The Mount Washington Cog Railway is a well oiled machine (pun intended). Use the address or directions from the Cog Railway website to ensure your arrival. (If you want to plan adventures for before or after check out the Recreation page on the White Mountain National Forest website.) Parking at the Marshfield Base Station is free, but getting there can be tricky if you use a GPS since many of them take you to the top of Mount Washington using the Auto Road instead of to the Marshfield Base Station. It was hard to resist pulling over and exploring the beautiful surroundings, but the Cog Railway runs on timed tickets and we did not want to be late. The drive to Cog Base Station from the south takes you through some of the White Mountain National Forest. Because we are a STEAM powered family we were very interested in learning more about the history and technology of the Cog Railway. The Mount Washington Cog Railway was the first mountain climbing cog railway in the world and, with the addition of their biodiesel engines, is currently the only remaining Cog Railway in the United States.
There are two ways for families to easily get to the observatory at the top: Cog Railway and Auto Road.
Many people hike the Presidential Range which includes part of the Appalachian Trail, but the extreme wether conditions do not make it accessible for all families. You cannot visit the White Mountains without paying a visit to Mount Washington, the tallest peak in the North East and part of the Presidential Range. There are tons of activities for families across New Hampshire, but the concentration of family fun and adventure surrounding White Mountains is epic. Located in the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire, the Cog Railway takes passengers to the top of Mount Washington. White Mountain National Forest is celebrating 100 years as “the people’s forest” attracting millions of visitors to hike, camp, climb, ski and adventure every year. The Mount Washington Cog Railway is equal parts relaxing scenic train ride, mountain top adventures, STEAM education and all around family fun. While we are committed to maintaining MW2 and MW9 in tip top operating condition as long as possible, the steamers needed some help.This post includes affiliate links or sponsored content. One by one, locomotives would be retired from passenger service, and parts from one would be scavenged and used to rebuild another. The steamers were spending more time in the shop than they were on the mountain, and were becoming more and more difficult to maintain. But in essence, these treasures of 19th century technological wizardry look and feel every bit as authentic as the day they were first fired.īut the inevitably of time eventually takes its toll. Of course both of these machines have been rebuilt many times over the years to meet modern safety and performance standards, and there is little left of the original mechanical components. Today, two coal-fired steam locomotives (both manufactured in New Hampshire at the Manchester Locomotive Works) continue to work the rails on Mount Washington: MW2 (Ammonoosuc), built in 1875, and MW9 (Waumbek), built in 1908. While it was primarily designed to build the railway, Peppersass saw passenger service until it was retired in 1878.Īs more locomotives were added over time, the wood fired engines gave way to coal, and the odd looking vertical boilers took on the more traditional horizontal orientation (although tilted to compensate for the steep mountain grades). From the day our original locomotive #1 Hero (nicknamed Peppersass) first reached the summit in 1869 up until 2008, the Cog was a steam railroad.
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