In Manitou Springs, we stayed at this quaint hotel that was a five minute walk from the train museum. The train was a "cog train." From the side, it looked like a normal train, but from the front it didn't. Most trains only use two tracks and can be either narrow gauge or standard. The width of standard gauge is 4 feet and 8.5 inches. Narrow gauge is used for transportation on flatter areas. Narrow gauge is about 3 ft. This gauge is used for hauling goods up a mountain side.
The Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway had a grade of 25%. Some fancy mathematician probably used an inverse tangent to find the angle of elevation. To get the angle of elevation, he would use this equation:
tan-1(25/100). Remember that a 25% grade is going up 25 feet for every 100 feet traveled horizontally. After all the math is done, the result would be approximately a 14 degree slope that the train would have to climb up. That is considered horrendous to normal trains. If they had to pull cars up that steep of an incline, they wouldn't get very far. The train would be pulled down due to the weight of the cars. A 25% grade means that the train climbs 25 feet up for every 100 feet traveled horizontally. In math terms, the rise of the train is over the run: the equation for slope (rise over run).
On a 2-4% slope, the train would have to travel 27 miles to get to the summit of Pike's Peak. An inventor didn't want the trip to the weather station to be that long, so he came up with a plan to make a train track that has a cog in the middle of the two narrow gauge tracks to help get supplies to the top. Now the trip is 8.9 miles, thanks to the cog. The cog prevents the train from sliding backwards when it has a heavy load. Train tracks are metal and the wheels are also metal. If the track of the wheels get wet, it gets very slippery. The cog is like a "safety wheel." It helps pull the train in most weather.
When we rode the train, it was very scary to look back and see how far down we just were. On the way down the tour guide told us if the engine brakes and wheel brakes don't stop us, we will have two springs to ease the impact: Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs. (haha)
It was a great vacation and I would like to go back and see the non-burnt scenery. I took all of these pictures.
This a picture of the cog track (the one in the middle.)
The reason the train is slanted is because of the 25% incline up to the Summit of Pike's Peak.
This is a close up of the cog and the teeth on the cog track that pull the train up the mountain. That is a piece of decommissioned track that the train is sitting on. It is to show how the cog track works.
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