Locomotive No. 9 and passenger coach No. 12 arrived just days after the museum board of trustees approved adding them to the permanent rolling stock collection. Donald Tallman, Colorado Railroad Museum executive director, says, “We were very excited when they offered them to the Museum. They are such an iconic part of Colorado railroad history. We own the first steam locomotive that they used on Pikes Peak. No. 7 was the first self-propelled gas powered railcar, built in 1938 in Colorado. It was so successful, they replaced the steam locomotives with a series of diesel electric powered cars. No. 9 was one of the early diesels that would have been used with passenger coach No. 12, giving us a cool train set from the 1950s. They are all complete and in great condition.”
Tallman says that in the future the cars might be displayed on a hillside at the museum befitting their past as mountain climbing rolling stock and motive power.
The Broadmoor Pikes Peak Cog Railway is a cog railway that operates from Manitou Springs, near Colorado Springs, and climbs 8.9-miles up famous Pike’s Peak. The railroad closed in 2017 is beginning a $100 million project to replace track, rack rail, railcars, and to refurbish the existing depot. The railroad is scheduled to reopen in 2021.
For more information on the museum, go to coloradorailroadmuseum.org.
The Mount Washington Cog Railway is replacing all of its track but is not shutting down. I have ridden the Mount Washington train as well as the Mount Snowden Cog Railway in North Wales which also has a regular track replacement program.
We rode the up to Pikes Peak last year and everything seemed to be operating well. I look forward to riding again after reopening.
As for the Colorado Railroad Museum, they are doing well with obviously limited resources. They have a lot of equipment that needs to be under cover or inside a building to protect it from the elements. They just need a lot more financial support.
Wonder if the Pikes Peak steam locomotive will be able to operate on the new track.
CURTIS – Off topic, Everett Street was succeeded in 1965 by the new Milwaukee Road station at 5th and St. Paul. The most hideous building ever seen by human eyes. Thanks to its rebuild a decade ago, now the most beautiful.
More off-topic; the Wisc. Boy Scout contingent in 1960 boarded at the Milw. Rd. Everret St. depot on a special which proceeded down the old southwestern line to Freeport, Ill. where after awitching moves we picked up elderly IC diners and other Ill. Scout coaches.The IC diners crews (all black men) could never have been icer and were generous in giving away their IC cloth patches. At Omaha the special moved over to either Burlington or Rock Is. to Denver..sorry don’t recall. The huge traffic at Denver Sta. was memorable. Nice to see it busy to this day.
Mr. PALMER – I have ridden both cog railways, New Hampshire and Colorado. Both were awesome experiences, including noticing the great differences between the two divergent formats.
I don’t know why the long shutdown in Colorado. The railroad seemed to have been in fine shape when we rode it, including the rolling stock.
I worked at the Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire in 1956 – 1958. The worlds first cog railway still operates there.
I was lucky enough to see these while they were being stored in a shed thanks to a friend who was working for the railroad at that time. Glad they are being put at the museum, a real treat for museum visitors. Can’t wait to see the railroad open again in the next year or two.
Colo. RR Museum currently has M&PP steam locomotive #1 (Baldwin 1890, rebuilt 1893) which is a Vauclain compound. It’s been displayed on an angled track, representing M&PP’s grades. CRRM did have M&PP #4 but traded it to M&PP for #1 and M&PP then overhauled #4 to make it operational.
One of the treats attending the 1960 Boy Scout Jamboree at Colo. Springs was the ride up ( and down ) Pike’s Peak.