Mount Washington & its Cog Railway

Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at 1,917 m and the most prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River. It is famous for dangerously erratic weather. For 76 years, until 2010, a weather observatory on the summit held the record for the highest wind gust directly measured at the Earth's surface,  372 km/h on April 12, 1934. The mountain is located in the Presidential Range of the White 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 five biodiesel powered locomotives to carry tourists to the top of the mountain. It is the second steepest rack railway in the world after the Pilatus railway, with an average grade of over 25% and a maximum grade of 37.41%. The railway is approximately 4.8 km long and ascends Mt. Washington's western slope beginning at an elevation of approximately 820 m above sea level and ending just short of the mountain's summit peak of 1,917 m. The train ascends the mountain at 4.5 km/h and descends at 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.

Received from Chris Williams, NH