Manitou & Pike's Peak Railway #5 is a Vauclain compound locomotive built in 1901 for the railroad by Burnham, Williams & Co., an early incarnation of the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, PA.
The Vauclain system has two parallel pistons driving a common crosshead controlled by a single piston
valve. The M&PP engines had the less common arrangement of low pressure cylinders on top and high pressure cylinders on the bottom. An 0-4-2 coal burner weighing 62,445 lbs, #5 has two 10” x 22” high pressure and 15” x 22” low pressure cylinders. With 22½” drivers, it operated at a boiler pressure of 180 psi.
The 8.9 mile standard gauge line to Pike’s Peak was built as a tourist-only line beginning in 1889, with a limited service to the Halfway House Hotel completed by 1890, and the 14,110 foot summit was reached the following year. The Manitou Incline was built in 1907 to construct city water lines and a hydro-electric plant, after which, the M&PP took it over as a funicular
incline.
The Manitou incline was closed by a rock slide in 1990 and has not reopened. The rack system used on the line was invented by the Swiss engineer Roman Abt. It consists of two side by side steel racks with alternating upward pointing teeth that mesh with the locomotive's drive pinions on the two 22½" front drive wheels.
#5 is on display outside the Summit Restaurant on Lake Circle in Colorado Springs, CO. You can see two more Manitou & Pikes Peak locomotives on the MPP #1 page of this website and the Colorado Railroad Museum page.
