummingbirds buzzing about taking nectar from a feeder a few feet above our heads.
Three blasts on a whistle meant that the train was near to returning, so I go to the end of the platform to snap its arrival. I was the only person who did this, but I don’t care. A two car diesel came rattling down, bright red in colour and looking very Swiss.
Once the previous passengers had gotten off, we were allowed on, we all had reserved seats, so there was no need to worry, and we had seats on the left hand side, which, as it turned out would have the finest views once the train got above the treeline. But that was a long ride ahead.
Once the train was full, we clanked off, lurching onto the rack and hauling us up the mountain. The Pike’s Peak Cog Railway is the longest in the world, and highest in America. We go up through a narrow valley, crossing and recrossing a tumbling alpine stream, while a young lady gave us a puntastic commentary on stuff we might find interesting; diamond shaped rocks, waterfalls higher than Niagara, abandoned houses, demolished hotels. And wildlife.
Plentiful lower down the mountain were Aspen trees, like a paler silver birch, and looking fabulous, might be my new favourite tree. And there were pines. Lots of lines, and as the land opened out, the trees covered the slopes of the lower hills.
Just over halfway up, we passed through the treeline, meaning our views were uninterrupted to the higher peaks. At one of the crossovers, we spotted a couple of Marmots, beaver-like creatures who gladly accept any seeds or trail mix passengers might like to throw his way.
Up and up we went, closely following a single car train, meaning if you could just swivel round, you could get shots of it as it tackled the 1:4 gradient ahead.
We reach the peak, some 14,115 feet above sea level, the tracks stop with a simple buffer on the edge of a sheer drop hundreds of feet down. Sun shone brightly on the summit, making the red locos shine, it was fabulous, even if walking around made you breathless even on the slightest incline. I take hundreds of shots, of course, and it was quite crowded, as there is also a road up the mountain, and I spoke to one gentleman in his 60s who had cycled up it. I took my hat off to him, and he was rather pleased his effort was appreciated.
There is a shop up there, and a place selling “world famous donuts”, people sitting with us on the train had some and said the donuts were average. So maybe famous for being average?
Two toots on the whistle at quarter to five meant that we should reboard and get ready for the great descent down the mountain. Jools and I swapped places, so I now had a window seat, so I get a few more shots once we start down. Going back down would mean it would be warmer again, as it was only about 14 degrees at the peak, but 30 in the valley below.
Down and down we go, no waiting for other trains coming up at the switchovers as the line was closing, so we make good progress getting to the bottom in just over an hour. On the way down Jools and I spot flowers and fungi, but really there was so much to look at as we dropped down.
It was six when we got to the bottom, we huffed and puffed our way to the car from the station, up a slight rise in the road that made me breathless, it easy to forget even at the bottom of the hill we were over 6000 feet above sea level.
Doug started the car, fired up the air con and set course back home, the same route as before, but bathed in evening sunshine.
Dawn wanted to take us to her favourite restaurant, so we go to an outdoor mall made to look like a town centre, we find a parking spot, and walk to the McCabbes, only to find it closed and clearly not going to reopen. But there were other dining options, over the road a Montana grill, so we get a table there, and I have bison steak again, and Jools, Dawn and myself have huckleberry margaritas. As you do, and very nice they were.
Darkness had fallen, and Doug raced us back to the trailer, where he cracked open the 101 proof bourbon. Oh dear. Anyway, we talk and listen to music for an hour or so as the bottle empties and my memories are a little hazy after that.
And I suppose that means we went to bed at some point.
----------------------------------------
The Broadmoor Pikes Peak Cog Railway (also known as the Pikes Peak Cog Railway) is an Abt rack system cog railway with 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge track in Colorado, USA, climbing the well-known mountain Pikes Peak. The base station is in Manitou Springs, Colorado near Colorado Springs.
The railway is the highest in North America by a considerable margin. It was built and is operated solely for the tourist trade
The railway was started by Zalmon G. Simmons, inventor and founder of the Simmons Beautyrest Mattress Company. The company was founded in 1889 and limited service to the Halfway House Hotel was started in 1890. On June 30, 1891, the first train reached the summit.
A number of steam locomotives were built for the line by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, all rack-only locomotives with steeply inclined boilers to keep them level on the average 16% grades. Operating steam locomotives on such a line was back-breaking work and expensive, so when more modern forms of traction became available, the railway was eager to modernize.
A gasoline-powered railcar #7 was constructed in 1938. It was designed to be a cheaper alternative to the steam locomotives enabling economic service during quieter times of the year. Proving a huge success, the railway soon bought more internal combustion engined trains. This car is still on property having been re-engined with a more modern Cummins diesel.
The next were five 'streamlined' diesel locomotives from General Electric, which were equipped with matching passenger cars, acquired from 1939 onward.[1] These 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). A number of the steam locomotives are now on static display, in Manitou and elsewhere, and the Railway still has an operational steam locomotive (#4) and an original coach. The steam locomotive was put out of service for many years before being retrieved from a museum and brought back to service in 1980.
In 1964 the railway needed more equipment, but General Electric was not interested in the business[citation needed]. The railway went abroad, to Switzerland, home of most of the world's cog railways. In 1964, the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works in Winterthur provided two bright red railcars (railcars contain a seating compartment as well as engineer stand, eliminating the need for a separate pushing locomotive), very similar to equipment used on many Swiss railways. Unit 14 was delivered in 1964 with a pair of air cooled 8 cylinder diesel engines that proved to be less than satisfactory on the railroad above treeline. Unit 14 was returned to Switzerland and redesigned to have facilities for water cooling. Unit 14's twin, Unit 15, was also rebuilt to house a pair of water cooled Cummins 724's. Two more (Units 16 and 17) were built in 1968 to increase the railroads capacity. All four of these units eventually received new Cummins 855 diesels. As of 2017 all four original Swiss trains are still in operation at the Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway.
As tourism increased in the 1970s the railway needed more capacity. In 1976 M&PPRy took delivery of two larger two-car articulated railcars from the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works of Winterthur, designated Train 18 and Train 19. Passing sidings were built in several places at about the same time, allowing trains to pass at various points on the mountainside. Trains could previously pass only at the Mountain View siding, permitting only three trains a day up the mountain. Eight trains per day became possible with the new equipment and sidings (two additional larger railcars were delivered from SLM; Unit 24 in 1984 and the last, Unit 25, in 1989).
Rolling stock on the M&PPRy consists of four 214-passenger articulated Swiss-built railcars, four 78-passenger Swiss-built railcars, four GE built locomotives (one being rebuilt in 2017 to modern specifications), one snowplow (#22 - built upon the frame of a GE locomotive), one 23-passenger diesel railcar (#7), one steam locomotive (#4 - built by Baldwin), a Winter-Weiss "streamliner" coach, and an original Wasson wooden coach (#104). Only the Swiss-built railcars carry regular passengers. The steam locomotive and passenger coaches are used on rare special occasions.
Pike's Peak Cog Railway, Manitou Springs, Colorado
August 26
And here we are, in Loveland. Still. The air con meant we slept like logs all night, and so woke refreshed and delighted to see another fine sunny day outside. We pack the cases, I mean the final pack, other than an overnight plastic carrier bag, ready for the flight on Sunday.
Downstairs for breakfast, to find there is a queue for the waffle machine. I like waffles, but not enough to queue for them as you have to make them yourself. In fact, apart from cereal, and coffee, we don’t eat much, somehow the sausage tastes the same whether is in in links or in a patty.
I have been friends online with someone from the Denver area since 2001 when I first went into the digital world. Over the years I have read Dawn’s mails and blog posts about her life, trials and tribulations, her marriage fall aprt and then she bring her three children up on her own. We have never met, and flying in/out of Denver I hoped it would be possible to meet up.
And it did.
Aurora was an hour’s drive from Loveland, braving Denver’s interstates and motorways, and marvelling as drivers ignored speed limits, and all other rules of the road. I take us along at the speed limit, following the instructions from the sat nav, along the busy main road to downtown before heading east. Traffic calmed down at least, and by the time we pulled off the interstate, it was almost rural with ploughed fields and dead grass abound.
Dawn lives in a trailer park, at the back of it, with views over the farmland. We drive round the park to find her waiting for us, waving like crazy. One of my best friends, and yet the first time we had ever met. It is the modern way.
We park the car round back, get out and hug like crazy. What a wonderful meeting it was, a first time meeting and yet best friends, best friends who knew so much about each other thanks to the words we both write.
Her fiance had driven over from Iowa to meet us too, and Doug was a fine gentleman for sure, and we greeted him with warm handshakes too.
They had planned a day out for us, up in the mountains and the words “cog railway” was mentioned. I was excited, but had no idea what to expect.
We got in Doug’s car, and we set off for Colorado Springs, along another interstate sandwiched between two railroads, and I was very happy as both lines were busy with long freight trains. The land began to rise quickly, and soon we were back in the mountains, the rusty red Jurassic rock contrasting well with the blue skies above.
From Colorado Springs, we drive to Manitou Springs, where despite it being the height of f the tourist season, the local council seemed to be digging up every road in the picturesque town centre. We drive along and find a car park, so for five dollar, we park until ten at night, if we wanted.
Manitou Springs is a thriving town, lots of ftny independant arty shops, restaurants and bars, we walk along the main street and decide it was lunch time. So go into a place beside the river, although they didn’t seem too keen on serving us at first, but we get a table outside under the awning, and the menu is splendid, I could have had it all, but have a sausage taster platter, four local bangers, different meats and spices, with some pickled onion rings.
The we did some more wandering, window shopping, until the ex-armourer suggested that we might go into a bar to try some of the local craft ales. All agreed and then had to keep up with me as we searched for a bar with an empty table. Three pints of IPA were ordered, and an orange juice for Jools, as down in the deep valley, no air was moving, and it were mighty warm. So a cool frosty beer was just what was needed.
After drinking up, it was time to go back to the car for the short drive to the cog railway, where Doug had reserved us places on the quarter to three train up the mountain.
The car parked, tickets collected, we wait on the short platform fo the train to come down, disgorge passengers so we could climb on board. Jools and I were entranced by two hummingbirds buzzing about taking nectar from a feeder a few feet above our heads.
Three blasts on a whistle meant that the train was near to returning, so I go to the end of the platform to snap its arrival. I was the only person who did this, but I don’t care. A two car diesel came rattling down, bright red in colour and looking very Swiss.
Once the previous passengers had gotten off, we were allowed on, we all had reserved seats, so there was no need to worry, and we had seats on the left hand side, which, as it turned out would have the finest views once the train got above the treeline. But that was a long ride ahead.
Once the train was full, we clanked off, lurching onto the rack and hauling us up the mountain. The Pike’s Peak Cog Railway is the longest in the world, and highest in America. We go up through a narrow valley, crossing and recrossing a tumbling alpine stream, while a young lady gave us a puntastic commentary on stuff we might find interesting; diamond shaped rocks, waterfalls higher than Niagara, abandoned houses, demolished hotels. And wildlife.
Plentiful lower down the mountain were Aspen trees, like a paler silver birch, and looking fabulous, might be my new favourite tree. And there were pines. Lots of lines, and as the land opened out, the trees covered the slopes of the lower hills.
Just over halfway up, we passed through the treeline, meaning our views were uninterrupted to the higher peaks. At one of the crossovers, we spotted a couple of Marmots, beaver-like creatures who gladly accept any seeds or trail mix passengers might like to throw his way.
Up and up we went, closely following a single car train, meaning if you could just swivel round, you could get shots of it as it tackled the 1:4 gradient ahead.
We reach the peak, some 14,115 feet above sea level, the tracks stop with a simple buffer on the edge of a sheer drop hundreds of feet down. Sun shone brightly on the summit, making the red locos shine, it was fabulous, even if walking around made you breathless even on the slightest incline. I take hundreds of shots, of course, and it was quite crowded, as there is also a road up the mountain, and I spoke to one gentleman in his 60s who had cycled up it. I took my hat off to him, and he was rather pleased his effort was appreciated.
There is a shop up there, and a place selling “world famous donuts”, people sitting with us on the train had some and said the donuts were average. So maybe famous for being average?
Two toots on the whistle at quarter to five meant that we should reboard and get ready for the great descent down the mountain. Jools and I swapped places, so I now had a window seat, so I get a few more shots once we start down. Going back down would mean it would be warmer again, as it was only about 14 degrees at the peak, but 30 in the valley below.
Down and down we go, no waiting for other trains coming up at the switchovers as the line was closing, so we make good progress getting to the bottom in just over an hour. On the way down Jools and I spot flowers and fungi, but really there was so much to look at as we dropped down.
It was six when we got to the bottom, we huffed and puffed our way to the car from the station, up a slight rise in the road that made me breathless, it easy to forget even at the bottom of the hill we were over 6000 feet above sea level.
Doug started the car, fired up the air con and set course back home, the same route as before, but bathed in evening sunshine.
Dawn wanted to take us to her favourite restaurant, so we go to an outdoor mall made to look like a town centre, we find a parking spot, and walk to the McCabbes, only to find it closed and clearly not going to reopen. But there were other dining options, over the road a Montana grill, so we get a table there, and I have bison steak again, and Jools, Dawn and myself have huckleberry margaritas. As you do, and very nice they were.
Darkness had fallen, and Doug raced us back to the trailer, where he cracked open the 101 proof bourbon. Oh dear. Anyway, we talk and listen to music for an hour or so as the bottle empties and my memories are a little hazy after that.
And I suppose that means we went to bed at some point.
----------------------------------------
The Broadmoor Pikes Peak Cog Railway (also known as the Pikes Peak Cog Railway) is an Abt rack system cog railway with 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge track in Colorado, USA, climbing the well-known mountain Pikes Peak. The base station is in Manitou Springs, Colorado near Colorado Springs.
The railway is the highest in North America by a considerable margin. It was built and is operated solely for the tourist trade
The railway was started by Zalmon G. Simmons, inventor and founder of the Simmons Beautyrest Mattress Company. The company was founded in 1889 and limited service to the Halfway House Hotel was started in 1890. On June 30, 1891, the first train reached the summit.
A number of steam locomotives were built for the line by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, all rack-only locomotives with steeply inclined boilers to keep them level on the average 16% grades. Operating steam locomotives on such a line was back-breaking work and expensive, so when more modern forms of traction became available, the railway was eager to modernize.
A gasoline-powered railcar #7 was constructed in 1938. It was designed to be a cheaper alternative to the steam locomotives enabling economic service during quieter times of the year. Proving a huge success, the railway soon bought more internal combustion engined trains. This car is still on property having been re-engined with a more modern Cummins diesel.
The next were five 'streamlined' diesel locomotives from General Electric, which were equipped with matching passenger cars, acquired from 1939 onward.[1] These 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). A number of the steam locomotives are now on static display, in Manitou and elsewhere, and the Railway still has an operational steam locomotive (#4) and an original coach. The steam locomotive was put out of service for many years before being retrieved from a museum and brought back to service in 1980.
In 1964 the railway needed more equipment, but General Electric was not interested in the business[citation needed]. The railway went abroad, to Switzerland, home of most of the world's cog railways. In 1964, the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works in Winterthur provided two bright red railcars (railcars contain a seating compartment as well as engineer stand, eliminating the need for a separate pushing locomotive), very similar to equipment used on many Swiss railways. Unit 14 was delivered in 1964 with a pair of air cooled 8 cylinder diesel engines that proved to be less than satisfactory on the railroad above treeline. Unit 14 was returned to Switzerland and redesigned to have facilities for water cooling. Unit 14's twin, Unit 15, was also rebuilt to house a pair of water cooled Cummins 724's. Two more (Units 16 and 17) were built in 1968 to increase the railroads capacity. All four of these units eventually received new Cummins 855 diesels. As of 2017 all four original Swiss trains are still in operation at the Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway.
As tourism increased in the 1970s the railway needed more capacity. In 1976 M&PPRy took delivery of two larger two-car articulated railcars from the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works of Winterthur, designated Train 18 and Train 19. Passing sidings were built in several places at about the same time, allowing trains to pass at various points on the mountainside. Trains could previously pass only at the Mountain View siding, permitting only three trains a day up the mountain. Eight trains per day became possible with the new equipment and sidings (two additional larger railcars were delivered from SLM; Unit 24 in 1984 and the last, Unit 25, in 1989).
Rolling stock on the M&PPRy consists of four 214-passenger articulated Swiss-built railcars, four 78-passenger Swiss-built railcars, four GE built locomotives (one being rebuilt in 2017 to modern specifications), one snowplow (#22 - built upon the frame of a GE locomotive), one 23-passenger diesel railcar (#7), one steam locomotive (#4 - built by Baldwin), a Winter-Weiss "streamliner" coach, and an original Wasson wooden coach (#104). Only the Swiss-built railcars carry regular passengers. The steam locomotive and passenger coaches are used on rare special occasions.