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.

The railway, whose system of cog wheels mesh with a special center "rack" rail that allows the train to climb much steeper grades than traditional trains could, has operated safely since it opened in 1891, Damioli said.

Now, however, "we have determined that the Cog Railway infrastructure and equipment has run its course," he said.

As a result, and because relatively few such railways exist in the world, hotel officials have launched a review of the Cog Railway that could take two to three years.

to read the full article by the Gazette or pick up Wednesday's printed edition on March 14 for more.