Mount Washington Cog Railway
Mount Washington has always been a popular tourist destination. However in the 1800's it was difficult to reach Mount Washington summit. The mountain is known for having the world's worst weather, this made climbing the mountain a treacherous task. In August 1857, Sylvester Marsh was nearly stranded on the mountain by a storm, when he finally reached the top, he began thinking of a way to make the climb easier. He decided on a cog railroad and asked the State of New Hampshire for a charter to build to the top of Mount Washington. The Legislature thought he was crazy, but since he did not ask for any money they decided to grant him his charter. They even jokingly added an amendment on the charter for him to extend his railroad to the moon. Even though most people never thought it would happen, the first train reached Mount Washington Summit on July 3, 1869.
The cog locomotives are very interesting, they were designed to run on very steep grades. Jacob's Ladder has the steepest grade on the line at 37.41 percent, this requires a special kind of locomotive to power the trains. Unlike most steam locomotives, the cog railway engine's cylinders apply all their power to a cog under the locomotive that pulls the engine and car up the hill. The original engine, seen above, has a vertical boiler that tilts to allow for the change in grade on the mountain. The engines changed shortly though to have horizontal boilers on an angle to make up for the grade of the mountain and allow for better heating in the boiler. The railroad still only runs steam locomotives and as far as I know, they don't even own a diesel.
I rode the Cog Railway on September 4, 1999. I liked the ride and fortunately the weather was nice so we had a spectacular view. Since it was clear out you could stand at the base station and see trains running nearly the entire way up the hill. The day I was there, six engines were running, which was a real nice surprise.
Click here to see Mount Washington Railway from above on Terraserver. There isn't too much to see here, starting from the left, the line going across the photo is the road in to the base station. The building closest to the middle of the photo is the engine house and transfer table. The white area at the top right is the base station and all other buildings from the railroad. The cog rail line runs off to the right and can be followed up the mountain.
