The Cog Railway

This is at the top of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire. You ride in the Cog train from the bottom to the very top to the mountain. It's a train ride... more

by Donna Brown

Title

The Cog Railway

Artist

Donna Brown

Medium

Photograph - Photographic

Description

This is at the top of Mt. Washington, New Hampshire. You ride in the Cog train from the bottom to the very top to the mountain. It's a train ride that you will never forget. You see seven states and presidential range of the Appalachian mountains.
The Mount Washington Cog Railway is the world's first mountain-climbing cog railway (rack-and-pinion railway). The railway is still in operation, climbing Mount Washington in New Hampshire, USA. It uses a Marsh rack system and one or two steam locomotives and six biodiesel powered locomotives to carry tourists to the top of the mountain. Its track is built to 4 ft 8 in (1,422 mm) gauge, which is technically a narrow gauge, as it is a  1⁄2-inch (12.7 mm) less than 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge.

It is the second steepest rack railway in the world after the Pilatus railway,[2] with an average grade of over 25% and a maximum grade of 37.41%. The railway is approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) long and ascends Mt. Washington's western slope beginning at an elevation of approximately 2,700 feet (820 m) above sea level and ending just short of the mountain's summit peak of 6,288 feet (1,917 m). The train ascends the mountain at 2.8 miles per hour (4.5 km/h) and descends at 4.6 mph (7.4 km/h). It takes approximately 65 minutes to ascend and 40 minutes to descend although the diesel can go up in as little as 37 minutes.

Uploaded

October 5th, 2011