Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1891 — HIGHEST IN THE WORLD. [ARTICLE]

HIGHEST IN THE WORLD.

Pika’s Teak Railway Successfully Opened— A Squall of Snow. The Pike’s Peak railway is now in successful operation. The first passenger train reached the summit at 5:90 on the 30th. The train consisted of an engine and one car, occupied by sixty-five people, mostly excursionists from Denver. The lower terminus of the line is 8,400 feet above sea level and the upper is 14,417. The distance is nine miles, and the steepest grade is 25 per cent., or a rise of one in forty. On the way up a slight snowsquall was encountered, and on the summit the air was unpleasantly cool, even with heavy overcoats. The engine used on the train weighed forty tons. It operates by cog wheels alone. The rear of the locomotive is elevated so that the boiler is nearly level when on the heaviest grades. As the engine pushes the train up-hill instead of pulling, it has no use for a pilot or “cow catcher,’’ and Indeed resembles in hardly any respect the ordinary locomotive. The passenger coaches do not differ materially from the ordinary Pullman coach, but are constructed so that the passengers may sit comfortably in a horizontal position when the car is on an incline. Altogether the line is said to be the most novel, as well as the highest, railroad in the world.