Travel Date: September 8, 2025
Did you come to this post from FaceBook? If so, please read
When I create a new post, I post a link to it on Facebook so friends there can get to my blog. It’s come to be almost the only thing I use FB for. I won’t editorialize other than to say I see very little of my friends’ posts and too much content I don’t want or care about. So, I’m planning on leaving Facebook next month or so. If the only way you get to my blog is through those links, please consider joining the 246 other people and subscribing to my blog directly. You will then get an email when I publish a new post. I do not use that email list for anything other than the automatic notice of a new post. I don’t even look at the list. So your name is as safe as it can be with WordPress.
Don’t know how to subscribe? It’s easy. On the left side bar of any post you’ll see the 2For66 Route 66 highway sign and underneath you’ll find this (without the red box and arrows). Simply enter your email address and mash the subscribe button.
That way, when I go off FB completely you’ll still be able to see my content. If you ever lose interest in my posts (but that wouldn’t ever happen, right?) you can simply unsubscribe.
Thank you; now back to our story.
Colorado Trains: Day 3 – Manitou Springs to Pike’s Peak
After visiting the Garden of the Gods we boarded our motor coach for the trip to Manitou Springs where we would take the Manitou and Pike’s Peak Cog Railway to the top of the mountain. All through the two days in Colorado Springs our tour guide Al, pointed and said, that’s Pike’s Peak – the really tall one in the back. I’m easily confused; most of the mountains in the Rockies are really tall. Eventually we came to Manitou Springs and I jumped (almost literally) and getting a shot of myself with the logo.
There is a wonderful Wikipedia article that describes the railroad and its history (which is where I got most of the details in this post). I heard “cog railroad” in the description but really had no idea what that was. It turns out I was thinking of a funicular train: a short-ish, mostly straight line rail conveyance up a steep incline that keeps the car level. Like this one in Pittsburgh (source Wikipedia: By Dllu – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44000591)
The original cog railroad was constructed in the late 19th century and ran under steam power with internal combustion engines coming into service in 1938. This is a rough climate for railroads and the system deteriorated into the 20th century. Operations shut down in 2017 and the entire system was replaced: tracks, power, and cars. It reopened on May 20, 2021 – Just in time for COVID.
The cog railroad is a light-rail like train with a diesel locomotive at the front (or is it the back? depends on which way you are going). The “cog” refers to a rack in the middle of the track. According to this Wikipedia article, the Manitou and Pike’s Peak railrowad uses a Strub style rack. In the picture below you can see the rack between the rails. A gear in the locomotive grabs fits on the rack and the train is also engaged with the underside of the rack.
Manitou Springs is in a little valley at an elevation of 6,320 feet (plenty high to begin with) where you can’t really see Pike’s Peak. The route is just short of 9 miles and reaches the top with an elevation of 14,115 feet. That’s about a mile and a half of elevation gain. The treeline is ranges between 11,500 and 13,100 feet in Colorado so much of the ride is above the trees. Grade of the line ranges reaches as steep as 25%. Modern day locomotives have to work on a 4% grade. That is why the cog is needed.
It was a fun ride to the talk with lots of conversations with tour mates and other travelers. Once I got off the train and took a few steps i was winded. At that elevation I felt like I had a couple of drinks and stood up too quickly: just a little wobbly on my feet. But we all managed to get to the visitor center and walk around a bit.
I used the compass on my phone to verify our elevation.
Looking down from the visitor center we saw another train heading up below us. It looks like a toy train to me.
The view was spectacular.
We were happy to get back onto the train and ride back to the “lower” elevation of Manitou Springs. The next day we would ride the Royal Gorge Line. Stay tuned.
.
