As a kid, my mother and I usually made a yearly visit to the Mt. Manitou Incline RR in Manitou Spgs., Colo. While riding the nearby cog RR was way beyond our meager budget, the Incline provided spectacular views for about a buck. The young tourist guides aboard the two cars usually used the line "don't worry, if the cable breaks there are two big springs at the bottom to stop us -- Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs".<p>In the 1980s, some Texas "investors" bought it and quickly closed it down, ripping up the rails. Does anyone know what happened to the rest of it, i.e. the cars, winding hoists and other hardware? Were they scrapped or are they stored somewhere?<br>



ryarger1@nycap.rr.com

I don't have any knowledge of what has become of any of the equipment from the now-abandoned Mt. Manitou Incline, but I do remember being told by a Manitou local that the incline's demise was triggered by a rockslide of some sort that did major damage to the infrastructure and the owners chose not to invest the bucks needed to bring it back to functional status. I too, remember riding the incline on numerous stays in the Springs area and miss it deeply. I wonder who's feeding the wildlife up on the top, and whether the headhouse is still there up top....<p>From a history standpoint, was it true that the incline was originally built for construction of the water supply system that is up on the top of Mt. Manitou?<p><br>



wichitarails@dellnet.com