Page 1 - May 2021 proof - The Castle Pines Connection

Volume 13, Number 5
The Reopening of the Pikes Peak Cog Railway
One of Colorado Springs’ top tourist attractions, the newly-renovated Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway passenger train reopens this month for year-round service to the summit of Pikes Peak. It is the highest rack railway in the world and travels 14,115 feet to the top of the mountain.
By Hollen Wheeler; courtesy photos
After a three-year hiatus, the Pikes Peak Cog Railway is reopening this month. Known for its majestic views as passengers ascend 8.9 miles to the summit of Pikes Peak, the train cars, track, depot and visitor center have received $100 million worth of modern renovations and an updated name: The Broadmoor Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway.
“The railway has been carefully maintained over the years,” stated Krista Heinicke, public relations and communications manager for The Broadmoor. “But after more than a century of use it became clear that significant upgrades and investments were needed to keep the railway running for the next hundred years,” she added.
One of Colorado Springs’ top tourist attractions, the cog railway will provide sightseers the same experience the train has offered for the past 130 years. During the roughly 3-hour round trip, passengers will see Pikes Peak, 2,000-year-old Ponderosa pines, mountain views and creeks, and the chance for sightings of wildlife, marmots and bighorn sheep, to name a few.
The cog railway is the highest rack railway in the world. For those not already familiar, a rack railway is a steep grade railway that requires cog wheels to mesh with the rails for challenging grades and inclines, usually 10% and higher. The cog railway has an average grade of 12% as it climbs the 14,115 feet to the top of Pikes Peak – the highest summit
of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains.
The origin of the cog railway dates back to 1891 when Wisconsin entrepreneur Zalmon Simmons took a two-day mule ride to the top of Pikes Peak. Astounded by the beauty of the journey but unhappy with posterior pain, Simmons, of the Beautyrest mattress empire, was inspired to build a train for all to enjoy more comfortably.
In 1925, the Simmons family sold the railway to Spencer Penrose, owner of The Broadmoor. Penrose paid $50,000 for the train and invested another $500,000 in upgrades as well as built an automobile road to the top.
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