17-09-02 PHOTOS: Mt Washington Scenic

At 6288 feet, Mount Washington is the tallest mountain in the northeastern united states, the most prominent mountain east of the Mississippi and home to the world's worst weather. Oh, did I forget to mention that it is also rail transit accessible? Built in 1868, the Mount Washington Cog Railway was half folly, half tourist trap and half technical marvel. It was the world's first cog railway and still one of the highest. Until 2008 the line was operated entirely by steam power, but as an efficiency move to transport more people, the MWCR implemented a shift to in-house built diesel hydraulic locomotives. Today there is only one operating steam locomotive running a single round trip early in the morning. Because of that inconvenient scheduling, the excessive cost of a ticket (~$80 a person!) and the fact I was traveling with non-railfans, I decided to take the equally popular Mount Washington Auto Road and just take some railfan photos at the top. In addition to the MWCR, I also stopped at North Conway, NH and got some photos of the Conway Scenic Railroad's base of operations. Finally the set includes some Amtrak and MBTA photos taken on my return trip to Baltimore. You can find the full gallery of photos here.

Let's begin with the Conway Scenic Railroad operating out of North Conway, NH. This is a typical tourist operation with a Budd RDC and a number of locomotive hauled options. While two steam locomotives are on property, they are both out of service. Here we see former New Haven RDC #23 pulling into the station, still painted in it's NYS&W colors from its time operating south of Syracuse before 2008.

The yard was open to the public and one can see former B&M F7A #4266 and stored NHCR GE 44-ton #360.

The complex also hosted some historic signaling appliances such an operating Wig-Wag, a diamond crossing ball signal and a lower quadrant semaphore intermediate signal.

#501 is a former Maine Central 2-8-0 Consolidation type locomotive built by Alco in 1910. It is currently on display, but is a candidate for restoration to operating condition.

North Conway supports an operating turntable and small engine facility which is used for maintenance and restoration projects.

Former B&M F7A #4268 had long been displayed on this track next to the engine house as the mechanical components had long since been gutted. However in April 2018 it was moved into the shoppes for restoration using doner parts from GP9 #1757.

Which in 2017 was on display behind the engine house with the doors open for public inspection. This unit has never operated with the Conway Scenic and was purchased solely as a source of parts for the more photogenic F unit #4268. The rebuild will result in the F7 having the mechanicals of a later model F9, including the EMD 567C engine seen here.

As I mentioned before the weather on Mt Washington is notoriously bad with freezing temperatures and hurricane force winds to be expected in every month of the year. However on the Saturday before Labour Day the weather was uncharacteristically clear with near unlimited visibility and temperatures around 60 degrees. Basically Mount Washington only sees about 10 or so of these days a year so we were very lucky to go when we did. Here we see the toll booth for the Auto Road. Due to the nice weather we had to wait about 20 minutes in line, but that given the weather the wait wasn't actually that bad.

This isn't a mountaineering blog so here is a token photo of the 5000 foot marker on the road with Mount Adams in the background. Under normal operations traffic moves at about 10-25mph in the up direction, however the record for the 5 mile ascent is a mere 4 minutes.

It's hard to resist the urge to stop at the numerous scenic overlooks. This one provided access to the Appalachian Train, which, above the tree line, was marked by stone cairns.

The historic stage building is a testament to the mountain's weather as it has been equipped with chains to literally prevent it from blowing away. Today this structure houses the peak's gift shoppe.

The Tip Top House was the peak's original tourist hotel and built mostly from locally available stone.

To get a picture on the actual summit required waiting about 45 minutes in a line so I decided to pass.

The Observatory and it's weather turret is perhaps the most well known of the structures. Manned 24/7/365, the building is designed to be functional with winds higher than 200mph and temperatures as low as 80 below.

The cog trains are assembled in fixed formations of one carriage and one locomotive. The diesel hydraulic engines were built from scratch at the Railroad's own shoppe facility and then given a unique color. Here we see carriage #9 coupled to engine M3 laying over at the summit terminal.

Here carriage #2 is spotted for loading at the summit terminal. Previously the terminal consisted of just a single track, however in 2014 a second track was added with an automated switch installed to support it. Like the engines the carriages are also given unique colors.

Carriage #2 was hitched to white painted engine M5.

Summit visitors boarding MWCR carriage #4. Each carriage holds about 70 people and trains are run in parallel "flights" of three, with headways between flights of about 1 hour.

Engine M6 was the last to be constructed in 2016 and allows for two flights of three trains to operate continuously throughout the day. The engines are set up to run on B20 biodiesel because green.

The cog railway still uses the original rack and peanut system invented back in 1866 with two angle brackets connected by round crossbars forming a latter-like assembly that the cog could engage with without risking a built up of debris.

At some point the first flight of trains departed and the second flight arrived. Here we see Carriage #1 being pushed by engine M2 past the new summit terminal switch and up the final few yards of the line. In the distance is the fuel supply for the observatory station.

Following behind was Carriage #8 and engine M4. Note the tourist shooting video from the front facing railfan door.

Last but not least was Carriage #3 propelled by engine M1.

All three trains of a flight will birth on the same track at the summit with the engine of the final train hanging off the platform.

On the return trip some primo railfan seats are available on the rear footplate of each carriage!

Here we see M4 and Carriage #8 crossing the new summit switch. Previous versions of the rack switches involved 9 manual steps to throw. The new ones make use of a hydraulically driven bed that lines up either a section of straight track or a turnout track in a similar fashion to a Monorail.

Engine M2 showing the inclined lower portion of the platform.

Last two trains of the second flight following each other across the barren moonscape around the summit of Mt Washington.

Before we head back down here are a couple of parorama I put together.

Even in this day of reliable motor transportation, it is still possible for one to burn up their brakes and go out of control on the sharp descent. Warning signs are in both French and English due to the proximity of Quebec.

Having safely navigated back down the mountain we returned to Portsmouth, NH. Those familiar with my previous posts from this area will recognize the now rebuilt Memorial Bridge.

En route to my train at South Station I caught Orange Line car 01261 at Haymarket.

Amtrak Acela Exprss power car #2006 at Boston South Station.

Rotem K-car style bi-level cab car #1815 also at South Station.

MBTA HSP46 locomotives #2039 and #2028 waiting for their scheduled departures at South Station.

My Regional was to be hauled by Amtrak ACS-86 #653.

While waiting for my train to complete its work at Penn Station I got a few photos of the brand new Cuomo Concourse under the post office.

#653 sitting next to NJT split level cab car #7058.

Just going to finish up with a random Baltimore shot of MARC MP36PHI-3C #10 sitting on track 5.

Next time I'll take a short trip to NYC for another bite at the Big Apple's renaissance festival in Fort Tyron Park.