Mount Washington Cog Railway

The Mount Washington Cog Railway also known as the Cog, is the world's first mountain-climbing cog railway. The railway climbs Mount Washington in New Hampshire, United States. It uses a Marsh rack system and both steam and bio diesel-powered locomotives to carry tourists to the top of the mountain.
==History==
The railway was built by Sylvester Marsh who grew up in Campton. Marsh came up with the idea while climbing the mountain in 1852. His plan was treated as insane. Local tradition says that 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. He was putting up $5,000 of his own money, and that, plus whatever else he could raise, would be spent locally, including building the Fabyan House hotel at nearby Fabyan Station to accommodate the expected tourists. 
Marsh obtained a charter for the road on June 25, 1858, but the American Civil War prevented any action until 1866. He developed a prototype locomotive and a short demonstration section of track, then found investors, forming the Mount Washington Railway Company in the spring of 1866, and started construction. The route closely followed a mountain trail that had been established earlier in the century by Ethan Allen Crawford.
Despite the railroad's incomplete state, the first paying customers started riding on August 14, 1868, and the construction reached the summit in July 1869. The early locomotives—represented today by the restored display locomotive, #1 Old Peppersass – all had vertical boilers, like many stationary steam engines of the time; the boilers were mounted to the locomotives' frames with twin trunnions, allowing them to pivot as the locomotive and coach climbed the grade, permitting gravity to always keep the boiler vertically oriented, no matter what the gradient of the track. Later designs introduced horizontal boilers, slanted so that they remain close to horizontal on the steeply graded track and they became very popular.
Today the railway is still in business to take passengers to climb Mount Washington.
==Locomotive Roster==
Current Locomotives:
*Mount Washington Cog Railway No. 1 (Peppersass)
*Mount Washington Cog Railway No. 2 (Ammonoosuc)
*Mount Washington Cog Railway No. 3 (Agiocochook)
*Mount Washington Cog Railway No. 6 (Kancamagus)
*Mount Washington Cog Railway No. 9 (Waumbek)
Former Locomotives:
*Mount Washington Cog Railway No. 10 (Col.Teage)
*Mount Washington Cog Railway No. 4 (Chocorua)
==Trivia==
*The railway is sometimes called "Railway to the Moon", because one state legislator remarked during the proceedings that Marsh should be given a charter, not merely up Mount Washington, but also to the moon.
*In 2021 the railway completed two of the largest improvement projects in its history. The existing 25 lb/yd (12.4 kg/m) rail was replaced with 100 lb/yd (49.6 kg/m) rail and a new 34,000 sq ft (3,159 m2) maintenance facility was completed. The new maintenance facility enabled the railway to resume winter operations in 2020. During the winter the railway operates its trains to Waumbek Station at an elevation of approximately 3,800 feet (1,158 m).
*In August 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant visited New England to escape the heat of summer in Washington, D.C. During his tour he rode the cog railway to the top of Mount Washington.
*The locomotives push passenger cars that have a capacity of 70 riders. The Cog Railway also rosters eight wooden coaches.
*This was one of 3 tourist railroads that are situated in the beautiful white Mountain National forest with the White Mountain Central Railroad located at Lincoln, New Hampshire and the Conway Scenic Railroad located at Conway, New Hampshire.
*Besides steam locomotives they also own diesel locomotives.
*In order for the railroad workers to get down off the mountain faster then the three miles per hour of the train they invented a wooden sled nicknamed "The Devil's Sled".
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Category:Mount Washington Cog Railway locomotives