Mount Washington Cog Railway, New Hampshire - Road Trip 2000, Part 7

 

All Photographs Copyright © 2007 by Robert E Pence

 

 

 

In operation since 1869, the Mount Washington Cog railway is the oldest mountain-climbing cog railway in the world. It was

conceived and built as a tourist attraction, and never served a commercial/industrial function like the logging railroads that have

been preserved and/or restored. Trains ascend to a visitors' center at the 6,288-foot summit of the mountain, taking about three

hours for the round trip. It's pricey ($59 adult, $39 child, $54 senior), but I thought it was worth every penny. Winter trains ($31)

only ascend to the water tank at Waumbek, 4,000 feet. In winter, the summit has the most severe weather in the eastern U.S.,

and you definitely wouldn't want to go there then.

 

 

 

 

The locomotive that initiated service on the railway in 1869

 

 

Birdsell steam traction engine of the type that powered farms, sawmills and other industries in the early 1900s

 

 

Because of their internal design, locomotive boilers cannot be operated safely under load when severely tilted. The cog railway

locomotives are built with the boiler sitting nose-down on level track, so that it's nearly level when ascending the mountain.

 

 

The wheels only carry the weight and guide the locomotive on the rails; propulsion is entirely by a toothed cog that engages the

rack between the rails. Gear reduction results in furious reciprocating and spinning producing not much forward speed but lots

of tractive effort.

 

 

 

 

Filling fire extinguishers - when you see the embers that escape the spark arresters

on the ascent, you understand why they carry the fire extinguishers. The water for

the tenders & fire extinguishers is captured from a stream flowing down the mountain.

 

 

Leaks don't cost money; the water is free, and the pressure comes from gravity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See the bright red spot on the lower right? That's one of many embers that rain down from the stack when working up the mountain.

 

 

I don't have any photos from the summit; by the time we got there, it was fogged in so thick that I could barely see my feet.

Lines painted on the pathways help people find their way to the visitors' center when it's fogged in.

 

They use a front-end loader to fill the coal dock, but from there on, coaling is pretty much a manual operation with emphasis

on filling every nook and cranny.

 

 

Maintenance shops are about a half mile down the hill from the visitors' center and boarding area.

 

 

No roundhouse or turntable here; a transfer table moves equipment to shop and car barn bays.

 

 

Some tractor collectors would love to get their hands on this vintage Terratrac crawler.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This old building was in pretty precarious condition. I didn't venture far inside

to get these photos, because I feared the slightest disturbance might bring it

down on me.

 

 

 

 

 

Nice! Thanks for posting.

 

 

I prefer it over the one at Pikes Peak.