This is the fifth part of my six-part Road Trip 2000 series.

 

Mount Washington Cog Railway, New Hampshire

 

 

 

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 many 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.

 

 

 

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, 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. I saw crew members drinking and filling canteens with the same water - crystal clear and pure.

 

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 on the tender.

 

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.

 

 

 

Wow.

Old Peppersass!  I think I found a new screen-name.

 

This is the railroad to the moon.  I've read that wording in the original charter for the line permitted it to run to the summit of Mount Washington "and to the moon".

 

Interesting to see the smoke...something never seen nowadays.  No EPA problems here, I guess?

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the railroad to the moon.  I've read that wording in the original charter for the line permitted it to run to the summit of Mount Washington "and to the moon".

 

When Sylvester Marsh applied in 1858 for his state charter to build the railroad, he was met with much derision from the legislators who thought it was total folly, impossible. One of them hooted that he might as well amend his charer application to permit him to build a railroad to the moon. Ultimately they granted his charter, reasoning that he wasn't asking for the state's money, but only permission to throw away his own.

 

He needed a state charter so that he could use eminent domain to acquire right-of-way.

 

Track was completed to the summit in 1869 and scheduled operation began in 1870.

 

Interesting to see the smoke...something never seen nowadays.  No EPA problems here, I guess?

 

Quite a carbon footprint. I wouldn't be surprised if the environmental impact of the locomotives is less than that of the cars that people use to get there.

 

I suppose they're somehow grandfathered in, or granted an exception as a national historic landmark. I think they have converted one engine to burn diesel fuel, but so far the rest still burn coal, fired by hand.

Very cool!