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 Post subject: End of Pike's Peak Cog Railway?
PostPosted: Tue Mar 13, 2018 10:49 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:51 pm
Posts: 11481
Location: Somewhere east of Prescott, AZ along the old Santa Fe "Prescott & Eastern"
http://gazette.com/future-in-doubt-for- ... le/1622619

Quote:
After more than a century as one of the area’s premier tourist attractions, the Pikes Peak Cog Railway’s future is in doubt.

The railway, which has shuttled generations of visitors on breathtaking, 8.9-mile trips to the summit of Pikes Peak and back, won’t reopen this spring after several months of maintenance, and it could remain closed for up to three years while its owner, The Broadmoor hotel, studies its fate, Broadmoor President and CEO Jack Damioli said Tuesday.

And after that process, it might never reopen, he said.


More at the link.


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 Post subject: Re: End of Pike's Peak Cog Railway?
PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 12:02 am 

Joined: Fri Mar 29, 2013 11:14 pm
Posts: 135
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.


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 Post subject: Re: End of Pike's Peak Cog Railway?
PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 7:39 am 

Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 11:07 am
Posts: 630
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


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 Post subject: Re: End of Pike's Peak Cog Railway?
PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 9:26 am 

Joined: Sat Sep 18, 2004 1:21 pm
Posts: 486
Location: Columbus, OH
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.

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 Post subject: Re: End of Pike's Peak Cog Railway?
PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 10:20 am 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:51 pm
Posts: 11481
Location: Somewhere east of Prescott, AZ along the old Santa Fe "Prescott & Eastern"
ebtrr wrote:
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.


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 Post subject: Re: End of Pike's Peak Cog Railway?
PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 10:45 am 

Joined: Fri Dec 22, 2017 6:47 pm
Posts: 1398
Location: Philadelphia, PA
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


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 Post subject: Re: End of Pike's Peak Cog Railway?
PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 11:32 am 

Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2015 7:28 pm
Posts: 545
Location: Northern WV
This is actually the end of the Pike's Peak Cog Railway.


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 Post subject: Re: End of Pike's Peak Cog Railway?
PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 11:37 am 

Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 3:01 pm
Posts: 1730
Location: SouthEast Pennsylvania
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.


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 Post subject: Re: End of Pike's Peak Cog Railway?
PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 11:46 am 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 7:19 am
Posts: 6399
Location: southeastern USA
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.

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 Post subject: Re: End of Pike's Peak Cog Railway?
PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 11:59 am 

Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2004 11:06 pm
Posts: 239
Location: Bendena KS
Dave wrote:
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


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 Post subject: Re: End of Pike's Peak Cog Railway?
PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 12:05 pm 

Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2010 3:41 am
Posts: 3911
Location: Inwood, W.Va.
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.


Quote:
For Pike’s Peak, it's economics. [The owners] have extracted all the value they can, and the ROI on refurbishing it won’t be fast enough to justify doing it. Too many other places to put the money where the ROI will be greater. They may be trolling to see if government will put up the money.


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.


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 Post subject: Re: End of Pike's Peak Cog Railway?
PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 12:32 pm 

Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:51 pm
Posts: 11481
Location: Somewhere east of Prescott, AZ along the old Santa Fe "Prescott & Eastern"
Dave wrote:
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.


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


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 Post subject: Re: End of Pike's Peak Cog Railway?
PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 12:53 pm 

Joined: Fri Sep 20, 2013 2:34 pm
Posts: 186
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.


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 Post subject: Re: End of Pike's Peak Cog Railway?
PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 1:14 pm 

Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2005 9:34 pm
Posts: 2758
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
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.

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 Post subject: Re: End of Pike's Peak Cog Railway?
PostPosted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 1:37 pm 

Joined: Mon Sep 27, 2004 6:17 pm
Posts: 527
Location: Scranton, PA
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.

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