In The West: Riding High In Pristine Comfort

The Manitou & Pikes Peak Railway is the highest rack railway in the world. It ascends to 14,110 feet above sea level, more than twice as high as the Mount Washington line, and at 8.9 miles is nearly three times the length of its Eastern sister. Pikes Peak is located just west of Colorado Springs, about 60 miles south of Denver. It is named for Zebulon M. Pike, who came across it in 1806, failed to scale it, and wrote in his journal that “no human being could have ascended to its pinacal.” Today thousands of tourists reach the pinnacle each year effortlessly by riding the cog railway to the top. With the base station at Manitou situated at 6,571 feet above sea level, the actual climb is around 7,500 feet. The view from the top is spectacular and is generally clear, allowing visitors to see into Kansas.

The line was founded in 1888, when a group of investors assembled $500,000 to construct a tourist railway on a rack system developed by a Swiss inventor named Roman Abt. Construction began in September 1889. Nearly a thousand men labored up and down the mountainside, and a large number of mules and burros carried rails and ties to the track crews. Like most mountain railroads, the line was a succession of curves. The steepest grades were 25 percent, the mildest 6 percent—steep by main-line standards but modest compared with Mount Washington’s. The original 25-ton steam locomotives were designed to propel two passenger coaches apiece but proved suitable only for one.

The road’s first trial run took place on October 22, 1890, around the time it usually shuts down; it generally operates from late spring to late fall. Its first run all the way to the summit came on June 30, 1891. The railway was successful from the beginning, running five or six trains a day during the steam-powered era. Experiments with internal-combustion rail cars began in 1938. Diesel units followed, and they proved so successful that steam power was retired in 1958. Today the Pikes Peak Railway is a marvel of modern railroading. The ride is excellent, the cars are air-conditioned, and the operators are uniformed and immaculate, as is every detail of this truly first-class operation. But to me it lacks the soul of the smoky old Mount Washington Cog, which seems to creep up and down the mountain on all fours.

For more information on the Manitou & Pikes Peak Railway, call 719-685-5401 or visit the line’s Web site at www.cograilway.com.