http://gazette.com/future-in-doubt-for- ... le/1622619



More at the link.

From what I know, from inside sources. Nothing is set in stone. The main goal they have is to refresh everything, equipment and rail. Some rail dates back to the 1890's. The Rack is also worn out. Since you can't work in the winter on track much in Colorado....an extended closure may be needed to replace ties, rail, and rack.

I wonder how accurate this article is as -- after all it says:

"During mid-summer, the railway runs eight daily departures of up to 12 trains on round-trips to Pikes Peak."

Sounds like the reporter flunked fact checking !!!!

Bob H

It seems very strange to shut down a tourist attraction that moves 2,000+ PER DAY so that you can "study" it for three years.

The point seems to be that they have no idea whether or not they can get the same rails and racks as they've been using and have worn out.

If they have to do wholesale replacement, it behooves them to see if there's a "smarter" way to go, such as buying and installing an entire ready-made system rather than having someone make custom racks to conform to a now-obsolete system. Anyone who has upgraded old computers or tried to keep an older car/truck going in a commercial setting can appreciate this dilemma. And if complete replacement is in the cards, a couple years' down time sounds about right.

I agree with Sandy, if they are replacing both the rack and the cars they won't need to use the same rack and pinion system. They can get state of the art Swiss, suitable for their grades, although the propulsion would be diesel.

All it takes is $$$.

Phil Mulligan

This is actually the end of the Pike's Peak Cog Railway.

12 trains in 8 departures probably means that there were 4 extra sections. The technology of this line only allows single car trains, they aren't normally run coupled together.

Rails are rails, readily available. The rack sections can be cut from stock automatically using commercial CAD / CAM technology, left and right sides joined by fabrication. There's no reason to complicate what's a fairly straightforward job using today's available technology.

Not only that, every time that I took a behind the scenes tour of the Pikes Peak Cog Railway, they always said that they did not really ever put much wear on the rails themselves, all of the braking and driving forces are on the cog section. Much of the rail remains original for that reason. As I recall, they wore out and replaced the cog section fairly regularly.

Also, the cars they use are Swiss and Diesel already, not to mention relatively new.

There simply has to be way more to this story, the "worn out rails" seems to me to be a smoke and mirrors bit to obscure the real reason for closing the line.

Jason Midyette

At the considerable risk of throwing a political hand grenade into this crowd, I'll quote what a Facebook friend of mine said of this, with some slight paraphrasing.




This may be a serious flaw in our capitalist system--if it doesn't pay, it doesn't get done, even if it's desirable or even necessary.

This is a nine-mile railroad. That can add up quickly.

The Broadmoor Hotel is celebrating its centennial this year. It was created by Spencer Penrose, who made his fortune in gold, real estate and venture capital in and around Cripple Creek. After he died the hotel and his wealth went into the El Pomar Foundation, which operated the hotel to very high standards for years to come. (As an aside, a visit to the Broadmoor with its many historical displays is a must when visiting Colorado Springs)

In 1988 the Foundation sold the hotel to The Oklahoma Publishing Company, mainly because of changes in tax law that made the ownership problematic. Oklahoma Publishing maintained the standards, and in fact began major upgrades and renovations of the property, undoing some unfortunate work done in the 1960's.

In 2011 the Anschutz Corporation bought the hotel (and the real estate and the cog railway that went with it). It is now part of the Xanterra Parks & Resorts family. Where before 2011 the Broadmoor was a one-of entity, now one can assume the profits flow up to Xanterra and then to Anschutz. If this was 1998 spending the money would not be an issue, now the decisions are being made at least up the road in Denver.

I think Pike's Peak is a standard Abt rack railway. I believe there are actually quite a few Abt system railways operating, so materials are available. And it is not clear to me that an all new installation would require any different technology.

Call me a skeptic, but $20 bucks says this is a ploy for A: State/Federal infrastructure dollars and/or B: to kickstart a sale to another entity.