Mount Washington Cog Railway

The Mount Washington Cog Railway was the world's first cog railway (rack-and-pinion railway). It climbs Mount Washington in New Hampshire, USA. The railway is still in operation as of 2005, using steam locomotives as it always has (most dating to the 19th century). Most of the Cog Railway is in Thompson and Merserve's Purchase, with the part of the railway nearest to Mt. Washington's summit being in Sargent's Purchase.

Contents

1 History 2 Mechanical design 3 Modern operations 4 See also 5 External link

History

It was built by Sylvester Marsh, who came up with the idea while climbing the mountain in 1857. His plan was treated as insane. (Local tradition says the state legislature voted permission based on a consensus that harm resulting from operating it was no issue—since the design was attempting the impossible—but benefits were guaranteed: the $5,000 of his own money he put up, and whatever else he could raise, would be spent largely locally.) After developing a prototype locomotive and a short demonstration section of track, he indeed found investors and started construction.

Despite its incomplete state, the first paying customers rode in 1868; the construction reached the summit in 1869. The early locomotives all had vertical boilers, like many stationary steam engines of the time; the boilers were mounted on trunnions allowing them to be held vertically no matter what the gradient of the track. Later designs introduced horizontal boilers, slanted so they remain close to horizontal on the steeply graded track.

The first of two major accidents in the railway's history occurred in 1929 when the first locomotive, #1 (first named Hero and later Peppersass because of its vertical boiler's resemblance to a pepper-sauce bottle) was brought out of storage for one last run before being put on display. During the ascent, the locomotive's cog wheel broke and the locomotive jumped off the tracks and then, with no means of braking, descended the mountain at high speed. All but one of its crew jumped to safety (though some suffered broken bones) but one man did not escape and died. Although the locomotive broke into pieces, the boiler did not rupture, and the pieces were later reassembled to reconstruct the locomotive for static display.

On September 17 1967, eight passengers were killed and seventy-two injured when Engine #3 derailed at the Skyline switch about a mile below the summit. The engine rolled off the trestle while the uncoupled passenger car slid several hundred feet into a large rock. An investigation revealed that the Skyline switch had not been properly configured for the descending train.

Mechanical design

Each train consists of a locomotive pushing a single passenger car up the mountain, and supporting the car uphill from itself while descending backwards. Both locomotive and car have a ratchet and pawl mechanism engaged during the climb that prevents any roll-back; during descent, both locomotive and car are braked.

The rack rail design used is one of Marsh's own invention, using a ladder-like rack with open bar "rungs" engaged by the teeth of the cog wheel. This system allows snow and debris to fall through the rack rather than lodge in it. (A very similar system was invented in Switzerland and named the Riggenbach rack.)

Initially there was no way to pass. In 1941 a nine-motion switch was invented, and two spur sidings were added, each long enough to divert two up "trains" so others could pass down, enabling more round trips per day.

In 2003 work began on replacing the lower, "Waumbek", spur with a 2000-foot through using new hydraulic switches.[1] (http://www.mtwashingtoncograilway.com/cog_technology.php)

Modern operations

The most common trips on the Cog are between the two main stations, one at the summit and the other adjacent the operators' logistical and repair "base". As of 2003, late fall "ski trains" were introduced, climbing well under half the track to an intermediate station from which skiing back to the base station is convenient for adequately-skilled passengers.

In combination with the many hiking trails, and private autos and commercial vans driving the toll-road on the northeast face of Mt. Washington, itineraries combining more than one transportation mode can be worked out. For instance, the strongest hikers may be driven early in the day to a trailhead, while most of the party takes the Cog, and someone drives the group's car around the mountain to the van terminal or the summit. The party can rendezvous at the summit, with hikers of lesser endurance joining those who hiked up for a descent on foot, and non-hikers descending by van or car.

The "Cog" track crosses a hiking trail a relatively short distance below the summit of Mt. Washington, and some hikers make a point to wait for the next train, in order to moon the train. Some reports describe painful injuries resulting from hot coals tossed in retaliation by train crew-members.

Access to the base station by car is by three possible routes, each culminating with the upper portion of the dead-end "Cog Base Road". The advertised, roughly eastbound route uses the Base Road's full length from Bretton Woods. An especially scenic route, initially southbound from U.S. Highway 2, follows Jefferson Notch Road, a narrow dirt road with hairpin turns; it rises 1500 feet (500 meters) to the pass, at 3000 feet (1000 meters) above sea level, between Mount Jefferson in the Presidential Range and Mount Dartmouth, before descending to its junction with the Base Road. However, in winter, and usually before and after, both the Base Road and Jefferson Notch Road are closed to wheeled vehicles (and rendered impassable by them due to the deep, persistent, and unplowed snow accumulations). The initially roughly northbound route from U.S. Highway 302 in Crawford Notch via Mt. Clinton Road is usually plowed in winter for the sake of the winter crew of the Cog operation, but unless the trains are operating, this remote road is considered closed as well, and travel on it is at one's own risk.

See also

• Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway - America's other cog railway

External link

• Mount Washington Cog Railway website (http://www.cog-railway.com/)
• http://www.mtwashingtoncograilway.com
• http://www.mountwashington.com/cog/