Qualla: Pikes Peak Cog Railway

Pikes Peak Cog Railway: Introduction

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Milan Suvajac, CC BY-SA 4.0. It started with a bad day on a mule. In 1888, Zalmon G. Simmons -- inventor, mattress magnate, and board member at Western Union -- endured a miserable two-day ride to the summit of Pikes Peak while surveying Englemann Canyon for telegraph lines. When he finally dismounted, Simmons was convinced of one thing: there had to be a more civilized way to reach the top. He decided to fund a railway. Construction began in 1889, Italian laborers hacking at the mountainside with pickaxes, assisted by donkeys. On June 30, 1891, the first train reached the summit. More than 130 years later, the Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway remains one of only three cog railways operating in the United States.

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Image: Milan Suvajac | CC BY-SA 4.0

Pikes Peak Cog Railway: Tilted Boilers and Runaway Prevention

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Milan Suvajac, CC BY-SA 4.0. The engineering challenges of climbing Pikes Peak were formidable. The line starts at a depot in Manitou Springs and ascends to the summit at 14,115 feet, with an average grade of 12% that maxes out at 25%. Normal trains lose traction on anything steeper than 10%, so the railway ...

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Image: Milan Suvajac | CC BY-SA 4.0

Pikes Peak Cog Railway: From Coal Smoke to Swiss Precision

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wikpedia account100, CC BY-SA 4.0. Steam ruled the mountain for decades, with each locomotive burning just under one ton of coal per round trip. Diesel locomotives gradually replaced them, though steam engines hung on into the 1960s as backup power and for snow-clearing duty, where their greater weight made derail...

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Image: Wikpedia account100 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Pikes Peak Cog Railway: The Hundred-Million-Dollar Rebuild

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CaroleHenson, CC BY-SA 3.0. On October 29, 2017, the railway closed for its most ambitious project yet: a complete refurbishment estimated at 00 million. The Anschutz Corporation, which owned the railway, negotiated 6 million in tax breaks from Manitou Springs over a 50-year period in exchange for completin...

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Image: CaroleHenson | CC BY-SA 3.0

Pikes Peak Cog Railway: The Incline Next Door

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Phil, CC BY 2.0. Adjacent to the cog railway's base station stands the remnant of another remarkable piece of engineering: the Manitou Incline. Originally built in 1907 to support construction of city water lines and a hydroelectric plant, this funicular averaged nearly a 40% grade with a maximum...

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Image: Phil | CC BY 2.0

Pikes Peak Cog Railway: The View from the Cockpit

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilesh.shintre, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Pikes Peak Cog Railway base station sits at approximately 38.856 degrees north, 104.931 degrees west, in Manitou Springs at the foot of Pikes Peak. From the air, the railway's corridor is visible as a thin line climbing the eastern face of the mountain, switchbacking through ...

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Image: Nilesh.shintre | CC BY-SA 3.0