We had
a few down-days when we were at Becky and Peter's place and we
saw that the Pike's Peak cog railway had been re-opened for
travel. Having never been on this cog railway, we decided to
check it out. We had a rental van that gave us mobility, so we
loaded our junk and headed to the base station at Manitou
Springs.
The photos below are what we saw.
We
purchased our tickets for the railroad online. And, that was the
right thing to do as we got the last adjacent seating on the
train for our selected departure time (1330). The base station
was very busy and parking was at a premium. But, oddly, since I
had a rental van that was bigger than a normal car, I was
directed to a special lot that had plenty of remaining spaces.
Done. We walked to the station and since we had our electronic
tickets, we went directly to our appointed car. The railroad had
been closed for a few years and there was talk of it not
reopening. But, several hundred million dollars was invested in
the endeavor and it reopened a few months before our arrival.
The track was new. The cars were new and there was a new summit
house.
The
train on the No. 1 track pulled out leaving the track and cogs
visible.
Masks
were required, but as with all things, some folks felt that they
were exempt. They complied to the point of wearing a mask, but
not to the point where the mask was actually DOING something
useful.
Every
seat was booked; the cars were full to capacity.
Our
seats were not window seats and therefore we had limited sight
lines to anything interesting. To my surprise, there was not
much to see from the train due to the specific path chosen.
Since we were attempting to take photos through windows, the
results were less than acceptable to me. We did get, however,
one photo of a rock outcropping on the far side of a canyon that
was interesting. This structure, to my knowledge, is unnamed.
At about
13,000 elevation the high alpine terrain prevailed. These talus
slopes support only meager life and almost no plants.
The
train finally came into the station and upon departing got a
view of an unattributed monument near the peak of the mountain.
We were
SO lucky that the wildfire smoke was not an issue. Visibility
was pretty good, but not stellar. We could see far to the west
until the mountains disappeared into the haze. The barren
ruggedness of the mountains was very apparent.
To the
west, the continental divide was visible.
Near the
summit was a monument to Zebulon Pike, the namesake of the
mountain. To be clear, he did not "discover" the mountain. The
Spanish called it "El Capitan" and the Indians each had their
own name for the peak.
To the
south was a man-made reservoir.
A large
observation deck had been constructed for the tourists.
At the
summit, the rails and cogs were clearly visible.
I
noticed that the cog part of the railway was anchored to an
underground structure to prevent the track from being pulled
down the mountain by the weight of the train.
Some
minor track work was in progress. We were told that all the
switches for the railroad were controlled via radio. The antenna
system for this switch is visible in the photo above.
As our
train pulled into the summit station, the other train departed
for the base station.
The cars
and engine were Swiss by design and manufacture.
The
summit parking lot was quite full. The road up Pike's Peak is
quite demanding: it is steep, narrow, minimal guard rails and
infrequent pull-outs. We did this road once with my U1300L and
again with Thor. This time, we decided to take the train.
A view
of the new summit house.
A
portion of the original summit house remains.
The
original summit house was built from the talus found in the
area. Crude, but effective.
Two
blasts on the train horn told us we had 5 minutes to board or be
left behind.
A final
view of the Colorado Springs area as seen from the summit house.
Arrival
at the base station before the train is parked in the shed for
night storage.
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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2018, all rights
reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.