The Mount Washington Cog Railway

… an engineering marvel for almost 140 years





In 1857, Sylvester Marsh climbed New Hampshire's Mount Washington and was

caught in a fierce storm that forced him to spend the night on the mountainside.

This near-fatal experience prompted him to invent a train that could safely carry

passengers to the summit.





Railway to the Moon





A native of Campton, N.H., Marsh made his fortune in Chicago's meat packing

industry. The following year, he applied to the New Hampshire Legislature for a

charter to build a steam railway on Mount Washington.



He needed the state charter to acquire the three-mile right-of-way up the mountain

by eminent domain. The Legislature laughed at Marsh and skeptically allowed him

to build his “railway to the moon.”





A Special Type of Train





A conventional train could never get up Mount Washington. The average grade on

the right-of-way would be 25% with the steepest being 37.4% -- more than 37 feet for

every 100 feet it went forward. At that point, people in the front seats of a railway

coach would be 14 feet higher than people in the back. It would take a special type

of railway to carry passengers up the mountain.



In 1861, Marsh was granted a patent for a steam locomotive using a cogwheel to

grip a center notched rail. He founded the Mount Washington Railway Company in

1858 but didn’t begin construction of the railway and its first locomotive until 1866.





Building a Steep Mountain Railway: An Engineering Marvel





Building a mountain railway was no small task. Equipment and materials had to be

hauled by oxen for 25 miles to Bretton Woods, N.H. and then another six miles

through thick forest to the base of Mount Washington. Building the extremely steep

roadway and almost three miles of sturdy wooden trestles was an amazing

accomplishment.



When Marsh made his first rail ascent to the 6,288-foot Mount Washington summit

in 1869, the Cog Railway was an engineering marvel. President Ulysses S. Grant and

his family were among the passengers in August of that year.



In 1876, a six-mile branch rail line was built from Fabyan’s Station to the base. This

allowed passengers from Boston, New York and points beyond to travel to the

summit of Mount Washington entirely by rail.



The Boston and Maine Railroad acquired the Cog Railway in 1894. A fire in B&M's

Lyndonville, Vt. service shop the following year destroyed several of the railway’s

cog locomotives.





1938 Hurricane Destroys Track





The Cog Railway ran without incident until 1938, when that year’s great hurricane

destroyed much of the track including the remarkable Jacob's Ladder trestle. The

track was rebuilt and a new base station erected.



In 1972, the Cog Railway’s own machine shop built the first new locomotive since

1908. It was a testimony to the ingenuity of shop craftsmen.



In 1983, a group of NH businessmen bought the Cog Railway. Electrical lines were

finally brought in to the base station in 1987, allowing year round maintenance and

construction work in the shops.



























A new Marshfield Base Station was completed on the 125th anniversary of the

railway in 1994. The Victorian-styled building contained a cafeteria, gift shop and

museum.





Museum at the Top





The museum features wonderful old photographs of the construction and early

years, a full-size mock-up of a locomotive cab and boiler, an actual locomotive

frame complete with driving mechanism and a section from a railway coach.



One of the most popular exhibits is the reproduction of a "Devil's Shingle," the

homemade slide board that workers used to rapidly descend the mountain after a

days work. Made of wood and hand forged iron, the slide board fit over the cog

rack and had just enough room for a worker and his tools.



Common times for descent of the mountain were about 15 minutes; but many

accounts report a descent in less than three minutes, requiring speeds of over 60

mph.



Old Peppersass, the Cog Railway’s first locomotive, and other antique steam

engines are on display outside.





The First Mountain Climbing Railway in the World





The Mount Washington Cog Railway was the first mountain climbing railway in the

world. It is a National Historic Engineering Landmark that is part of our American

heritage.



But the Cog Railway is not just an antique. Technology is as important today as it

was in the 19th century. All of the locomotives and coaches are built from scratch on

site using modern technology. The new trains are safer and more comfortable than

ever. To eliminate soot and help preserve Mount Washington’s fragile environment,

The Cog Railway is converting most of its steam locomotives to clean-burning

liquid fuels.



As it has been since 1869, the Mount Washington Cog Railway is one of the world's

great railway engineering marvels.





For more information, visit the

Mount Washington Cog Railway website