I took a ride on the
"Cog" for the first time today. I've been on Mt. Washington
many, many times over the years but have never been up via the cog
railroad. It's approximately a three hour round trip but, unfortunately,
only includes about 20 minutes layover time on the summit. That's not
nearly enough time for most who have never been there to poke around and
take it all in. That was not an issue for me however, since I only
wanted the experience of the ride itself.
Here's the steam locomotive
that pushed the car I was on:
And here it is just starting up the incline:
The trip is said to take one ton of coal and 1000
gallons of water.
Here's a view approaching a trestle called Jacob's
Ladder:
This trestle is about 25 feet above the ground and is
said to be a 37% grade. The average grade for the entire trip is said to
be 25%.
A view at the top:
Another view at the top:
Here's the actual mountain summit, along with the Mt.
Washington Observatory in the background:
Here's where my train going down has to pass another
train going up. It's at a location called the Skyline Switch. My train temporarily
pulled over on a dead-end siding and waited for the
other train to pass:
Another view at the same siding:
Approaching Jacob's Ladder on the way down:
A view from inside the car on the way down:
The locomotive is not attached to the car. It is behind
the car and pushing on the way up and is in front of the car and
essentially unloaded in reverse on the way down. The car is braked all the way
down by one of the crew so as not to overdrive the locomotive while it
is in reverse. You can see one of the two brake handwheels in the
shadows in the lower left. There is both a primary and a secondary
brake. The presence of the locomotive in front going down plus
the brakeman continuously braking the car itself provides necessary safety.
A neat experience.
Rod (NH)
10 July 2009
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