Qualla: Mount Washington Cog Railway

Mount Washington Cog Railway: Introduction

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Wjkimmerle (talk), William J Kimmerle, CC BY 3.0. When Sylvester Marsh petitioned the New Hampshire legislature in 1858 for a charter to build a railroad up Mount Washington, one legislator reportedly suggested he might as well build a railway to the moon. Marsh had nearly died in fierce weather while hiking to the 6,288-foot summit, and the experience convinced him that people deserved a safer way up. Eleven years later, on July 3, 1869, his railway to the moon opened for business -- the world's first mountain-climbing cog railway, hauling passengers up a grade so steep that the locomotive pushes from behind and the floor of the passenger car tilts at angles that make standing feel like a controlled fall. More than 150 years later, the Cog still climbs.

Image: Wjkimmerle (talk), William J Kimmerle | CC BY 3.0

Mount Washington Cog Railway: The Crazy Man's Machine

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unbekannte Autoren und Grafiker; Scan vom EDHAC e.V., Public domain. Marsh was a New Hampshire businessman and inventor who had made his fortune in the meatpacking industry in Chicago before returning east. His concept was deceptively simple: a toothed gear wheel on the locomotive engaging a rack rail bolted between the running rails, creating pos...

Image: Unbekannte Autoren und Grafiker; Scan vom EDHAC e.V. | Public domain

Mount Washington Cog Railway: Slideboards and Calamity

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Z22, CC BY-SA 3.0. The railway's early workers invented a contraption that captures the spirit of the place: the 'Devil's shingle,' a wooden slideboard fitted over the cog rack, large enough for a man and his tools. Workers would ride these boards down the mountain after a shift, the average descen...

Image: Z22 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Mount Washington Cog Railway: Iron Bones, New Blood

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit BeckyMetcalf75, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Cog designs and builds its own locomotives and passenger coaches at shops near the base of Mount Washington -- a tradition of self-sufficiency that dates to Marsh himself. Each train consists of a single locomotive pushing a single passenger car, the locomotive always on the ...

Image: BeckyMetcalf75 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Mount Washington Cog Railway: The Mountain's Moods

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brian Snelson from Hockley, Essex, England, CC BY 2.0. Mount Washington is infamous for some of the worst weather on Earth. The summit recorded a wind speed of 231 miles per hour in 1934, a record that stood for decades. The Cog operates through conditions that would ground most transportation, running winter trains to Waumbek Statio...

Image: Brian Snelson from Hockley, Essex, England | CC BY 2.0

Mount Washington Cog Railway: Still Climbing

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Peter Broster, CC BY 2.0. Ownership has changed hands several times since Marsh's era. In 1983, a group of New Hampshire businessmen purchased the railway, and Wayne Presby and Joel Bedor of Littleton revitalized operations over three decades. Presby became sole owner in 2017. In 2021, the railway complet...

Image: Peter Broster | CC BY 2.0