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Big Cog in a Small Machine

Colorado’s M&PP Railway climbs Pike’s Peak in an unusual way

By Patrick Totty, for Pikes Peak Cog Railway

When he first saw the Colorado peak that would later bear his name, Zebulon Pike made two mistakes: First, he said the peak was 18,000 feet high and then he declared that it was unclimbable.

Poor Zeb: Actually, Pike’s Peak is “only”14,110 feet high (which does put it among the elite group of Lower 48 State mountains known as “the 14,000 footers”). And it is certainly climbable: Hundreds of thousands of people have walked, driven or ridden up to its summit over the past 100 years, making it one of the easiest high places in the U.S. to scale.

You can drive a two-lane road to the top, but your journey can’t really compare to what you’ll see if you take the 8.9-mile-long Manitou and Pike’s Peak Railway (M&PP) to the summit instead. The round trip, which lasts a little more than three hours, begins by paralleling a stream up a steep grade through dense and fragrant conifer forests, and past a high waterfall dubbed Minnehaha. After a switchback at the falls, the track emerges into a flatter but more mountainous landscape, passing along stands of gnarly, stunted bristlecone pine, surefire indicators of the transition to treeless alpine country.

The lack of trees, though, means more opportunities to spot bighorn sheep and other high-country denizens. The railroad cars, with their warm interiors and big windows, give everybody a chance to gaze where they want without worrying about accidentally driving off the road.

Scenery aside, what makes the M&PP Railway special is that it’s North America’s longest cog railway, one that at times challenges grades as steep as 25%. Cog railways are ingenious solutions to a long-standing problem: Trains, with their metal wheels on metal rails configuration can’t get traction on grades much beyond 6%. Cog trains get around this by giving the engine something different to hold on to and work against.

In this case, traction comes from a special toothed gear wheel under the engine that engages a ratcheted third rail located between the M&PP’s otherwise conventional two rails. As the gear engages the rail, it’s able to pull itself up the hill much like an alpinist might grab onto a rope to pull himself up a cliff.

Trains up the peak originally were pulled smoke-belching, coal-fired steam engines that required frequent stops for water and constant stoking of their boilers. These days very reliable diesel engines provide a much cleaner and quieter motive force. Contemporary M&PP trains are self-propelled Swiss-made double cars, hinged in the middle. 

The fact that people can so comfortably and easily ride to an altitude of almost three miles makes the possibility of altitude sickness almost ironic. But the M&PP routinely cautions riders to be on the lookout for symptoms of altitude sickness (dizziness, nausea, headaches) once they arrive atop Pike’s Peak.

The view makes up for any temporary inconvenience, though. Pike’s Peak is located in Colorado’s Front Range, the first mighty rise travelers coming from the east see once the Great Plains begin giving way to the Rockies. At such a height, towering almost 9,000 feet above the plains below, Pike’s Peak offers a grand view of Colorado from Pueblo on the south to the Denver metro area on the north. Colorado Springs spreads out east of the peak, and the view beyond looks toward the distant Kansas border.

In the 19^th century, as settlers streamed westward after stories of Zebulon Pike’s fabulous peak had worked their way east, many covered wagons bore the slogan, “Pike’s Peak of Bust!” Many decades later, it’s still possible to see the occasional RV or sedan decked out with a “Pike’s Peak or Bust” bumper sticker.

Considering how few places on earth offer as expansive a mountain-top view as Pike’s Peak, we think it’s safe to say that even 100 years from now travelers' vehicles will still be sporting the same slogan.