Mount Washington Cog Railway

[cogger]

This is from their website
We received a small amount of damage from Hurricane Irene and therefore we are open for business. To avoid delays in arriving at the cog railway we suggest that you take the following routes to get to our property. From the South and West take Interstate 93 North to US Route 3 North to US Route 302 E. From the North and East take Route 16 North to Route 2 West to Route 115 South to Route 3 South to Route 302 East. We will post updates to this site as more information becomes available

[jkrail]

Hello:
I am interested in building a 3" gauge model of the Cog Railroad Loco Waumbek.
Does anyone know of a source of black on white drawings of both the sides and front of this locomotive?
Drawings from a magazine or wherever will do nicely. I can scale up from something as small as an HO print.
I bought a "blueprint" from their giftshop but I need the front and side views.
The type of prints found in Model Railroader's "Steam Locomotives" Cyclopedia Vol. 1 would be perfect.
Thanks in advance...

Jerry Kelley

[Arborwayfan]

I took the Cog this summer, second train, nice ride in spite of diesel. I (and my kids, as it turned out) would have like to ride the steam run, but we wanted a bit of time at the top. So we looked at the steamer from outside.

My bigger question is why they don't make it possible to reserve longer summit stays (or shorter ones). There are a lot of people who want an hour, some who want more, maybe a few who just want the ride. Doesn't seem too tough to accomodate many of those desires by figuring out which trains are least popular and letting people by tix to go up at 9 and down at noon or one or 3 or whenever. For example, they have the cheap family special on the last train, which suggests they have trouble filling the last run. Why not let people reserve longer stays that involve going down on that train? If the problem is lost revenue from a downhill seat going empty earlier in the day, and there are not many people who want to ride up and right back down, then charge a bit extra.

Alternatively, work out a schedule where a couple midday trips are ALL 2- or 3-hour summit stays. I think you could make that match up without creating more vacant seats or deadheads.

I realize that if I want an actual answer I should write to the Cog manager, but asking here is more fun.

[toolmaker]

it's been a few years since I was on but I was under the impression your return trip was open ended as the majority of riders prefer returning on the same car down.

My last trip they were asking for tips at the base when you completed the ride. I did drop a couple bucks in but have not returned since.

[steamer69]

it's been a few years since I was on but I was under the impression your return trip was open ended as the majority of riders prefer returning on the same car down.

My last trip they were asking for tips at the base when you completed the ride. I did drop a couple bucks in but have not returned since.

Up until 2003, the way it worked was that your ticket only "reserved" you a seat on the couch you rode up on for the down mountain trip. Meaning that if you wanted to stay at the summet for longer, you could, you just weren't "reserved" a seat on the way down if you stayed up. Usually on "normal" days it wasn't an issue, but on days where it was crystal clear, it got a little hairy up top.

[Arborwayfan]

I think that may be the way it still is, but when you ask at the window or on the phone, they apparently discourage you from staying longer. It was my mother who talked to them, so I don't know exactly the words they use, but she definitely came away with the impression that we should go down on our reserved trip. We'd actually planned to stay up longer but (a) the Cog folks seemed to be predicting that we'd get stuck up there and (b) is was raining and lightning so it was not a day for wandering around on the summit anyway. I'm not sure if the possibility of going down standing up exists or not. What I'm wondering is whether they could sell longer stays intentionally, stress free, or whether somehow that would be too complicated or cut into their income (either one of which would be a good reason for them not to do it).

[steamer69]

It does make it hard when there is no way to resurve you a seat on a different train. It makes it very difficult if they have to "hold" your seat on a busy day not knowing when you may want to come back down. So if you stay up there for 2 trains (not counting the one you came up on), and you're there with 4 people, they have just lost out on selling 8 seats to try and resurve your ticket. As of 2003 they did allow people to stand in the coach on the way back down.

[passumpsic1]

To jkrail how much did it cost. I would like one myself.

[jkrail]

I have the frame and gearing almost done.
It's hard to tell but it will most likely take me about 400 hours. That is what the Hoosac Electric took me to do.

Thanks

Jerry

[steamer69]

Any pictures? Sounds like a really neat model. Where are you going to run it?

[b&m 1566]

Some updated news: (I apologize for grammar, using a DROID and can never see what I type.)
I was one of 69 MBRRE memebers who took the opportunity to rid up the Cog for the steam special. The weather was bad on the ride up, so I just enjoyed watching the engine work as it has since 1906 (#9). The ride down was much better as the clouds broke and got to see the sunset.
Some points of interest that I would like to point out.
1. We learned that the two families who own the Cog understand the history, nostalgia, etc. behind steam and have no plans to retire the 3 they maintain for operations. The other 5 are up for sale.
2. They have 4 diesels with no current plans to build more.
3. Some of the cars are receiving new frames with suspension to reduce vibrations; these cars will also be sound proof to make the noise from the diesel engines more tolerable.
4. The Cog may become under FRA if rules change. FRA will have jurisdictions over railroads with a bridge length of 10 feet or more. The owners have already had an independent engineering firm look at everything and has come up with a book of stats and info about a foot thick. If the FRA comes in and wants to see whats going on, every bit of info will be in that book.
6. The owners are committed to buying US products but if they close the coal mines down in WV they may have to buy from overseas, since the majority of the coal come from WV.
7. The diesel engine they purchased from John Deere is nolonger made by John Deere.

[steamer69]

Me thinks that you had a brakeman who can tell you stories.....

1. Actions speak louder than words. If you look at what the two families have done to the cog, you would have a hard time swallowing what you were told.....the only history they care about is the history of their bank acounts increasing.

3. Sound mitigation is a very expensive and in most cases cost prohibitive venture. Especially for that railroad. Again, I doubt....highly doubt that they are going to spend the 10-15 thousand per car. That study was done back in the early 2000s at the same time as the multi million dollar study into the "new" swiss steam engines....niether of which happened due to the costs associated with both.

4. Plauseable, but I have seen nothing, nor heard nothing about a new rule change like this. We would have heard something about it, because it would make a BUTT LOAD of properties now FRA like the WW&F, SR&RL, etc.

6. Thigs that make you go hmmmm...... There are 165 suppliers of bituminous (soft) coal in the US. Meaning it's mined here in the US. Sounds to me like the line they fed everyone back at the introduction of the diesels to "help durring peak season and on tracks". Fooey. They feeding you a line of horse hockey. They should just tell you they can get it cheaper imported. That I would believe....or at least more than "we can't by american if a west virgina mine closes". Evidently they haven't heard of PA, OH, MI, KY, TN, AL, IN, IL, IA, MO, KS, AK, OK, TX....fooey!

[b&m 1566]

This info was coming from the chief mechanic during our tour of the shop facility, not the conductor. He came straight out and told us the reason to go bio-diesel was strickly for profit gain. The FRA takeover is coming from NHDOT who currently overseas the operation. The FRA doesn't have enough inspectors, which is why it hasn't happened. The sound modifications only brought the sound down 4 decibels, which isn't much but still helps; the car should be inservice in a couple of weeks. They buy coal from a broker, so its up to the broker where they get coal from, the last 10 years coal has come from WV.

[steamer69]

The FRA takeover is coming from NHDOT who currently overseas the operation. The FRA doesn't have enough inspectors, which is why it hasn't happened.

I'll buy that, but I still find it very curious that there has been nothing put out by the FRA on this. Has anyone from the WW&F, or SR&RL, or Clarks Trading Post, or any of the other insular properties heard of this? All of those properties would be up the well known tributary without the conventional means of transportation. All of them would have to do 1472 inspections on all of their steam locomotives (to and including the Cog). I have a hard time believing that no one has seen this coming (other than the cog). Clarks isn't doing 1472s are they?

Not being a dick, it would just be devistating for what little steam is left in New England if every engine of 2' gauge and bigger HAD to become part 230 compliant.

[b&m 1566]

Assuming the White Mountain Central is overseen by NHDOT, then they are probably aware of the pending change over. If WW&F has a trestle or bridge 10 feet or more in length then they are mostlikely in the same boat. I guess a railroad some place had a bridge collapse that is the reason for all of this. Although, I'm not familiar with such an event (excluding the highway in Minnesota) I do know a 6 year old boy was killed and others injured, when a park train derailed going over a bridge somewhere in S. Carolina a year or two ago. It was revealed that improper maintenance and inspection was partly the cause of the derailment. Though I think this pending oversight will not include park trains they are looking closely at insular railroads with bridges 10 feet or longer. This could change things for railroads like Silver Lake which has a bridge near Boulder Rd and that might be around 10 feet or more.